8 Easy Tips for Beach Fishing with Kids
Are you trying to get a little more time on the sand but your little ones are keeping you tied up at home? Maybe you’re more fortunate and you have a kid who wants to start fishing but you don’t know where to begin. This article is for you! Let’s get into some of the best tips for beach fishing with kids.
While I don’t personally have kids yet, I’ve been hired countless times to take kids fishing and I can attest to the fact that sometimes it’s a little challenging.
Some kids are very motivated, interested, and focused. These are the easiest kids to teach how to go surf fishing. It’s when they have a hard time staying focused that it becomes a challenge and almost out of your control.
With the surf, it can be even more challenging, as when they are focused, conditions and current etc. can ruin a session for someone still learning how to keep tension and feel for a bite.
Having said all that, the following 8 tips are what I’ve found to be the best ways to help teach your kid how to go fishing at the beach.
1.) Take One Kid Fishing at a Time
My first tip is to take one kid at a time when you’re first teaching them how to go surf fishing. Again, the most important thing is to get them interested and get them focused.
I’ve found that two individual kids can keep great focus when fishing far apart with one adult per kid. But, when you become outnumbered by the children, or they wind up together. They very easily become distracted, lose focus, and don’t catch.
It’s best to take one kid beach fishing at a time because there is so much to teach on your end, and so much to learn on theirs. Additionally, every day is different and it will take them more than one focused outing to teach them the adaptive methods of surf fishing.
2.) Check The Conditions Before You Go
This is a very simple and “no-brainer” tip for everyone taking their kid fishing at the beach. Even if you’re headed out for yourself, you should check the conditions before you go. Here are the best conditions for surf fishing.
How Do You Check the Conditions for Surf Fishing
There are a number of ways to check the conditions for surf fishing. Some more advanced than others, but from a user-friendly standpoint, and one that will give you everything you need to formulate a solid idea of whether surf conditions will be good or bad for fishing, is utilizing surfline.com.
I took the time to make a video on how to use Surfline to check the forecast for surf fishing. This is my favorite way to check the forecast for surf fishing because it’s super visual. It’s also quick and accurate enough to get a good feel for what to expect when you arrive on the sand. If you’re looking for other resources to check the conditions, take a look at the 7 best apps for surf fishing.
3.) Take Your Kid Surf Fishing During Peak Season
As we know, when you’re surf fishing with kids, it’s all about balancing expectations, and confidence to maintain focus. Too little or too much of either can lead to quickly lost focus. Taking your kid fishing during peak season for surf fishing is a great idea because you can customize the amount of confidence and expectations to build up for your kid depending on what you think is best for him/her all while knowing your odds are good.
In So Cal, peak season for surf fishing is in summertime (June/July) but anytime between May and August is what I consider really good and between March and October is still pretty solid.
There’s no reason to not introduce your kid to beach fishing when the odds are best. First impressions are important and if they have a good first day, they then know the potential is good.
4.) Beach Fishing with Kids is Easier with Bait
I recommend this for all beginners and newcomers to surf fishing or beach fishing. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to learning how to surf fish, how to read the beach, and how to understand the conditions.
I say this for a couple reasons:
- Bait is more productive than lures.
- Bait is easier to learn than lures.
Surf fishing with bait will yield more fish and more bites than surf fishing with lures. Catching fish is really important when it comes to keeping a kid focused. Not only will catching more fish help them focus more, but getting bites gives them needed feedback they won’t often get with lures. Take a look here for the best baits for surf fishing.
Surf fishing with bait like sand crabs and mussel meat and even surf fishing with cut bait is much easier than surf fishing with lures. This is because it involves fewer casts and more time feeling for bites as it’s less action to achieve success.
5.) Hook and Hand-off – Surf Fishing with Kids
The hook and hand-off is a solid option when all else is failing. If conditions are rough, or your kid just isn’t interested in fishing but you’re desperate to get them interested, use this method.
This is also a common way for fathers to get their kids interested when their family is at the beach.
The way this works is pretty self-explanatory if you’re unfamiliar. You simply fish like you would on your own. But when you hook a fish, get your kid’s attention and hand off the rod. They’ll get a kick out of it and share some excitement with you.
6.) Stand By Them and Help Them Focus
One thing I start every session with is this. I stand next to my client and walk him/her through everything I’m seeing and everything I would do if I were holding the rod.
I start by explaining how to hook their bait. Then I’ll go over all sorts of things like how to hold the rod, how to cast, understanding which way the current is going, how to keep tension without reeling, how to manage the current and let your bait drift etc.
You can learn more about this in my article that I wrote about how to go surf fishing. I wrote this article from a perspective as if I were guiding you in person and everything I go over.
Spending the first 30 minutes to an hour standing next to them or at least until they catch their first fish is a really good way to go surf fishing with kids.
7.) Get Excited with Them!
Another big factor to keeping your kid focused when surf fishing with kids is to read their emotions. If you find certain parts about the day that they like or that they can easily focus on, reinforce those instances by showing excitement with them.
For many kids (particularly the younger ones), finding sand crabs can be just as exciting as catching fish. if they get excited, get excited with them! When you use that bait to catch a fish, make sure you let them know you couldn’t have caught that fish without the sand crab they helped you catch.
It’s all about linking their excitement to the idea of fishing and catching fish.
8.) Try Pier Fishing
If it’s too soon to try to get them to stand in the surf and manage the waves and current, maybe try pier fishing. Pier fishing is more comparable to lake fishing as you can drop a line and wait. It’s also a nice way to ease them into the surf. There’s a little bit of water movement and the species can overlap.
If you find yourself in South Carolina, a buddy of mine knows his stuff over there. He took the time to put together a list of the best fishing piers in South Carolina. Pier fishing can be super fun and rewarding. best of all, it’s super easy!
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, you know your kid better than I do. But keeping their attention and keeping them focused on fishing. Do what you can, and if you need help, I’m always available as a surf fishing guide and charter. Hope your learning experience beach fishing with kids is a fun one!
