Fishing Safety Tips With kids.

My reviews in most cases are with the material in the world of guns as applied to the subject offered up by Huntingmark. However, way back in the 1980s when I was a younger county sheriff’s deputy running a patrol boat on the great Mississippi River in the state of Minnesota, I was tasked with other types of duties which didn’t directly involve a gun. At the time our job was to patrol the big river and check registrations and board all types of boats and make a safety check of the gear on board. The number one item checked every time was the number of life vests and as well as their condition. The later part of the job was the most interesting because very often the boat retains the correct number of vests for the people on board, but the condition of the vests was not even close to maritime standards. Our task when we found this situation was to destroy the vests on the spot, order the boat to shore, and white paper on the boat owner/ capt in.

First of All – Safety With Kids:

 When heading out on that boat for the first spring fishing trip and you have children on board the first rule is to triple check every life vest for conditions, overall fit, and make sure the young fisherman or fisher girls are wearing the vest. 

Again so often we found vests jammed under a seat or stored deep in a lower deck hole. When needed, these locations are not acceptable at all, and as time is the enemy of a sinking boat or a party overboard, there may as well have been no vest at all on board.

Also when children are on the boat, retain a quick hand-throwing float that is attached to a long line. This is a fast method of offering assistance to the man overboard and as such in my state of South Dakota required by law. 

Dressing Tips For Kids

Now that we have covered keeping those little folks alive the next area is proper dress. Spring fishing can be cold fishing, or at least far less than a nice summer’s day. Hypothermia can be a deadly element in a young little person and as such the correct gear is necessary from top to bottom. Remember, things get wet in boats. When this happens cold gets colder and all sorts of trouble are generated for those kids. The objective is to have young people like fishing and want to do it again. Half wet and frozen on the open sea or lake is not anyone’s idea of fun. On the next trip that young person may well be better interested in his or her computer in a warm house. 

Assuming the child is not wearing a safe life vest, is warm enough, and ready to hit the riverbank, boat landing, or offshore fishing grounds the next element that needs to be considered is going someplace that there are some fish. 

Teaching Them Fishing

Nothing worse for a kid than sitting all day and watching a dead still bobber float alongside the boat.  Kids need action and starting them out with trophy northern pike is also a bad idea. They way to get the young ones hooked, is getting into a sunfish bed or crappy school and hammering a fish every few minutes. 

Also, there is the element of your fishing time, at first, when working with a young fisherman, don’t expect a whole lot of time on the task yourself. The child will need education and help for a good bit of those first trips to the lake. I owned a place for some years and my little niece would come up with her folks on weekends. All she wanted to do was fish with her uncle. Why, because we formed a team and tight bond. I taught her all the ropes, and she and I fished for the next decade together until those years where life can change, and fishing was not a mandatory element toward her basic survival. Today however as an adult well into her 50’s she and her mate own a lake place, a nice boat, and fish almost every day. I like to think I had something major to do with at least half of that deal. 

When fishing with kids you are the worm baiting guy, minnow catchers, and installer, line untangling expert, and also the individual that can tie anything together. When it is fish on, you teach how to play the fish, operate an auto drag system on a reel, and use the net, stringer, live well, or ice chest. You also teach laws to be followed correctly, the meaning of hard work on deck, getting a little fish stink and blood on our hands. Generate something out of the natural world which can’t be found on screens. In a world that at times seems complete upside-down taking a kid fishing could do more for you than them at times. At least it can seem that way at times.   

See you on the water,

Loyal Brezny