First year doing this, fished some tournaments but any advice would be helpful. Biggest challenge may be keeping the boys focused most of the day

I was a captain last year...was planning to do it again this year...but other priorities overrode it.

Here's my pointers:

1) Talk with the parents about expenses for all trips; it can get expensive quick if you're fronting all the gas and time. Make sure you set up a cost per trip established. I paid for a few trips out of my pocket to get these kids time on the lake and ate the costs.
2) Don't take it personal; when they don't catch fish, when they get bored, when they seem to not have the heart / passion you do
3) Have fun it's a day on the water sharing your passion with new talent
4) Fish when they're getting skunked to show the fish are there; many times they would be getting no bumps or bites...I would switch it up and catch fish...then they would use that to catch more
5) Let them fish to their strengths; you can't expect every kid to skip docks, fish offshore, etc...find out how they fish and do that
6) Allow them time to learn to fish using the boat; during practice I let the kids run the TM. During tournaments I would run the TM so they could focus on fishing. Once they mastered the TM, I would sit in the drivers seat and plan the next move.
7) Have fun again
8) Participate in their meetings...its shows them you care for the sport and they will see it

As stated meet and talk with the parents and set expectations. I had one kid that had his mom call me and tell me he’d show up around 8AM and I’d need to come back to the Marina and pick him up as i wanted to launch too early. I’d discuss the cell phones also, that led to a big issue with me and my sons partner. He’d get bored and just quit, stop fishing, and get on his phone. I stopped that real quick but both he and his parents got butt hurt.

There are lots of great kids but I’d make sure you are clear on the expectations and costs. Launching is one of the big hassles, especially of you have to do everything. That was one of our biggest complaints from boat captains. The good parents would help their kids boat Captain launch but we had very few that would help.

Thank you both, kinda figure on some of those points. My son’s first year but I have fished a couple of tournaments with him this past year and I think he will handle it just fine. 1st tournament we fished it rained all day, he hung in the the whole day even while the fishing was very slow.

His partner on the other hand is where I worry, the good part is his parents are close friends of ours and known them since high school. He is very new to fishing and really has not bass fished, so there will be lot to learn. He does have a lot of energy even for a 15 y/o, so the key will be getting him to catch something and keeping him focus and most import I need to make sure he has fun. My boy will be fine, he is really excited about being on the fishing team this year. It will be nice just to weigh in a few and enjoy the experience at weigh in

Also it is exciting for a small school like ours to have 3 teams this year, and 1 of the teams are a pair of girls. I really hope they have fun and do well.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Concentrate on the fun part the first year while teaching as much as you can. I was moved to captain a team five years ago comprised of two kids that were unknown to me prior. Weighed fish at a couple of tournies and did not at a couple. But they had fun. After 4 years, one of them became so talented and committed that he is now fishing in college for ETBU.

Have your son take the boaters safety course and then practice A LOT so it is a lot easier on you launching and loading. My son and I would spend as much time as we could each time we went to the lake with him just putting the boat on the trailer after we finished fishing. He would load it, I would push him off and he would go back out and do it again. He is now better than the majority of boat owners I see at the ramp every time I go.

Take a bottle of advil for the headache you are gonna suffer from.

Texoma was our first tournament last weekend, even though we did not weigh in anything, kids caught 8 but they was all 12 to 13 inches. They hung in there tough all but maybe an hour was kinda down, so we took a break to recharge. Last hour caught 2 more, but all too short. We will go again on Ray Hubbard at the end of the month.

Have fun. Keep them engaged. Have some $1 bets.....first fish, most fish, biggest fish.......Snack requirements....no snacks until you've caught fish.....teach etiquette. The keepers will come and go, but sportsmanship and ethics last forever. Do it right from the start.....and good for you for being a boat captain.

Any captains out there willing to captain a couple of Senior HS girl anglers in the Texoma tournament on 11/20? Very sweet girls that are somewhat new (they fished a couple tournaments last year), but very excited to keep trying!

I captained for over 6 years. Best thing I did was have forced breaks about every 2 hours or so for 15 minutes. Make sure kids were hydrated. Discussed what was and was not working. Discussed changing conditions if any. Asked them for accessment and I gave my own.
At the end of the day the youth club would gather up and we gave each team the opportunity to speak about their day. Then following each of the teams the captain would also give their observations. In this way we felt we were building the kids confidence in public speaking, and showing them with corrective action how to speak and what to discuss. This also opened everyone’s eyes as to usung diffrent techniques and the diffrent areas of the lake.

GREAT IDEA!!

The grandson and his partner are freshman and are green as they get . Our goal starting the year was one keeper every tournament. We are fishing mainly finesse baits this year . High percentage baits . Get bit to keep there attention.

This is definitely good info. I just registered last week with THSBA to coach a team for Cooper High School here in Cooper, Texas. I think we have one team and I'll have the second one. My goal is to get two young men started in this game and see them succeed to the point they can get some or all of their college paid for and possibly turn pro and yes we are going to talk about their relationship with the Good Lord while we are out there.