My boy caught his first fish

I know this may not be spectacular news for you guys, but my boy caught 3 carps this weekend. He set his gear up himsrlf, cast into the dam himself and pulled them out all by himself.


They weren't huge, I would guess around 4 pounds, but he was a very happy young kid.

I'm not a huge fisher at all but there is something great about catching your first fish. Mine was a big haddock.

If you will pardon the pun he will be hooked now , i will never forget the first fish my son caught and how excited he was... it was only a small perch but that one fish gave me as much pleasure as any i have caught myself .

Very true, I mayself have lost the enjoyment of fishing quite some time ago. But the young ones bring you back to things you haven't really worried about for some time, living in the city isn't really conducive to that kond of hobby for me, I'd rather go riding my motorcycle on weekends, well I did until my son now started playing sport and is becoming a real boy.

They want adventure, they want to be active, so time is in high demand now.

He caught his first one early evening on Saturday and came running with the carp in his hand from the water's edge to me about 25 metres away, with the biggest smile on his face I have seen for some time.

As you say, a very proud moment. I actually though someone helped him, but then the guys confirmed that it was all him.

The most enetertaining part was the other 4 boys then took it as a challenge, and between the 4 of them they caught 10 carps the weekend.

My son loves watching Bear Grylls on ultimate survivor and he just wanted to eat a Frank Warren. I had to use all my debating and parenting skills to convince him we aren't desperate or desitute enough to go to those lengths.

He was telling me on the way back home today, his second fish gave him a BIG fight.

my first fish was a perch lol..

now im only after carp and bigger fish lol.

Lovely stuff from the OP - I am hoping that my son may take the step of an unaided capture soon.

Pretty much the only sort of fishing I do is dry fly fishing and whilst I'd never say it's the most difficult sort of fishing (I am not a 'tactics' snob), I think it's very difficult to get a young 'un into a fish totally unaided for two main reasons: (a) the casting requires quite a lot of co-ordination and since you cast for a seen fish, not a lie or a swim, the presentation must be neat and accurate at the right time; and (b) with nearly all fly reels there's no 'anti-reverse' so you have to have the confidence to let go of the handle completely when the fish wants to go and also to know when to start reeling again to keep the pressure up.

Even so, there are one or two places where I fish when you can pop some bread in, so maybe this will be his year.....

barry I was very surprised at the ease my son casted, I expected it to be difficult for him not to jerk when bringing it forward, but I guess what helped was that the rod wasn't too long, I haven't measured it but I would guess it is not longer than 7ft.

Maybe what assisted him was the fact that he has been playing cricket and the bowling action of bringing the arm through smoothly aids the action.

So if you are going to get your son to a place where he can just do normal casting with bread or dough then perhaps get him to bowl a few imaginary balls first.

He wanted to eat a Frank Warren

Old Fish Ayes strikes again.

Nice article Biltongbek i also caught my first Carp at the weekend. Your word was filtered after a British boxing promoter who has weird eyes.

Yeah, have to admit, I wondered why fish Ayes were filtered, there must be a story to it somewhere.