I came across a variation of this game years ago when one of my kids had an Under the Sea themed birthday party. I am usually pretty open ended with the games at their parties, (think balls and puppy ear headbands and let them loose in the backyard for a dog theme), but I bent my own rules that year and organized a fishing game. I didn’t think it would entertain them for that long, but since I am not kidding about this being the easiest kid’s party game ever, I wasn’t worried.

That year I went even simpler than this example. The kids were really young so I literally threw a blanket over the back of a chair, and put the “fish” on the seat for me to clip on their little rods. This version was used for a Halloween party and it was a variation on bobbing for apples instead of fish.

I taped a picture of an apple barrel to the front of a cardboard box. If you are feeling really fancy you can cut out the back side of the box too, so that you aren’t reaching over the edge every time, but that absolutely isn’t necessary. In fact, neither is having a box at all! Feel free to use any kind of box or basket you have on hand. Just make sure that you place it high enough that the kids can’t see what you clip to their rods until they pull it up.

(I have always thought a puppet theatre would work well too, but have never had one to try it with.)

The only other supplies needed are your fishing rods and the cards they will catch. Any type of stick or craft dowel will do. You can have as few as two and the kids can take turns. Only one kid fishes at at time so a whole pile of them aren’t even necessary! Use any kind of string or yarn you have on hand to tie a clothespin or paperclip onto the end of their “line”. That’s it. The thing that really makes the game though are the cards.

In traditional versions of this, you usually catch prizes. This is why I didn’t think it would hold their attentions for long the first time I tried it. Instead of prizes I drew silly little picture cards of things you might catch in the ocean. There were an assortment of increasingly unlikely fish, sea monsters, a submarine, and an old boot.

One by one they threw their lines over to my side of the chair. I clipped a random picture onto their line, they pulled it up, giggled hysterically, gave it back, and then ran around to the back of the line to do it again.

And again. And again.

They kept at it until they wore me out entirely, and then demanded to take turns being on my side to pick what the other kids reeled in.

This year I pulled it out again for a group of mixed age kids, and the things they were catching were apples. I drew apples with silly faces and corny jokes, Halloween themed apples, magical apples, and pictures little kids would easily recognize like apple sauce.

Nothing more complicated than getting a random picture to laugh about with your friends, that you give right back, and I had a line up for almost 45 minutes. Ridiculously simple, but ridiculously difficult to explain what the point of your game is to other adults.

Give it a try sometime, I bet you could adapt it to almost any theme!

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