IF you’re looking for a fun easy option to get your kids into fishing over the summer, topwater definitely has to be the way to go.
It’s visual and exciting, two qualities that combat your biggest enemies when it comes to fishing with kids – short attention span and boredom.
There are a stack of surface lures out there that don’t require any great skill to use. Depending on the skill level of the kids, “walk the dog” style lures and even poppers to some extent are probably not ideal.
My favourite lure for this kind of fishing is the River 2 Sea Buggi Pop. It has a large front bib that creates its own wobbling, blooping action when wound in on a slow straight retrieve – perfect for fishing with kids.
At Coolendel on the weekend, Tom had a great little session using this lure. We fished for about an hour in the evening, and there was no shortage of swirls and boils by the little bass. This was adequate to keep him amused, and the fact that he managed to catch seven fish was a bonus.
The highlight was when he hooked two fish on the one lure! Quite frankly it was probably the worst cast he made for the evening, over the top of a tree, and the lure plopped into the water on the other side.
The first fish struck as soon as the lure hit the water, and while he was “tea-bagging” the fish as we tried to figure out how we were going to retrieve it, a second boil under the lure resulted in the second hookup!
It made for a classic Father-Son moment…
