How did you get your start???

[mhall]

How and when did you get your start in fishing? What influence and by whom got you to do our great sport? For me it was my parents and specifically my Mom in fishing as she loves to fish. My Dad liked to fish but I got more of the hunting side from him. Camping and the love for the outdoors came from both. Started fishing when I was very young, and hunting when I was 9 years old. Cutting my teeth on Guist Creek lake as we camped for 17 years I mainly fished with guys from their 40's on up to early 60's. They nicknamed me the mayor of Guist Creek as I always had a standing fishing offer to go out with one of the older fellows the next day, LOL. Started in a 10' john with a trolling motor and when I was 15 got a 16' Terry Bass boat with a 65 horse Rude on the back. Foot control trolling motor, Lowrance depth flasher, man was I living large. Thanks Mom and Dad, it's a gift that really can't be repaid in words.

[RoadToad]

My first fishing memories are of trout fishing with my Dad in Newark, Delaware. Some great memories there! Then later on, I discovered saltwater fishing (it was Delaware, after all), and in my 20's and 30's, that's about all the fishing I did. In fact, when I caught my first trout at Miles Park last fall, that was my first one in over 30 years. It was only maybe a 10-inch trout, but looking at that fish brought back such a flood of memories, I swear I almost cried when I caught it. You're right, a gift like that isn't one you can repay, you can only pass it along.

[djh480]

Mine is almost like yours mhall. Except my dad and grandfather started me as far back as I can remember. I had to dig alot of greenworms for my grandfather though. Alot of the fishin was done on the Ky River down at High Bridge. The lock master used to rent row boats out there at the dam. Lock 7. Right where Frank Daughtery's ramp is was one of the best places to dig green worms, so we stopped there on the way to the locks to dig em. Then a buddy and me got introduced to bass fishin by some older man that used to come up to the dam and fish from down river. It seemed like you could catch all the largemouth ya wanted on a number 6 solid black Bomber crankbait. And the white bass every spring at the dam was unlimited in what you could catch. Just throw out a big white dollfly in that swift water and try and keep your line tight and boom it was on. **** those were the days. Wish it was still like that. I still love fishin to this day as my father did up until he passed. I still think of him every fishin trip I go on. We stayed on Herrington in the spring for 2 weeks during the white bass run and that was truly an experience that I will always remember. Thanks to my whole family for my fishin addiction.

[onemorecast56]

Boy Mhall, hit a real sweet memory for me. I started fishing when I was 3, going to Iron River Wi. for vacation every year. Mt Dad and mom both loved to fish. Started out flyfishing with them at 8yrs old. Most the time there wasn`t nothing but flyrods in the boat. Dad always took me fishing with him. Now heres the killer!. I loved to fish with my mom, she a ole country girl, raised on a farm. My best memorys are of my mom and I going out fishing alone,just me and her. We had little fishing contests catching rockbass in Ely.
So as my mom is laying in the hospital dieing right now at the age of 87, I`d love to take her fishin onemore time. I`m going to miss her so deeply.I sure hope there`s a lake in heaven. Thanks Mhall

[mhall]

Boy Mhall, hit a real sweet memory for me. I started fishing when I was 3, going to Iron River Wi. for vacation every year. Mt Dad and mom both loved to fish. Started out flyfishing with them at 8yrs old. Most the time there wasn`t nothing but flyrods in the boat. Dad always took me fishing with him. Now heres the killer!. I loved to fish with my mom, she a ole country girl, raised on a farm. My best memorys are of my mom and I going out fishing alone,just me and her. We had little fishing contests catching rockbass in Ely.
So as my mom is laying in the hospital dieing right now at the age of 87, I`d love to take her fishin onemore time. I`m going to miss her so deeply.I sure hope there`s a lake in heaven. Thanks Mhall

Godbless your Mom Doug. My Dad is gone now but my Mom is still around, and yes I just know there is fishing in heaven, there just has to be...

[know1]

I don't remember ever NOT fishing. I come from a family in Minnesota where EVERYONE fishes - both the family and the state! My grandparents had a cabin on a lake in Northern Wisconsin and we went there most weekends and for summer vacations. In the winter, we iced fished. At some point, my Dad bought an aluminum fishing boat and then he and I would go out most weekends closer to home as well. We mostly fished crappie. My grandfather always tells a story of taking me out in the boat when I was very young 4-5 and that he never saw a kid who would sit out there and concentrate for so long without saying a word.

We moved to KY at some point and I got away from fishing because it just wasn't like what it was in Minnesota. In the past 5 years or so, I've gotten back into it and have discovered the fishing can be pretty good around here as well.

[SuperSprint007]

well, was raised on a farm, no not in a barn..... so neither parent fished much but I was working summers on another farm for car money and they had a very nice pond on it i would fish from time to time..... nothing big just killing time more than anything.
What got me hooked...:} was when one saturday I watch Bill Dance catching some on a crankbait on TV, I went into wally world and saw the same bait, a Fat A, bought it and while waiting for all my friends that night went out to the pond and threw it some only to catch a 6.5 lb... never seen something so big to tell the truth was not even sure it was a bass... can't get enough of it ever since.

[Tim_T]

Most people in my family fish. Both grandfathers were avid fisherman, one was into bass and the other would sit and fish livebait for hours. Fished with both of them growing up, both gone now. One grandfather had a camp on Rough in the McDaniels area, so most of my early fishing was done there. Even have a cousin who has fished B.A.S.S. and FLW as a pro. The boat that onemorecast is helping me restore belonged to my grandfather and has a lot of sentimental value.

[Danny]

Great thread!!!

I began fishing the Ohio River with my Mom and Dad. Dad and his brother had built a flat bottom house boat, named the "Jolly Folly" and we spent like every weekend on the river. We would anchor and fish all night, then pull up on an island and mom would make pancakes. The absolute best memories. Later when dad and his brother had a falling out, we lost the use of the boat, but they got a little cabin down on the Ohio river and that was amazingly fun.

Then when I was 15, my brother-in-law and I found a wooden jon boat that was pretty rotten. We rebuilt the boat, and began fishing some of the little lakes around. This was really my first exposure to artificial lure fishing. Then I got married to a woman who was not a fishing person... big mistake...LOL.

Then back in about '95 or '96 I got introduced into bass fishing. Actually it must have been '94, because I bought a bass boat in '95. I was introduced to it because my boss told me to hire a guide and take one of my customers fishing.... dang the luck....LOL And not only were the fish hooked that day, but I too was hooked.... bigggggggg time.

Had some family health problems in the late 90's and had to sell my first bass boat, and as soon as I could afford a new one, 2002, I got it.

I love the fishing... more than I can put into words, but my health really has hampered my fishing. I hope every year that I will be feeling better and be fishing more.

Danny

[twoshort]

my dad is gone now but after reading these i feel like i have to say DAD THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.

[johnking82]

Lived with my dad growing up right off the Illinois River. Both my parents loved to fish and I have them both to play for all of my bass pro shop bills. I caught the bass fishing bug when my dad remarried and my step-mom father had 2 strip pit lakes and 7 strip pit ponds in Central Illinois. What really hooked me was when ESPN had the good Bassmaster fishing shows, Bill Dance, and Jimmy Houston shows. Like most, I have my dad to blame for my fishing bug. He sticks to panfish, but whenever we get in a boat together he challenges me to a fish off. Words can't explain the patience he had when getting out all of those swallowed hooks in bluegill and me coming home with baskets of fish for HIM to clean.

[Bonefish]

My father started taking me fishing at an early age. I was born on the banks of Dix River so fishing came easy for us. We fished the small streams in those days with great results. Dix River sixty years ago had sixty to seventy pound flatheads and lots of white perch and white bass. Now, with the pollution, those days are gone. Hanging Fork had three to four pound smallmouth which we caught at night on full moon on top water baits. We would wade the streams and cast or take the boat made from two 1936 chev car hoods. Spogging and banks poles were big in those days because people fished for food. As years went by, new technology kicked in and now look at us.