Thai Fishing

Fishing is one of those family-friendly activities that both parents and kids can enjoy. Not only does it give you the chance to bond with each other, but it also allows everyone to commune with nature and stay away from mobile devices even for at least a couple of hours.

The thing is, it is not always easy to coax the children to go fishing. That is especially true for those who are used to the city life where fish can either be seen in tanks or supermarkets. Some agree to come, considering you promise to get ice cream for them afterward. Others may show interest in the beginning, but they might drop the rod to do something else.

If you want the young ones to enjoy fishing as much as you do, here are some tips to remember.

1. Go Fishing During A Nice Weather

The first thing that makes kids act erratically is the changing weather. For instance, the sun’s shining brightly when you enter the car, but the rain started to pour as you are setting up. That can alter their mood and possibly cause them to whine and want to go home. Read more about it at Babble.

What you should do is find out the kind of weather that you can expect on the day that you plan on fishing with the family. The aspects you ought to look at are the chances of raining, humidity level, et cetera. This way, you will be able to decide if you picked a great day to fish or you have to reschedule it for the children’s sake.

2. Choose An Excellent Fishing Area

Another fact to keep in mind is that youngsters lack the patience that adults can typically exhibit when fishing. If you can sit beside the lake or on a boat for almost half the day without catching anything, the kids may feel bored after waiting for ten minutes or so. In case you love to stay still, well… you know that that’s not among the most excellent points of any child.

The ideal thing you can do is to look for a spot where fish is abundant. We are talking about unpolluted rivers, lakes, or even streams in which the children can catch something a few minutes after casting their line. That may prevent them from wandering around to, say, find a dragonfly or ask for their gadgets.

3. Settle With Basic Fishing Gears

Since you wish to fish with young kids, you should avoid buying expensive gears for them for the first time. You have no idea yet how much they will like the activity – or if they will even be okay with catching live fish. Some children, after all, get scared when they see it flapping around or splashing water on them.

For your little ones, therefore, it seems more practical to make a fishing rod out of a wooden stick instead of getting a real one in the beginning. It should not be difficult to tie a string on one end of a fallen twig or branch and attach the bait to it. If the experience makes your children want to go fishing with you again, then you may consider buying better equipment for them.

4. Don’t Stay Outdoors For Too Long

Fishing with children is different from doing it with adults – that’s for sure. The latter may not mind getting rained on, but the kids might catch the flu once they stay under the rain. Although you may find the activity calming too, you should know that the little ones always look for adventure more than relaxation.

That’s the reason why you cannot plan a full day outdoors when you are with kids. You may try it for an hour to check how they like the place. If they do, then you can return to your fishing spot again and perhaps extend your stay for a bit. As long as the idea of fishing seems fun for them, everything will be fine.

5. Pay Attention To Your Kids

Finally, you should remember to focus on the children – not on your fishing rod – no matter how much you love the activity. If you are concerned about the number of fish you can catch, then you should have brought them along another day. However, since your goal is to teach them how to fish, you need to ensure that they are enjoying themselves outdoors.

What most parents usually do is that they leave their pro fishing gears behind on purpose. If the children have to use improvised rods, they make something similar too. You will also be able to talk with the kids freely in this manner.

To Sum Things Up

Fishing with the people you love can bring you the best memories that you can hold on to for a long while. Try to teach your children how to fish so that you will be able to bond over this activity even when they are all grown up.

Good luck!

Situated 84 kilometers northwest of Phuket, Similan is one of the most popular island groups in the Andaman Sea.  It is best known for the awesome surprise waiting right at the bottom of the clear blue waters surrounding it.  Divers all over the world wanted to explore its richness.   This little island is also frequented by many yachts and tourist boats.

 

 

What makes this archipelago so attractive?  What attracts people into this little island is not just what is found on the island, but more of the exciting things you can see beneath.  Countless and most breathtaking coral growths can be found only in Similan, that it has become the playing field for most divers.

 

Coral Reef

Divers are interested in a place that has abundant marine life.  They are experts when it comes to coral reefs, and diverse coral reef ecosystem is found in this tropic island of Similan.

 

When I first toured the island with my son, I was amazed to see these under-the-sea explorers jump from their boats and swim around.   My son was one of them, and upon their return, we all watched the videos they took while they swam around the reefs.  The reefs look weird and at the same time wonderful.   They talked about how marveled they feel as these beautiful creations surrounded them.  The reefs were just there, beautifully painting the underwater with its variety of colors, making it look splendid, as they serve as home to many different fishes and critters.

 

What Are Corals?

Many are confused about what corals are. Are they fish, plants, or rocks?

 

Corals are animals that look both like a plant and a rock.  Coral reefs came into existence through the symbiosis of corals and algae that resides in their tissues.   It provides them with food (photosynthesis) and the reason for their perfect, brilliant colors.

 

Colors Of The Rainbow

Watching my son and his team roaming the bottom, swimming around the reefs, I imagine them like those we see in the coloring books.   I was actually just waiting for Sponge Bob to just come out from one of those colorful reefs.

 

The colors in the screen of what we were watching were so vibrant, ranging from brown, pink, yellow, purple, blue, more than the colors of the rainbow.  They say these colors are produced depending on the mix of the algae that are found in their tissues.  There are also corals that are fluorescent.  The unusual patterns of colors are because of the outlandish concentrations of algae in those corals.

 

Types Of Corals

Different kinds of corals are identified into eight categories.

 

 

Massive corals are the pillars of most reefs.   They look like boulders and their size varies, anywhere from the scope of tiny egg to a huge two-story house.

 

Encrusting corals are commonly seen on shipwrecks by divers.  They are fast growing and form a crust on the bedrock and spread all over the surface creating a thin colorful exterior.

 

Table corals are also one you can recognize easily with its rising trunk and attached branches that expands horizontally and create the table-like assembly.  They are identified with the El Nino effect and coral bleaching.

 

Elkhorn corals got its name from the horns of elks.  They bulge out vertically growing many off shooting side branches.

 

Mushroom corals resemble a cup of a mushroom.  These corals are solitary corals that settle on the ground, unattached.  They could grow up to 25 cm in diameter.

 

Digitate corals are like fingers or big clumps of cigars.  These corals have no branches and grow vertically.

 

Branching corals are the most common types of colorful small corals.  They have a form like that of a tree that has many branches and that grew some secondary branches.

 

Foliose corals can be easily recognized by its broad plate-like winged part that protrudes from the coral bed.  Most often, they are called salad corals or leaf corals because they bear a resemblance to giant lettuce head.

 

Diversity in the corals depends on many factors like its environment and geographical location.  Some say that genetics can also play a role in their degree of variance.   What we saw in Similan are different from what can be found in the Red Sea and the Caribbean.

 

Reference:

Khao Lak Explorer Dive Center. Different Coral types and how to recognize them.   Retrieved from https://www.khaolakexplorer.com/marine-life-guide/coral-types/.