Easiest lure for a 5 year old to cast out and retrieve?

[bitsandbass]

Any other lure recommendations?  We're planning a kayak trip soon. 

 

I'm pickup up a Beetle Spin, some 4 inch YUM Dingers with o-ring and 1/0 gama circle hooks.

 

I feel like a need a hard bait swimmer type lure.  Keep the ideas coming!

[Choporoz]

I don't recall you mentioning anything about a kayak before.....I thought it was a very small pond with six inch long bass.  Will the five year old be in a solo kayak?  And trying to fish?  

Did you get a couple bobbers?   Seems like at least a half dozen people above suggested a bobber....you "feel like a need a hard bait swimmer type lure"....what?  Is this for you or for the five year old?  If you feel the need to get a crankbait, then buy a crankbait....you're going to BPS; you can get a BPS-branded minnow-type hard bait with treble hooks for less than four bucks.  It will catch fish.  But, if you're asking a five year old to cast it and retrieve it....good luck...I don't care if he's in a kayak with you, or by himself...good luck

[Dorado]

Respectfully, focus more on the experience than overwhelming yourself with all of the possibilities. Trust me, you'll enjoy the time more with your kiddo. Treble hooks with a 5-year old just opens up to so many adversarial outcomes -especially on a kayak. It's tougher than you think to cast from that position too - so keep that in mind. Beetlespins and that 4" Dinger should create some fun memories......no need to invite Murphy on board

[Chris at Tech]

If you're using an ultra light combo, I'd focus on ultra light lures.

 

To me, that eliminates crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, silver minnow and a few others.

 

if it were me, I'd choose beetle spin, rooster tails, 2-3 inch grubs on 1/8 oz jigheads, roadrunners or a small rapala floating minnow.  And of course the bobber and bait option as well

[bitsandbass]

8 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I don't recall you mentioning anything about a kayak before.....I thought it was a very small pond with six inch long bass.  Will the five year old be in a solo kayak?  And trying to fish?  

Did you get a couple bobbers?   Seems like at least a half dozen people above suggested a bobber....you "feel like a need a hard bait swimmer type lure"....what?  Is this for you or for the five year old?  If you feel the need to get a crankbait, then buy a crankbait....you're going to BPS; you can get a BPS-branded minnow-type hard bait with treble hooks for less than four bucks.  It will catch fish.  But, if you're asking a five year old to cast it and retrieve it....good luck...I don't care if he's in a kayak with you, or by himself...good luck

 

Kayak trip was a new idea a friend came up with and is organizing it. Pond fishing has been great but we've only caught stocked trout. Ive been trying nightcrawlers on 1/0 gamakatsu circle hooks but can't hookup. Bobber moves, kids get excited, sometimes it will dip and then no activity. Reel in and worm is gone. A bit frustrating to reworm every couple of minutes for 2 kids. Wonder if bluegills are stealing the worms?

 

Buying the beetle spins and Yum Dingers for this weekend. Will try them this weekend. Kayak trip in a couple of weeks!  Lots if fun.  Kids are having a blast (they lasted 4 hours at the pond last weekend). 

[simplejoe]

For both of my kids, I used a bobber and tied a fly (for fly fishing) on. The bobber would be the weight to make a nice cast and the fly does the rest. My kids still use that trick when they're bored. They out fish me every time. 

 

As for a lure to cast and retrieve, I've let them pick out what they wanted to use, they always went back to the old heddon torpedo.

[bitsandbass]

Little guy fished the beetle spin this weekend.  Had the 1/4 and 1/8 oz ones.  I think they were too heavy.  They drop to the bottom pretty quickly because he doesnt retrieve fast enough (and sometimes he pauses to look at butterflies haha).  So it sinks to the bottom pretty quickly and picks up weeds and gunk in no time (and sometimes gets stuck).  We only fished it a few casts because of the weeds   Nice lure though. 

 

Any other suggestions for a genuine weedless rig for casting and retrieving? Something like the beetle spin that is genuinely weedless would work great.  Ideas?  Thanks!

 

 

[Bassin' Brad]

I agree with the beetle spin 100%. Another thing I really recommend is the stump jumper from Bass Pro. They cost .69 a piece and they catch bass crappie and bluegill. I caught a 14" bass just the other day with one. 

[Gunthos]

You  need to have a small jerkbait like the Rapala or Rebel like we had as kids.  These are easy because they don't sink.  They don't twist the line within reason.

 

If you throw out an F5 Rapala for an hour and if the weeds allow, you're sure to catch 2 or 3 fish.

 

However, with all the new lures, my favorite is the Live Target Dace in 2.5 inches.  Next up is Pointer 65.  These are heavier, but still easy to use.

 

The F5 Rapala action is still incredible, but it cant be cast far, gets ot of tune a lot and breaks easy.  Buy a Dace, my best find for 2016!

 

Otherwise, for an easy spoon that will catch a lot of fish it's the Acme Phoebe.  The little one catches everything that's smaller!

 

Edit - I cant see kids having a lot of patience with topwater like Jitterbug.  But, you can always use an F5 Rapala as topwater, it works very well for small bass, just jerk and pause.

 

 

 

[bassin is addicting]

jitterbug...

[Glenn]

When I was 5, my two favorite lures were a Hula Popper, and a #3 flatfish.  Yup, not snagproof, but a topwater rarely gets snagged, and flatfish are hard to snag due to their design.  Caught a lot of perch, bluegill, and bass on those lures.

[Bluebasser86]

My son does well with a wacky rigged stick worm, and he's only 3. They don't have to know what a bite feels like, fish hang onto them forever and the small hook digs in really easily. Plus their herky-jerky retrieve style fishes a wacky rig about perfect. Get a worm that is a slower sinker (less salt content), and it will stay up higher in the water where it's less likely to get snagged.

[bitsandbass]

Guys just wanted to say thanks.  Im embarrassed to say the kids and I havent fished much at all.  Too much going on this summer.  However, I managed to get 10 casts into the Charles on a recent hike.  The first cast in and BAM!!!  I caught a small chain pickerel on the beetlespin.  I couldnt believe it haha.  Managed to get another 9 casts after that and had to run.  It was pretty neat.  Looking forward to trying the beetlespin again.

 

I think a lighter one would be better, one that doesnt sink as fast.  I'll pick up a few more of these.  Great recommendation!  Cant wait to get the kids using them.  Need time.............

[Joshua Beaver]

On 5/25/2017 at 2:57 PM, bitsandbass said:

Now I just need to find an ultralight rod.  The 6' rod he is learning to cast on is a bit large.  I think 5' would be ideal, but then again, he will get less casting distance with a shorter rod, and next year a 5 footer may be too small for him, so I want to invest for the future. 

To be honest, I would start him off on a five footer simply because it will never be to small for him. I'm 5'8" and I've used a five footer ultra light when I fished for trout last year and even managed to drag in a 24" brown trout with it. Regardless of how tall he will grow, a five footer will always have its uses even if it's just ripping up bluegill from the water for bass/catfish bait. So my recommendation is to get him that five footer to start with. Zebco has a few nice setups that are fairly cheap but good quality, rod and reel for about $20 at walmart. But this is just my two cents and things are expensive.

[Boomstick]

Get him a crankbait or a topwater bait and teach him to cast, crank and keep it off the bottom. Best way to teach him imo