How did you get your start???

[fishcatcher]

My Dad always took me fishing on local lakes which are mostly gone or off limits to the public now. I remember going to Cherokee park early in the morning to catch night crawlers using flashlights. I also spent many a time with Dad hunting squirrel and rabbit hunting I still have his old vest. We would spend a lot of time on the banks since we never had a boat. My Mom would fish but never did like putting the bait on the hooks. But she sure could catch them and my Dad would then have to remove the fish. I remember one time I caught a fish and pulled it so hard that it came out of the water and almost hit my Mom in the head. I now try to take my nephews and niece's out. I also have a big bag of baits that whenever I meet someone who has a kid that is into fishing I give them some of the baits to help them along. I think if all of us took some of the baits that don't work for us and give them to the younger ones they will have fun and even catch fish. Just my way of thinking. I do tournaments and I have no problem showing the other person where or how I catch fish because it is all for fun for me. I never really got into the part where I had to win every time. I will even not fish a tournament if I want to just go catch some crappie or ride on the water. I have to credit this to my parents that you should do things like this for fun and share with others.

Nick

[BanditMan]

I grew up fishing in south elkhorn creek right behind the house. Man I was the red eye and log perch king ,so I thought. I had uncles that seemed to be on the water every time I would turn around. I finally wormed my way in the back of the boat. I can remember the first keeper LM I ever caught like it was yesterday. Standing in the back of the boat with BiggW and Rangermac, fishing across from the Hawgs back, throwing a purple Manns Augertail worm. Man what a feeling, And the addiction began I guess you could say.. Many Thanks for getting me hooked on fishing....

[ukfishin]

my grandfather is the reason i like to fish he took me almost every time he went. i was around seven yrs old we fished farm ponds and pay lakes. and i can still remember those bulls walking in the pond on a hot summer day to cool off would scare me to death. but it wasnt untill i met my wife before i found my true love for being on the water my mother and father n law had a lake house on lake of the ozarks in missouri and we went there every weekend one year and i found i could not get enough of it. ive been hooked every since. i hope to retire at a little place on the lake like that. i also feel the people around any lake are so layed back it makes you feel welcome. like your rite at home.

[Hewhofish]

Okay I may be a little bit more fresh on this as I'm only 16, but here goes my tale. When I was about 4 as a gift my mom bought me one of those little plastic poles with the fake big hook to catch those pretend plastic fish, it came to be that it was the only thing i would play with, and luckily my dad being thw wonderful man he is took me fishing with him and his friend. His friend worked for the Columbia gas company and he had found a farm pond that was loaded with fish. So we go and my dad puts a bobber and a real hook on my little pole and us 3 proceed to fill up an entire cooler with bluegill. I only caught 13 but my dad told me they were all the biggest. After that I began my obsession, watching in fisherman on Saturday mornings after cartoons and American Gladiators, and the bassmasters on Espn. Now me and my dad fish about evey weekend in the summer for bass, but we're just starting to get the real hang of lake fishing lol.

[LarryG]

My mom! took me and my brother on a city bus to a lake that was in the city limits of chicago. 50 years later she said she made a big mistake doing that.When I got my first bycyle, I fished that lake a lot, and since we lived near lake michigan, fished that also.In the years that have gone by, fihed in least 40 states, and three counties.On my fifth boat. Guess I'll never get to alaska, but who knows maybe one day one of those lottery tickets will come in!

[johnking82]

nick, how was last weekend. I see you managed to snag a decent largemouth. I am heading to KY Lake this friday for a weekend of fishing. I will tell the bass you say hi.

[fishcatcher]

nick, how was last weekend. I see you managed to snag a decent largemouth. I am heading to KY Lake this friday for a weekend of fishing. I will tell the bass you say hi.

John,
All I can say is it was COLD!!! And of course I became the guide again. My partner who is from In. fished for the first time in Ky. and took big fish and 3rd. Boy is hurts to be a good guide. I hope you have a great time on the twin lakes. I know they will be jumping into the boat this weekend with the weather being in the 70's.

Nick

[dcbasser]

I don't know Mhall, I believe fisherman are born with it in their blood. I started fishing when I was small don't remember the age but do remember sitting on the creekbanks of the Dix river catching smallies. From there it was wading creeks to farm ponds and finally the big lakes for the past 7 years. I don't believe that there is anything greater, there is just something about it that sooths the soul. I spend time with my children fishing in hopes that maybe they will get as much pleasure out of the sport as I have but with video games and computers seems that it is hard to pull them away. I hope to continue fishing as long as I am on this Earth and hope that when I meet my creater that he has a nice big lake where I can spend eternity enjoy what I love best with all of you other hardcore fisherman.

[Basswipe]

I don't know Mhall, I believe fisherman are born with it in their blood.

I agree with that completely. No one in my family fished or hunted, but I'd always wanted to do them from a young age. Can't explain it other than I was born with it.

[djh480]

Amen Dcbasser!!!!!

[vmky]

My mother got me into fishing or at least she was always the one to take me. I remember one day when I was about 8yrs. old, I didn't want to go to school so I pretended to be sick. After my 3 brothers were off to school my mom told me that it was to pretty a day to be sick and asked me if I would go fishing with her. She made me promise not to tell my other brothers where we went. Every year after that, my mom would call in to school for me about twice a year and we would spend the day fishing. I'll never forget her winking at me when my brothers would ask if I felt better that night.

[Chubminnow]

Onemorecast - May God Bless your mom...I'm sorry to hear the news.

Ok...where do I start? I was born in 61..anyway here goes:

To make a long story short it was my dad who molded me into this crazy fish-o-holic that I am today. Back in the day dad had a 16' jon-boat with a 33 Johnson Seahorse (pull start). I remember how hot the benches of the boat got after being beached on the bank of Waitsboro in the sun all day. I tried splashing water on them to help cool them down but the only remedy was a boat cushion or to just wait it out and find some shade somewhere, either that or just get use to it.

ALL of our family vacations were always spent at Lake Cumberland and never anywhere else. The main thing we did was fish...dad always wanted to fish, in fact he lived to fish. And to this day (he turns 80 this year) he still has on the living room wall a VERY NICE 7lb large mouth he caught near Conley Bottom in 1957. I remember fishing all night when it was cool/cold outside, so cold in fact that I could feel the warmth of having fog around us as it rolled in, the fog actually felt warm to me. I seriously remember catching lots of crappie and white bass (I "think" it was white bass, could have been hybrids...at any rate I remember being in Pitman or Beaver Creek and catching them in the jumps with white and or yellow in-line spinners called Shysters. We absolutely tore them up and this is no lie folks...we were catching them so quickly it was all we could do to get the fish off the hook as quickly as possible, throw the fish in the bottom of the boat so we could hurry up and get another one, no time for putting them on a stringer or in a basket we could do that later...The technique went like this: (cast out to the jumps...let the in-line spinner sink by counting to three and then reeling it in).

Dad had a camper that slid in the back of his truck...sometimes we had tents. I can also remember dad simply placing wooden stakes in the bed of his truck and draping old painters drop cloths over them to create a "home-made" sort of tent like structure. I also remember one time we had my uncle with us and he was camping in the spot next to our's...he didn't have a tent, a camper or anything like that, all he had was a sleeping bag layed on top of the picnic table. The park ranger stopped by and asked to see his permit, etc...the ranger thought my uncle was some sort of a dead beat or something. He was a "different breed' persay but he could flat out catch fish. I also remember just hanging out during the heat of the day and skipping rocks, waiting for the evening to arrive so we could go fishing.

While growing up there was a period if time that we DIDN'T go to the lake. My dad's brother drowned in Cumberland in the 60's and I think it took some of the wind out of my dad's sails so to speak (understandably so)...we eventully started going again though after I turned 7 or 8.

Fast forward to now...as I said, dad is 80 and he and mom will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this weekend. Dad and I went to the Louisville Boat Show together this year and while there we hooked up with Randel Gibson. I sent the check to Randel for the deposit, after he recieved it he gave me a call asking what we'd like to fish for and where'd we like to fish, etc. I explained my dad's situation to him (dad has been on dialysis for a little over a year now and has slowed down considerably, most noticeably during the past two or three months). Anyway, I told Randel all I wanted was to put dad on some good quality fish. So, the agreement is this. Randel says wait till the week of our trip and we'll either hit Dale, Lake Cumberland or Cumberland River or a combination of the three, we have two full days scheduled during the middle of the week in late April, so hopefully I'll be able to see dad hook into a nice one.

This has been a great thread and I've enjoyed reading each and every post. While my post is a little winded I will end it by saying: "Thanks Dad!"