Hello Everyone,
I'm trying to teach my 2 young boys (5 and 7) to "LOVE"
fishing. I grew up freshwater
fishing in the midwest, but now I live in
San Diego. We have a
boat that we keep in a marina in
San Diego Bay and I'm trying to find them "catching", not fishing.
When I was a kid, we'd go fishing for Bluegills or Crappies and always enjoyed it because we were 'catching' little
fish with the occasional bass, pike, or walleye. I loved it!
I've tried fishing in the marina with the boys, but the small bait
fish (1 to 3 inches) are tough to get on the hook. I'm looking for suggestions on bait, hook sizes, lures, and techniques for catching fish commonly found in the SD Bay
marinas.
Also, we've baited the schooling bait fish with cat
food and snorkeled to observe. I've noticed 'a lot' of larger fish just below the baitfish. They are in the 3 - 8 inch range and eat the bigger chunks. I also see an occasional 'flash of silver' that comes up and takes the bigger bait fish (about 8 - 10 feet down).
Right now I use light action spin casting rods with small hooks and pieces of shrimp, chicken, hotdog or steak. We've caught a handful of the little bait fish (3 inches), but we miss 95% of the nibbles.
Any suggestions and/or
advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks and have a great one!
Todd