7ft rods in 15ft boat with kids?

[Goooh]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

My experience is that children need lots of practice and experience before being able to safely cast from a boat tons of times. Most boat fishing is with bait (or trolling) in the early years, and they get most of their casting experience from the bank until they can be trusted to avoid the other parties in the boat and the rods, etc.

This has taken me out of the game for fish that really need to be hunted, there isn't much successful trolling going on with my 5 and 8 year old especially if its windy. I stick to shrimp tossing and perch jerking now, hard to leave them behind at all with my conscience so bass and trout are by the wayside!

I buy cheap equipment and stick to 2 rods. Vertical rod holders are nice, but get in the way at their age. I lay mine down and don't get worked up when they step on them too much because they are cheap, if they were standing vertically it would be more stressful dealing with the snagging and untangling than it is when they bend a eye that can be bent right back to normal most of the time - I bring 4 little rods with me for them and I can pick one up and go to fishing if daddy's rod gets broken... The main thing is to keep it fun, caring too much about equipment and going off on them makes it miserable for everyone!

Horizontal holders would be my next route, but the last ones I bought didnt hold up for long - gotta spend more money I guess.