You can catch "small fish" in just about any clear canal. By clear I mean that is not full of vegetation We have fished by the meadows trading post and the canal that is behind the 1500-1900 loops where the pet walk is. If you just want to catch anything for kids it is more important that you use the smallest hook you can find. What you user for bait really does not matter as long as you can put a small enough piece on your hook so it will fit in the fishes mouth. We have used bread, bacon, hot dogs, even worms and crickets. I took my DD (8 at the time) over to the cannel fishing with a cane pole rigged with a very small brim hook with bread for bait. I chummed the water a little by throwing in very small pieces of bread until I had a small feeding frenzy going on. She was catching fish as fast as she could put a hook in the water.
There were a couple of brothers fishing a ways down from us (about 9 and 12) that was catching nothing. The more she caught, the closer they got, until finally they were putting their bobbers in right beside hers and she still caught fish and they were just coming up with empty hooks.
I finally told them their hooks were to big to catch the little fish she was catching and I put some small hooks on their line and they all had a blast. Another good tip is to mash the barb on the hook down flat. All fishing is catch and release and no barb makes the fish come off very easy and you are much less likely to kill the fish. You may loose a few but it will teach the kids to use good technique and to pay attention when they are fishing.
