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Must be vacation season with the flood of Child related fishing questions being posted.
And my question is.. With the natural instinct to 'jerk' the rod as soon as a tug is felt, would it be better to use a 'J' hook instead of a 'circle' hook on the child's rig? Or is there another type hook recommended?
I forgot to mention, we will be fishing the surf near LL Pass about 100 yds. east.
Yeah, you can use smaller 'J' hooks like a #6 or even #8 Eagle Claw All-purpose or Mustad Aberdeen.
But IMHO you're going to catch more fish with a kahle hook and a dash of patience ;-)
I would size the hook with the age and patience of the child. A #10 gold hook will get lots of pinfish and small croakers for a real beginner (3-6 yrs old) and you are not going to keep them interested for too terribly long anyway. They need a bite within a very few minutes to keep them interested for even a little while. I would not go up in size until they seem to want a larger fish and their level of interest is raised.
A small bobber also helps as they can see the bite and that intrigues them. Catching spadefish on a goldhook with a bobber hooked me on pier fishing for life. Sabiki rigs are great for keeping small ones interested and by contributing bait they can be participating to the whole project.
My granddaughter caught a few pinfish last year at age three and is raring to get at them again this year. Grandaddy is pretty hyped, too.
I think I was around 8 when I started being interested in keeping little whiting and cleaning them.
I would say it depends on patience. I can't stand using circle hooks because I'm not patient, I also wasn't hooking up, so I switched to J hook and am much happier. So I would say it really depends on them, but kahle is a good compromise because you can set that as well as fish it like a circle hook.