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School Holiday Fishing with Kids

By Justin Willmer

We had planned a long overdue catch up with friends of ours over the Easter long weekend and their three boys were pumped to catch a fish. There are never any guarantees when it comes to fishing, except at Easter you can guarantee it’s going to be busy, so I wanted to be organised, have a plan and fish a couple of short, kid friendly sessions, based around the most productive stages of the tide. The boys were also interested in lures, so I planned a high tide bait session for the Friday morning and low tide lure session for the afternoon.

Thursday afternoon I ducked down and pumped fifty saltwater yabbies, before taking the boys down later when they arrived, so they could each have a go at pumping yabbies and we could gather another fifty. That gave us a hundred yabbies for the morning session and with a maximum of five rods in the water, twenty yabbies per rod should see us fishing for a couple of hours. The plan was to fish the last two hours of the morning run in tide, ensuring we would be early enough to beat the swimmers and lunchtime barbecue crews.

When it comes to keeping yabbies overnight, I have always found that an effective option is a plastic crate with a brick under one end, effectively creating a deep end and a shallow end that has virtually no water. This allows the yabbies to move up into the shallows and rest, taking a break from the bulk of the yabbies and I have found that this keeps them in much better condition. After pumping the yabbies I change their water and then pour them into the crate. The next morning, I then halved the yabbies and water back into two buckets, ensuring that I changed the water again as soon as we arrived at the fishing spot. The most effective way to keep your yabbies in good condition is to change their water regularly and keep them out of the sun.

While we caught up that night, I rigged a few rods for the morning, with our target species being bream and whiting, with the possibility of a flathead and likely stingray. Below are the combos that I have found best for bait fishing with kids. These combos are affordable, reliable and they feature UFR (Unidirectional Fibre Reinforcement) technology in the tip blank, which makes the tips stronger, more durable and gives them up to three times the lifting power of a standard rod blank… perfect for kids!

Okuma Barbarian Spin Rods - BN-S-702NT 7’, 2pce, 2-4kg
Okuma JAW Spin Reels – JAW-30
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono Line – 10lb

Okuma Barbarian Spin Rods – BN-S-802NT 8’, 2pce, 2-4kg
Okuma JAW Spin Reels – JAW-45
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono Line – 12lb

Okuma LRF GEN2 Spin Rods – LRF2-S-702L 7’, 2pce, 2-4kg
Okuma JAW Spin Reels – JAW-30
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono Line 10lb

I am all for setting kids up with decent combos so that they function effectively, the kids have a good experience and more importantly maximise their chances of catching fish. All three boys loved the combos and found them light and fun to fish with, with the LRF GEN2 a favourite because it looks cool and is super light and responsive, transferring well from lure to bait. The Barbarian rods are a little more traditional in design, durable and perfect for anglers starting out with bait fishing, with their classic soft tip and bait friendly actions.

Rig wise I like to keep it simple, with a running ball sinker (generally size 1, 2 or 3 for bank fishing with minimal current flow), to a small swivel and then a trace/leader of about 30-50cm, finished with a Mustad Bloodworm longshank hook in a #4 or #2. I like to carry a roll of leader with me rather than cut into the line on the spool each time I re-rig, for two reasons. Firstly, I see so many kids trying to fish with combos that are half full of line and they do not cast well. Secondly, line that is designed as a leader is stronger and more abrasion resistant than standard line, so I run Platypus Hard Armour 10lb Supple as my general bait leader and for fishing lures. A decent mainline, such as Platypus Pulse Mono will see reduced stiffness and line twist, that leads to tangles and frustrations, while also being thin and super slick, allowing kids to cast further themselves. Set them up to succeed from the start and everyone will have a more fun and productive fishing session.

Our two-hour bait session was great fun and passers by were shocked to see fish in our bucket for dinner, fishing where people walked their dogs, exercised, and swam. The trick was that we picked a section of bank that had good yabby beds, hollows and sand banks, a drain, small weed bed and other structure that attracts fish to feed in the area. We also had a decent size high tide and we beat the crowds, fishing from about 7am until 9am.

Cameron was the star of the morning, catching a legal whiting first cast, followed up with two more legal whiting and a legal bream during the session. Joshua, the youngest of the boys, backed him up with a legal whiting and the rest of the crew caught plenty, however unfortunately they didn’t make the bucket. It’s good to have plenty of jobs for the kids as well, for if they want a break from fishing. There’s measuring the fish and netting the fish for a bit of fun, so don’t forget the landing net and ruler.

We had a fun morning, caught plenty of small fish, along with five for dinner and some interesting captures, including a puffer fish and trumpeter, which are always entertaining. We used all our yabbies and it was time to head back for pancakes for breakfast, to refuel for the rest of the day. The kids played board games, rode their scooters, and asked, when are we going fishing again. Our plan was to wait for prime landbased flathead luring time, the last hour of run out and first hour of run in, so we kept them busy in the meantime re-stocking our saltwater yabbies for a session the next morning.

The afternoon rolled around, and Dan and I took the three boys down, armed with three lure rods. If the boys lost interest there was always small drains to build dams, along with sand, mud, and the many creatures that inhabit the low tide mark to keep them entertained. We were all sorted in terms of suitable clothing, footwear, hats, sunscreen, and bug spray. Combo wise, I opted for three combos the same. Tested and proven favourites that are affordable, reliable and have accounted for plenty of flathead.

Okuma Cerros Spinning Rods – CER-S-701ML, 7’, 1pce, 2-4kg
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels – EPXT-20 (smaller reel slows down the kids retrieve)
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid – 10lb
Platypus Hard Armour Leader – 10lb Supple

Our plan was to walk along the bank, casting weedless soft plastics along the channel edge, covering a section of about fifty metres of bank, with a drain at the end. Weedless plastics are a favourite of mine when fishing weed and structure, and they are perfect for kids as they can cast and retrieve, with minimal chance of snagging or fouling.

Presentation of choice is the ZMan 3” MinnowZ, a proven flathead favourite, rigged on a TT Snake EyeZ jighead in 3/8oz 3/0. You could get away with a 1/4oz, however kids love to wind more than pausing, so the additional weight ensures that the plastic spends more time on or near the bottom. Colour wise, we just mixed it up, running Black Glow EyeZ or Chartreuse Red EyeZ coloured heads, with plastics to suit the dirty water, such as Gold Rush, Purple Death, or Electric Chicken. We then had the boys cast out and just up current, watch until their line goes slack, impart a few hops and winds, wait for the line to go slack again and then repeat. For the younger kids, they can simply go wind, wind, wind and pause while they say 1, 2, 3, and then repeat.

The above has proven successful time and again when bank fishing with kids, however it was a little quiet, so once at the gutter I asked Cameron if he wanted to change lure. At first, he wanted to continue with the presentation he had on and that’s cool, however after half a dozen more casts he opted for a change. I switched his presentation to a ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ in Midnight Oil colour, rigged weedless on a 1/6oz #2 TT SnakelockZ Finesse jighead, hoping the downsize may stir up a flathead or maybe even a bream or grunter.

Second cast and Cameron yelled fish on, as his rod buckled over, with line peeling off the reel. He did a fantastic job fighting the fish and I told him when the fish was close to the edge just walk backwards. He listened, executed well and a 55cm flathead slid up the bank. He was soon surrounded by dad and his brothers celebrating his epic capture. After a few photos he was given the option of keeping or releasing the fish, opting to keep it to put with the morning’s catch, giving them a feed of fish for Good Friday dinner.

After the fish was caught and celebrated, we headed back to get four crab pots ready, baited and then walked them into the mud and mangroves nearby. This was a mission for Dan, his eldest Zachary and I, with Zac placing his pot where he reckoned there would be a mud crab ready for collection the morning.

The next morning Dan took the boys to a section of bank further afield, where, using the same bait fishing techniques, they landed a bunch more fish. Zac bucketed a whiting and Joshua contributed a bream and a 45cm flathead. Upon checking the pots Zac’s crab pot did in fact produce a legal mud crab, giving the crew a feed of fish and crab to take home with them.

A great time was had by everyone, and the fishing had proven successful thanks to quality bait, the right gear and selecting the prime tides to keep the sessions short and fun. Bait gathering was also a hit, along with just playing in and exploring the sand and mud. Crabbing was a bonus and the kids got to see a few crabs, including one to take home. We are looking forward to the next catch up and plenty more fishing sessions with the boys, who have been busy practice casting in the backyard, gearing up for the next fishing adventure.

I, like many of you out there, have been lucky enough to fish my entire life and there is nothing I enjoy more now than getting someone onto their first fish, a new species or PB, or first fish on a lure, especially if it’s the next generation of anglers coming through.

See you on the water…
Justin Willmer