How to Catch a Trout for Dinner

At the end of a day of fishing, nothing is more enjoyable than frying up and eating a trout you and your children have caught on your own. One of the best ways to share that experience is to take your kids to a local trout pond, where they can fish for stocked trout.
 

Get your Bait and Fishing Tackle

A trip to a local bait-and-tackle store will help you acquire the basic tools you and your kids will need to catch trout—an inexpensive spin-cast rod-and-reel combination that comes with fishing line already on the reel, hooks, split shot (weights to get the bait down to the fish), and a bobber (when it dips beneath the surface you know a trout has taken the bait).

This store will also sell worms, the best live bait for you and your kids. Have the clerk show you how to bait the hook. It’s a very simple procedure. Make sure to buy a stringer as well. This is a metal chain or rope that holds caught fish in the water (to keep them alive) until it’s time to go home.

Let your Kids catch the Fish

At the pond, bait the hook for each kid. Then bait your hook. Have everyone cast the baited hook into the water. When the bobber goes under, tell them to reel in the line. When the fish surfaces, you take it in hand and remove it from the hook. Re-bait the hook and have them cast again.

When you and the kids have caught enough fish to eat, haul in the stringer and then gut the fish for them. They can learn how to do this for themselves later. Dispose of the entrails properly (there should be a garbage can nearby), place the fish in a cooler, and head home.

Cooking Time

There are many ways to fry fresh-caught trout, but one of the simplest is to roll the fish in a cornmeal-flour-egg batter and slip it into a skillet of hot oil. Cook each side for three to four minutes and then place on paper towels. Fried potatoes make a great side dish.

When you’ve finished cooking all of the fish, invite everyone to sit at the table while you serve up one of the best meals they’ll ever have.  The memory of that meal will last a lifetime and will surely have your kids asking you, “When can we do this again?

​If you are a mother with little fishing experience, but who has kids who want to learn how to fish, you might at first be confused by all the different types of gear available to anglers. No need to worry. Basic trout fishing is really quite simple. The best place to start is to go to takemefishing.org. The site has information, tips, and tricks designed to help you get started.