My Lake Powell Fishing Checklist for fun with the kids

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We had fun with it, but ultimately it was too hard to keep track of all the things especially in the heat and excitement of a frenzied boil, some fishing off the boat, some off the back of the houseboat, etc.

I had a few prizes that I handed out at the end of the week, like an old reel that I painted gold, a Bass Pro hat that I painted gold, a couple of 3D-printed little trophies that I painted gold, and a nasty old hookless lure with a lot of tangled line hanging off of it... that I also painted gold. 🏆

The kids had fun and appreciated the prizes.
 
Colin said:
We had fun with it, but ultimately it was too hard to keep track of all the things especially in the heat and excitement of a frenzied boil, some fishing off the boat, some off the back of the houseboat, etc.

I had a few prizes that I handed out at the end of the week, like an old reel that I painted gold, a Bass Pro hat that I painted gold, a couple of 3D-printed little trophies that I painted gold, and a nasty old hookless lure with a lot of tangled line hanging off of it... that I also painted gold. 🏆

The kids had fun and appreciated the prizes.
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Nice
 
Todd said:
Not in my parenting I’ll guarantee you. I grew up without participation trophies as well as my kids.
It’s gotten out of hand in my opinion.
Competition builds character in life.
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I knew that some would feel and react this way...and that's ok. I have been a basketball, football, baseball, and even softball coach at the high school level and have well over 20 years of coaching at pretty competitive levels. All of my kids are heavily involved in athletics as are their cousins. I believe strongly in competition and the character it builds. I also believe that there are winners and losers in all walks of life and teaching kids how to lose is very important. Where I probably disagree with you is that not everything needs to be a competition and shouldn't be a competition. For example, as my oldest boy starts playing golf with me and as he learns to play the game, I have never made our outings a competition between us rather against ourselves. Success in those outings is measured in how well he performs compared to what he did last time or against his average or his best. However, we will often have chipping or putting contests as we play. As an educator, I have learned that more than anything else success is the biggest motivator. IF we want kids to learn to love something, they must have some level of success. When introducing kids to fishing, if they don't feel that success and instead feel like they aren't good at something because they lost, we potentially are not recruiting kids to the sport but chasing them away. The kids that strikeout every time they get up to the plate don't continue playing the game. It's not a crazy suggestion that some competition will end in tears...I have seen it over and over again. Sadly, I have also seen how too much competition drives kids away. So, take the suggestion for what its worth...you know your kids better than I do and how they will react. But, the truth is that not all competition is healthy.
 
Todd said:
You are right that everything in life does not need to be competitive. I never said it did, I was simply talking about this thread.
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No. You didn't, and I didn't mean to imply that you did. My point was simply that we need to be careful in the competitions that we do make. And, if helping kids enjoy the sport we love is the goal, we need to make sure that any competition that we employ within it allows them to feel some level of success.
 
If a kid goes home crying from fishing, I'd venture to say, that is more a parenting failure than anything else. I too, have coached for many years. Raising your kids to be "coachable" in life, is a high priority of mine. This is fastly transforming into a big distraction from the intention of this post, which is GREAT by the way.
 
I know this thread has veered off course, but I have to put in my two cents worth. Competetion is a good thing, you just have to look for it to be an incentive to improve. When I was very young, about 65 years ago I played Little League baseball. I was terrible! My parents both worked with me but I was a failure. The coach of course put me in right field where I could do the least damage. One day our catcher did not show up and the coach asked me if I would like to try. I looked at all of the protective gear the catcher wore and decided to give it a shot. I had not told anyone, but my big problem was that I was scared of the ball. The catcher position and I were made for each other. I loved it and didn't worry about getting hit by the ball. I excelled not only at catcher, but the confidence helped me at bat as well. My main motivation became being the best at what I did. I ended up being on the All Star team and my crowning glory was a grand slam in an All Star game. My family has always had a competition in just about everything. It is always a contest for the biggest fish, most fish, but it was always in fun. One of my boys did competition knee boarding, the other competitive water skiing. They were always the others biggest fan. I believe the activities we enjoyed as a result of owning a boat and being together on the boat were the biggest factor in the success of my kids who are all grown now and enjoying the same activities with their kids. You can tell if you have been successful not by how your kids turn out, but by how your grandkids turn out.
 
Lake Bum said:
If a kid goes home crying from fishing, I'd venture to say, that is more a parenting failure than anything else. I too, have coached for many years. Raising your kids to be "coachable" in life, is a high priority of mine. This is fastly transforming into a big distraction from the intention of this post, which is GREAT by the way.
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Or a competition failure. Where the competition leads to unhealthy expectations and/or goals. Again, we can agree to disagree. But, raising kids to be "coachable" is also a huge expectation I have. That, though, doesn't change bad competition from being bad or unhealthy. In my family, for example, we have younger kids and older kids. We have elementary aged kids and high school aged kids. Having the high school kids compete against the elementary aged kids is unfair and lacks competitive balance.
 
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