Workflow with different symbols

I'm trying to animate a web banner, where my character, a fisherman, is just bouncing a little with the tide - until a fish bites. I realize I can make him into a Movie Clip symbol to achieve this effect - but how can I make the movie clip stop? Do I end that instance of that symbol and insert a Graphic Symbol version of the fisherman?

Also, I drew his body and limbs as different Objects on individual layers and Parented them - when I converted all the layers into the Symbol, I lost that parenting. Should I have waited to Parent the layers after converting to a symbol?