Fishing With Kids This Summer: A Beginner's Guide to Coastal LRF
If you've got children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews and a free afternoon over the summer holidays, taking them fishing is one of the best things you can do with it. The trouble is that a lot of fishing involves sitting still and waiting, which is not a natural state for most kids (don’t I know it). That's exactly why I point families towards light rock fishing, or LRF, on the coast or even canals. It's cheap, it's active, and it's absolutely full of bites. For a first proper session, nothing beats it.
Why LRF is the perfect first session
Light rock fishing pretty much means fishing for whatever's about with light, simple gear - usually a small soft lure or a tiny scrap of bait on a tiny hook using a light and whippy rod. Because you're targeting whatever swims past rather than one specific species, something is almost always willing to have a go. That means very little sitting around and a lot of action, which is the whole game when you're trying to keep a young angler interested and even the smallest fish puts up a good fish on a light rod.
The other beauty of it is the setting. Harbour walls, piers, breakwaters and canals around the UK are all buzzing with life through the summer, and most of them are easy to get to and safe to fish from with a bit of care. You don't need a boat, a permit (except for the canal) or years of experience. You just need to turn up at a spot with a bit of structure and start flicking a lure or spinner around.
The gear you need
Keep it simple. A short, light rod of around 6 to 7 feet, a small fixed-spool reel loaded with light line, and a handful of soft plastic lures on tiny jig heads or spinners will cover almost everything. If you'd rather use bait, small pieces of worm, mackerel strip or even a bit of prawn work brilliantly on a light rig. Add a small selection of hooks and weights and you're set.
That's genuinely most of it. The joy of LRF is that the whole outfit is light enough for a child to hold and cast all day without getting tired, and cheap enough that you're not risking a fortune if a rig gets snagged on the rocks. A brilliant set up right now would be a mikado Bixlite 0.5-5g rod, paired with a shinju 2004 reel or a bixlite 2006, some light weight line and a selection of lures and spinners. All can be found here, in our dedicated LRF and ultralight section.
What you'll likely catch
Summer is the busiest time on the coast, and the sheer variety is what makes it so good for kids. On a decent session you might expect:
Mackerel - fast, hard-fighting and a guaranteed grin, usually best in the early morning or evening
Pollack and small coalfish - often sitting tight to harbour walls and rock edges
Wrasse - colourful ballan and corkwing wrasse that love rough, weedy ground
Garfish - long, needle-nosed and great fun near the surface on a sunny day
Blennies, gobies and rockling - tiny, characterful little fish that are easy for small hands to catch and hold
Scad, sandeel and the odd grey mullet cruising the harbour
Perch - stripy, greedy and the perfect first freshwater fish, happy to snaffle a worm or a small lure
Roach - obliging silver shoal fish that fight well given their small size
Chub - bold and hard-pulling, often found tucked under far-bank cover on rivers
Trout - a brilliant scrap and they love a spinner, ideal as they grow in confidence
Pike - toothy and thrilling, one for the older ones after something a bit bigger
Half the fun is not knowing what's coming up next. Turning a session into a species hunt - how many different fish can we catch today? - keeps children absolutely gripped, and it's a lovely way to teach them a bit about what lives on our coast.
Safety first with young children
A little planning keeps the day fun for everyone. These are the things I'd never skip:
A properly fitted buoyancy aid or life jacket for each child, especially on harbour walls, piers and anywhere near deep water is a good thing to consider. You may never need it but you wish you did if something happened.
Grippy, closed-toe footwear - rocks and weed get very slippery, and slips are the number one cause of accidents
Check the tide times before you go to the coast, and always know your way off any rock mark before the water turns
Sun cream, hats and plenty of water - a hot day on reflective water catches children out fast
Stay within arm's reach on high or steep marks, keep hooks and lures capped when they're not in use, and pinch down the barbs so unhooking is quick and painless for both fish and fingers
Take a small first aid kit and your phone, and let someone know where you are
Keep the first few sessions short and full of action. A happy hour of little fish beats a long, tired afternoon every single time, and it's the fun they'll remember that brings them back. This might sound like common sense, but you would be surprised how many confident people get humbled by the power of the sea.
Ready to give it a go?
If you fancy getting a young angler started this summer, our LRF and light lure range has everything you need to put together a simple first outfit, and we're always happy to help you pick the right bits. Drop us a message with the age of the child and where you're headed, and we'll point you in the right direction.
Get out there, keep it light, and enjoy it. You might just be starting something that lasts a lifetime. Tight lines.
