Bringing your child or children along when you’re fishing is undeniably a great experience for everyone and make use of quality time with your precious little ones. Making the experience fun and interesting will get your children to actually choose the outdoors over other activities, and will teach them skills that will last a lifetime. If you fail to keep their interest (and children have fickle attention spans), you may impress upon them that fishing is a boring activity that only adults do. Make sure to keep their interest in fishing by following these five easy tips the next time you go fishing on your aluminium boats:

Start Off Easy

This means you need some very basic materials when you’ll be starting to fish. A rod, a hook, a bob and some worms as bait is a good place to start. These are items that children can understand and will allow them to get a firm grasp on what fishing is all about. The bob will also help children to visually comprehend where their bait is and what happens when they get a bite.

Put Emphasis On The Catch

It is important that you put the emphasis on the catch, not the type of fish caught or the size of the fish. Children need action to keep them interested. Because of this, take your little ones to a fishing spot where there will be a high number of bites. Fish such as bass, sunfish, and bluegills tend to be prevalent in shallow water so they are quite easy to find. Lakes are a good place to find these fish and start your fishing adventure.

Offer Plenty of Encouragement

Children need praise and encouragement. Of course, it is a given that they are going to make bad casts, lose their bait, lose a couple of hooks, and even throw the rod a few times. This is completely normal and is to be expected. Do not get frustrated with them. Instead, offer plenty of encouragement and let them know you’ve done it yourself a time or two. If you notice they are doing something wrong, correct them constructively so they understand how to change for the better.

Don’t Set High Expectations

You may have a whole fantasy in mind as to what you want your fishing trip to be everyone in the group is catching fish, each cast is perfect, and everyone is just having a good time. While this is certainly possible, the opposite can also happen. If the kids decide they want to go swimming or boat tubing after a few minutes of fishing, let them do so. It’s important that they have fun. In the long run, they will remember the trip as enjoyable and want to go again.

Make It a Learning Experience

In addition to this being a fun outing, use it as an educational experience. For example, when your child catches a fish, show it to them and explain to them how they swim and breathe. You can also teach your children how to catch and release, and explain that by doing so, you’re allowing that fish to reproduce and repopulate the species.

You can also extend your fishing lessons on land by taking a trip to a marine supplies store and schooling them on the different lures, baits, and fishing gear available in the market. You can teach them how to choose the right accessories/lures/bait/gear for different fishing techniques.

As is always the case with fishing, there are no guarantees. Remember, kids will be kids, so it is important to let them learn and explore in their own ways. Following the above steps will increase the likelihood of your child becoming interested in the hobby, as well as in nature. Most importantly, just relax and have fun! After all, the best part of the experience is spending some quality time outdoors with your family.