Taking my son on a daytime 10h

[Patudo]

on those daytime trips it's mainly lane snapper and smaller mangrove snapper, with plenty of grunts and porgies coming over the rail too. Small grouper appear occasionally. 

Bottom fishing in 60-80' of water. Preferred method seems to be knocker rigs or chicken rigs with cut squid, threadfins, and shrimp.

The debate is do I wanna bring him a spinner so its something he already knows how to use, and I don't need to worry about spool overruns. But I suck at fishing a spinner offshore.

Based on the above info, I would use a medium spinning rig with maybe 30-40 lb braid, or maybe 20-25 lb mono if boat policy disallows using braid.  In that depth you should not need much lead to get to the bottom, and detecting the lead hitting bottom should be easy thanks to the super sensitivity of braid.  The low stretch braid will also make bite detection easy, and it sounds like you'll get plenty of nibbles - hopefully enough to keep his attention focused on trying to hook the next one. 

Bring a couple of backup outfits and/or spare spools in case line gets twisted up, or you lose line to snags etc - always a possibility with a beginner.  Bring replacement rigs and leads too. 

If the situation allows it, a conventional rig with 30 lb mono and about a TLD 15 size reel could be worth bringing along, to put out a live bait under a float.  This will probably catch more cudas than anything else, but when I was his age (how old is he?) a 20 lb barracuda would have been exciting as all hell. 

btw - What outfits have you seen the other charter fares using?

[JasonGotaProblem]

I'm gonna have to reschedule the trip, we may switch to the 5h or a different day. And that sucks because weather is looking great.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Game time. Going on the 5h in a few hours. This kid is so excited he's ready to pop.

[foakes]

Good man, Jason —-

You guys have fun.

You are planting some important seeds for a lifetime in the outdoors.

Best Always, Fred

[JasonGotaProblem]

Kid picked up quick. Quicker than me. But I didn't have a dedicated deckhand. And more importantly he had an absolute BLAST. Problem is next trip he's gonna assume he's invited. Good news is, he might be.

[Midway Tommy]

Good for him! 👍 Looks like you now have a fishing partner for life, just make sure you invite him along as often as possible to keep his interest in place.

[Crab Pot]

Father of the Year!

I was a little younger than that when my Dad started taking me out. Brings back good memories.

Not knowing Florida fish: are those big or bait? 

Steve

[jgp12000]

Looks like great weather too,he is hooked!

[Gfish]

Good on ya! Never had the opportunity as a kid. Just some FW boat fishing with Aunts & Uncles in Minnesota lakes and a couple of times California reservoirs where my parents, who were kinda lost as to how it's done there. The Ocean is a whole different experience and there's usually lots of fish to be had on a charter trip.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Yeah the fish were small. The last one was a bad angle of 2 fish on the line at once, or I otherwise wouldn't take pics with such small fish, but he was excited. He also had 2 fish at once at one point.

I frankly wouldn't have kept most of the fish we kept if I was by myself, but he was excited about them.

I gotta work with him on how to hold fish for pics.

[MACflyer]

Stringer full of fish, big smiles, and hard to tell who's prouder!

[steelfish]

great job, sometimes the smile on their face is bigger than the fish, its what is important

[Decker]

I was thinking maybe one of my built 27SH reels would be a good fit. I'll have to teach him how to thumb the spool but at least I will be familiar with the thing I'm trying to teach him how to do, and it has a synchronous line guide. Maybe I'll just grease the spool bearings to limit his descent speed, which would probably minimize overruns. It's not like I'm gonna try to teach him how to cast it.

I had the same thought when taking my wife and one of my daughters deep sea fishing. I had a Sealine 47SH (levelwind) ready for my wife. Daughter and wife both had some birds nests.  I Kept reminding them to thumb the spool, but their attentions would lapse now and then.  I don't find the levelwind to be so necessary as long as the spool is somewhat narrow.  My wife's favorite setup is my Tiburon XN Jigmaster with St. Croix Triumph Musky rod - she has good taste  . Narrow reels are simple to manage.  I might put a couple of magnets in before the next trip to see if it helps my wife stay put of trouble.

The 27SH is probably a good choice for your son, and after one or two birds nests he'll figure it out.

P.S. I responded from an earlier page but I see now the deed is done.  Nice trip!  Looks like he did well with the spinner.   Thanks for the pics!   

[Donnyboat]

Nice post, thanks Jason, brings back many memories, of my son, and his mates, he will never forget that first trip, and a nice feed, does he like eating them, keep well cheers Don.

[oldmanjoe]

Kid picked up quick. Quicker than me. But I didn't have a dedicated deckhand. And more importantly he had an absolute BLAST. Problem is next trip he's gonna assume he's invited. Good news is, he might be.

l
Little do you know , He is planning every other weekend trips until it get hot again .

          "I gotta work with him on how to hold fish for pics."

                 Nailed it !!!