Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass A Boy's First Fish

Had the pleasure of introducing a kid to fishing this weekend. Almost 12 years old and he’d never been fishing before. He was excited. Not only did he catch his first fish, but he caught the most fish and the most impressive fish, even with the slow bite.



And his second fish was a nice one at nearly 9".



Caught his first LMB that day too.



My boy got into the action as well, catching a few LMB and this pretty bluegill.

Nice fish. Nice island!!

Thanks Dave. It was a very cool pond. Kind of winding around this property, a few islands and such. You could basically access all of it from the bank pretty easily.

We had a heck of a time catching anything. I found LMB, but my buddy got skunked and the boys combined only caught 7 fish. We could see a ton of BG, and even big RES that I REALLY wanted, in the shallows. But they weren’t interested in our offerings. They were spawning for sure, as they had rounded out “holes” in the vegetation and obvious beds beyond that. We would place the crawler piece right in front of their face and nothing... Pretty frustrating, especially early when I wanted him to catch that first fish. I think if we come across this again we’ll have some wax worms or crickets on hand and use a super small hook (CJ's suggestion).

Josh, use a redworm or leaf worm, small hook (bronze #10) and let the worm wiggle around in the bed. No bobber if possible. Don't make a ball of the worm on the hook, just slide the hook thru it once.

Thanks Scott. I have a few things I'm going to try next time this happens.

Esshup nailed it. When the fish are spawning shallow enough that you can see the bottom of the beds, just hook a redworm a couple times, (don't thread it on the hook), and drop it in. They can't stand to see something moving around in their beds. No bobber, just watch the fish suck in the bait. It can be pretty intense and suspenseful. I've seen people get so excited by watching, that they talk to the fish to encourage them to pick it up.

It's a lot of fun for a new fisherman.

Will definitely give that a shot next time, which will probably be soon. He's bugging my son about it today I guess.

On a related note, my all time favorite bait for spawning BG? A #8, chartreuse "Miss Prissy", by Accardo. I trim the rubber legs back to about .5", and tip the hook with a couple of Beemoths.
The added weight lets me cast it further, (no flyrod, just ultralight), it rides lower in the water, and it provides a "taste" for the light biters.

It is killer.

Just a short note then I gotta get to bed. I just rolled in the driveway 10 minutes ago and I suspect I'll be on the phone before 6:00 a.m.

I like the Berkley Powerbait Micros 1" power Nymph in Toad color fished on a 1/100th oz. ball head jig. 2# line. Toss it to the closest bed (to you) and swim it back to you. You'll get the hang of making it swim and looking like a live critter in no time. The trick is to work the closest beds first. If you cast out further and drag a BG thru the closer beds kicking and screaming, it makes the close BG really gun shy on biting anything. Once you can't catch any more on that combo, switch to a #10 bronze hook and a leafworm. Toss it out and watch for the line to twitch.

You can clean out a spawning bed area like that in one trip.
I re-tie on the lure or hook after 8-10 fish because the line gets frayed pretty quickly. But, that combo will outfish anybody using a bobber.