I have three young boys myself, and the best advice I can give is the same as others.....forget about fishing yourself when you take them out. It just leads to frustration, for you and them. The flies idea for bluegill and crappie is one I had forgotten about till Attica brought it up. My dad used to buy those little cheap multi packs from Walmart for a couple bucks and us kids would fish 'em under small round clip on bobbers, the ones a little bigger than a marble. Throw it out and let it sink and sit a minute, then move it a foot or so and let it sink. Bluegills would tear 'em up, and so would crappie now and then. We would really do well with those rigs in the spillway below our local lake and in creeks. Just let 'em drift. You can even add a pinch of redworm or crawler to the fly to make it more attractive. If you want, you can fish jigs this way too. A lot of crappie are caught fishing jigs under a float. You can buy a multipack of hair or feather jigs at Wally World for a buck or so, or buy some 1/32 or 1/16 ounce leadheads and use some cheap tubes. Yellow or chartreuse are good stand bys if you aren't wanting to spend a lot on multiple colors. My boys like to throw jigs because they like to keeping throwing it out and reeling it in. They never stay still, so minnow fishing is tough to do with them. Your kids may be the same. The snack thing is good advice too. That's the first thing mine ask for when the fishing is slow.
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