tackle for titch

Could any members give me advice on what tackle I should get hold of for my son.He is six years old and wants to fish with daddy(bless!),I have a water Ifish that is full of roach,perch,small tench,bream,and some carp &chub.

Any advice would really be a help,just to tell you by budget is not very big

Beaker,

The best advice I can offer is to get a cheap 3 to 4m whip - no reel to tangle on casting and constant action to keep him busy and not bored.

Rigs are very simple and bread, maggot or worm or corn for bait.

I used to combine my boys fishing trips with some bird watchng/identification, country code and general awareness of the countryside and the waterside.

Guard against long periods (long to a 6 year old) of inactivity or boredom sets and and a new angler is lost to the sport.

Good luck, and to be honest I am a little jealous as my 2 'lads' are now in their 30's.

Cheers Pete I will give it a whirl and let you know.

A good first rod is a telescopic rod because they are short and easy to use. If he likes fishing then you could get him a better rod, but a telescopic one is good for beginners.

thanks for that,any advice is good advice

Beaker,

If you are getting histackle from a shop, take a trip there first and sort out some tackle and arrange with them to showit to your son. Then take your son, and let him choose his tackle, it will make his day thinking he has chosen his own tackle! But be prepared to then have to go straight to a lake for him to give it a try!

My advice would be for a simple float rod and a whip to start with. Mainly because you will need to take him to lakes with plenty of silver fish to keep his interest up to begin with.

Good luck, and hopefully you will have started his life long interest in our sport!

Thank you Stephen,

He is very interested in my fishing and I have a lake near our house full of roach,perch,crucians plus larger fish(chub&bream) so thanks for the advice.

just keep things as simple as possible and don't wait for the bites to slow down before taking him home.

when I started taking my lad, as soon as he started catching a few I'd take him home. he screamed and cried but he was desperate to go again.... (loves it now, and frequently out fishes me - and he's still only 10!)

The best set up to get started on for any kid (6-8 years old)looking to start fishing is a whip, a whip is usually a short telescopic pole and you can pick them up for around £5 - £10, one around 3 - 4 metres will be more than ample and light enough for him or her to hold comfortably. The good thing about whips is, that once you have set the rig up so that the length of line from the tip of the whip to the hook is about 6 - 12inches from the butt of the whip at the end of the session you can wind the rig on to a pole winder put an elastic band around the whip and the pole winder securing the rig to the whip and then next time you go fishing you can just take the elastic band off, unwind the line from the winder and you are readyto go fishing again, although you may have to change your hooklength for a fresh new one with a nice sharp barbless hook, always use barbless hooks as kids can get hooks stuck in everything lol

As for set up, if the whip has a little metal eye in the end of it you can attach your line to that but you can buy little connectors made from Middy that glue on to the end of the whip, and have a sliding collar attached to them just like a pole connector has so you can tie a loop in the end of your main line slip that in to the grove in the end of the connector, and then just slide the collar shut and the mainline is attached. Just get some pliars and carefully pull the metal eye out and then glue on the connector.I would buy some pole floats rather than wagglers floats as you won't be fishing that far out and the pole float will give him a better presentation.

But mainly make sure there are plenty of small fish in the pool he will be fishing for the first time, as it will definately make a big difference to him getting hooked on fishing, nothing worse than sitting for hours or even minutes for kids if nothing is happening.

I hope he has a cracking time.

Tight Lines /forum/smilies/devil_smiley.gif

Thanks Dave & Stealph,I am going to go with a whip I am taking him to my local shop next Saturday to make sure he gets the right one.