As mentioned – took the boys out to a few lakes. Didn’t drag the boat along, so we fished a few out of the way lakes that a friend from the Mauston area knows about. Fishing was poor on all but one, which was more like a pond, but had a floating dock you could park near and cast from.
Here the bass were undersized, and over-eager. 
Perfect to get the confidence going for the kids. We fished topwater baits as planned, along with some plastics mid-day, but the topwater baits were a hit as I knew they would be. There’s nothing better than seeing your children become better at casting, retrieving, handling fish, etc. right before your eyes. After an outing or two, their casting accuracy was pretty impressive for a 7 and 4 year old. There were still some tangles and several un-intended hookups (pic), but overall was a great experience. Even got out to Carr Valley Cheese and saw them making cheese curds. Got the full-on Wisconsin in one trip!
Thanks for the input here – frog patterned anything worked well on the surface. A frog colored skitter pop took the biggest fish, and even the old snag-proof frogs made an appearance. At least two of the bass coughed up frogs, which were deafening all around the lakes we fished. One of them was a green frog, which if you’ve seen one, is massive. For a 2lb bass to ingest this thing, well…it must’ve been work. Fun all around, and quite a bit of learning for boys and dad.
Joel
