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My son wants to take his friend fishing, whom is a baseball player and never caught a fish.
I was thinking crappie at Taylorsville or Rough.
We release everything but sure would like to let him have a good day to get hooked.
What do you guys suggest.
It has been my experience that kids just want to catch fish, they don't really seem to care what kind or how big. Also, if they are pretty young, they will get bored easily. I would try to take him somewhere that have panfish and that is close by.
You don't say how old they are but they have a lake at the game farm in Frankfort that is restricted to little guys, they keep it stocked for just what you are trying to do. I think the age limit is about 12, other than that I'd say let the water temp come up a little and hit the bluegills on some light tackle, good fun no matter how old you are.
They are 14 and 15. My son can fish the other not. I sure would like to hit it with a boat load of crappie
If you want to do some bank-fishing around Louisville, there are several little ponds that are stocked with bass, bluegill, catfish, and last but not least, Rainbow Trout. I can vouch that Fisherman's Park in particular is teeming with rainbows, easy to catch a limit if you throw minnows on light tackle. Stay on the shallower side of the lake, that's the side with the little bare spot as you first come down the hill. I've seen people tearin' 'em up over there using corn, spinners, whatever, and I've had great success on minnows. Across the bridge on the other side is deeper, and the trout don't seem to hang out much there, but you can catch bass and occasional crappie from there.
Here's the website of Kentucky's Urban Fishing Program. It includes 2 lakes in Louisville, 2 in Covington, and 1 in Frankfort.
http://fw.ky.gov/urbanfishing.asp?lid=1255&NavPath=C101
I have kid fished for years. I have 3 teens now and have fished with them and their friends (still do) in many ways and places. Kids don't have patience with fishing so the key is quick and consistent action. Your idea on crappie can be a good one given you are on fish. If you haven't been and go "hunting" for where the fish are and what they are biting chances are the kids will get bored unless you can tune into them quickly.
A couple of other thoughts for you. Some of the best kid fishing I have done has been in small streams. Some streams not much bigger than you can jump across are teaming with mid-sized panfish in many varieties along with small bass, crappie, and rock bass. My kids always enjoyed creek fishing because they would spend part of their time fishing and the other part exploring - flipping over rocks catching crawdads, minnows, etc. If your trip is soon the water is still a bit cool for wading the creeks but April into May is prime time for such fishing as the fish are moving up for the spawn. I have found a lot of the small streams are the main spawning grounds for fish in the larger streams they feed into.
Another great kid fish is private ponds. If you know someone that has a pond with good fishing then that can be prime waters. It ususally doesn't take long to tune into fish in ponds and it can be fast action when you do.
Good luck and I hope you guys catch a bunch!
kc
Well my last experience with my nephew ended with a treble hook embeded so deep in my arm that it couldn't be backed out. My Brother finally pushed it all the way thru and cut the barb off. I tried to continue fishing with the lure dangling from my arm but that didn't work too well. Be careful when teaching young ones to cast and make sure the keep thier distance. But come to think of it one of my grown fishing buddys scare the #$#@ out of my when we fish in an 18 ft boat. I can feel the air off of his spinner bait as it whizzes by my ear. He needs to work on that side arm technique.