What got you hooked??

[elnutsmalljaws]

For the first day in over a month I feel a bit like a human being again and thought I would type a bit. Pretty much I am trying to get better and if weight loss is any inclination of the problems I am having get this, August 21 I went into surgery weighing 362, August 29 released from the hospital weighing 388, this morning I weighed 335. Lost 53 pounds in 25 days, heck of a weight loss plan that I don't reccommend to anyone but maybe, just maybe I will get better and not see a hospital for a while.

What got you hooked on your favorite fish or kind of fishing?

My favorite is Smallmouth and favorite way to catch them is FNF. I bought my first boat brand new out of the showroom in late spring 2003 and did not get it until the end of May. My brother in law Rob took me out in it a couple of times at Guist Creek for me to learn and then we take a night trip to Cumberland in Mid June. We launch at Holcombs around 10pm in search of Smallies and some topwater Stripers as well, both my first trip for either. Rob had talked to me the entire way down as to how to work the jigs off the banks and what we would be doing for I was a ROOKIE in every since of the way. We get down around Pig Pen wall, which is a whole different story in itself, and Rob is up front and I am in the back because I still can't work the trolling motor very well. He makes a cast standing next to me and shows me what to do for a few seconds then reels it in. I make a cast with my new everything, new rod, reel, line, 1/8 oz Black and Blue bitsy bug jig with zoom trailer and before he can get up into his seat I set the hook. My blue Stren line is running everywhere, the fish jumps a couple of times and Rob is down in the middle with my new net just waiting to bring the big girl aboard. Drag is not stripping because I had not set my drag and she got close one more time and made a jump that I will go to my grave still remembering. I was sitting on my back seat and watched the fish jump high enough that Rob was bent over at the waist ready to net it and he looked up at the fish. She hit the water made a bull run to the bottom and broke me off. Rob said it was a 20 incher for sure, to me at that time meant nothing, but he said it was a sure trophy. My first Smallie ever and the one that hooked me on this species for LIFE.

December 4th 2004, John Davis picks me up at Wisdom Boat Ramp for my first FNF / Silver Buddy guide trip on Dale Hollow. I had just arrived the night before and fished for a couple of hours and caught a small Bronze back and a KY on jigs just before dark but this was my first experience on Dale Hollow. John picked me up on a perfect overcast, cloudy, rainy morning and off to Float the Fly we go. I had tried to cast the fly several times at Cumberland on some Striper trips before but pretty much 2 out of 10 would I ever get it to the other side of the boat. John stops at a spot outside Illwill and he shows me how to cast which I pick up pretty fast and John boats a couple on the fly and off we went. My first on the fly came outside Willow Grove fishing a grass line and then a few more as John ran that Triton all over the lake. Knowing what I know now about Dale Hollow he must have ran 30 miles or more that day showing me the lake, grass beds, rock, black shale and other parts of the lake. Around noon he hands me one of his spinning reels with a 1/2 oz Silver Buddy and we pull up onto this flat in about 30 feet of water and he tells he how to fish the Buddy. We are both making cast and then it happens. I set the hook on a MONSTER Smallie. After one of the best fights ever I land one that is easily 5+. We never measured it but for those of you that have stayed in Johns Cabins and have seen that book with all his pictures in it, I am in it. Look for the Biggest Guy in the book with the ugliest Blue Rainsuit on holding a MONSTER. It really is one of my biggest ever that was most likely pushing 6 but we never measured it and I was way too excited to know better. John Davis taught me a tremendous amount about Dale Hollow that day and in the years since. I know we had our differences that are all in the past but I will never be able to thank him enough for teaching me what he did that day. I think I landed 6 on the fly that day and that one on the buddy and have been hooked to winter time FNF fishing ever since. That night Rob comes down to join me to finish out the week and the next morning on the FIRST cast I land a 4-9 all on video tape as Rob is all about the video. He got everything from the cast to the net job and that continued my fascination of FNF smallmouth fishing in the winter at Dale Hollow. If I am ever so lucky enough to get better and see Dale Hollow again you can rest assured that I will cherish every minute on that water for the rest of my life. Smallmouth and winter time FNF fishing is my favorite as you now know. What got you hooked?

[rustedhook]

I really don't know what got me hooked. I was lucky enough to have a dad that hunted and fished. It's just something that gets in your blood. As Bill Dance says, "I just love to trick em".

As long as I have been fishing I have never seen Dale Hollow. I used to fish Cumberland alot in the winter for smallmouth but just don't like the long drive and fishing by my self in the winter.

A Dale story: My dad and his cousin were at Dale one night eons ago back when people sculed their boats. They had already caught a few when my dad told his cousin to scul him up to this point because he said he was going to catch the next world record smallmouth. Dad said he made a cast up on the point and was working a black Jacks Dual Spinner when the fish hit. He said this fish was thumping hard. As the fish got closer to the boat they could hear it splash and he just knew he had her. He had her alright, it was a 15lb white perch.

Get well soon because winter is coming.

rustedhook

[mhall]

I have fished since I was old enough to walk, hunted to. When I was a pup in Oldham county growing up if you didn't hunt and fish you were just weird and hey I didn't want to be weird plus that's all a kid had to do anyway. We had a camp and camping trailer on Guist Creek lake and would go there every weekend for seventeen years, through the 70's and some 80,s. I got me a 10' jonboat at a very young age and rigged it up with Dad's help with a trolling motor and man I thought I was the stuff. I put the trolling motor up front on the bow and rigged a long chord to the back of the boat
where the battery was to help level out the boat. My first bass boat was a 16' Terry bassboat with a 60 horse Rude on the back. I was 15 at the time and we just kept it tied up at our dock at Guist through most of the year. I had a boat before I had a car, Dad give me my choice on what he would help me pay for and I chose the boat. Eventually girls came into the seen, Oh my I shoulda kept fishing more, lol. The boat made me feel like a was the king of the world. I will never forget my parents making me an outdoorsmen as it was the greatest gift they could have ever gave me. I will always remember the times at Guist Creek when I was a young boy and how I looked forward to going every Friday night. Sometimes I go up there and just walk around by myself and think about my Dad, brother and sister as they are all gone now. My mother is still living and she would sit on that dock for hours catching bluegill throwing them in a basket for us to clean later. She would fuss at me for cleaning them gills on our cleaning table and eating a bologna sandwich at the same time. Heck a few scales and slime never hurt nobody.I like to fish period Woody, my favorite fish that swims is like you them ole brown bass, but I like to catch them all. Thanks for this post as it made me think of alot of good ole times.I need to take my Mom gill fishing. Take care Woodman I'm glad you are feeling better.

[Cobra190]

Glad you're feeling better Elnut.
I can't say I'm hooked entirely on one species of fish. I am basically hooked on fishing itself. Growing up I spent alot of time on Herrington with my father and a cousin, (now both deceased.) either trolling with white or yellow shysters, or dead lining off of Bryant's Camp Marina for white bass. Spent quite a few cold winter days at Norman's Camp(I Think), catching bluegill off the hanging cedars inside the fish houses.
Fished several years in a small bass club, which I thought was great, and a couple bigger open tournaments that I did not care for. But I like to fish. As my wife refers to it as a sickness, I like to be on any body of water and see what I can catch on what.
Give me any amount of time on any amount of water, fish or no fish, I'm just as happy. I have had my share of good fish over the years and that's just a great reward. I can leave the water at the end of the day withoput a bite and be just as happy for being there.

[know1]

I don't remember ever not being hooked on fishing. Growing up in Minnesota, I'm not sure I knew anyone who didn't fish. I'm sure my Dad and grandfather had a ton to do with it. I remember going fishing with Dad every weekend in the summer and some weekends through the ice in the winter. I had a subscription to In-Fisherman by the 4th grade.

When we moved to KY, I kind of got away from fishing for about 10 years. The fishing is good here, but it's not the same as Minnesota and it was enough different that I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't know much, but I'm slowly getting better.

Currently, my favorite type of fishing if FnF for Smallmouth. I got hooked on it 2 years ago when the first smallmouth I caught on it was 22". I went about 10 times last year and plan on going every weekend I can this year providing my brother doesn't decide to sell his boat and I can find someone to go with the weekends that he or Dad can't.

I've been daydreaming about it ever since March and I'm hoping to goodness he keeps that boat. I'll bet it's difficult to throw FnF out of a kayak, but I might have to try if I don't have another way to go.

[Fishin is life]

I grew up without a family member that absolutely loved to fish that I knew of. My mom would take me from time to time when i was a kid and I would walk to the local small lake. I taught myself everything I knew about bass fishing from tying a knot to how to throw a baitcaster. Now I'm 25 and fishing tournaments every chance I get. There was never one moment that "hooked" me on bass fishing, guess it was just the challenge and serenity it provided to me.


Now that I'm older and look back at old family photo albums, I see pictures of my grandfather who I never met holding stringers and stringers of bass.
He was the first to put a gas motor on Green River Lake. I look back at these pictures and see him holding 7 and 8 pounders like they were nothing. Anybody who says that fishing isn't in your blood is crazy. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a piece of him passed down to me.

[thebassman30]

I've really enjoyed this thread Elwood. Good stuff!

Great stories guys!!
M

[wishniwasfishn]

I too was lucky enough to have a Father that loved to fish, grew up on the Potomac River in Virginia, and was fishing with him as soon as I could walk. One of my parents favorite stories was that when I was all of three, I knew my Dad, and Uncle were going out to the Cheaspeake Bay in the morning, and apparently I was not invited, to rough, not old enough, so after everyone went to sleep, I snuck out to the boat with my binky, crawed up into the front of the boat and fell asleep. Next morning I woke up being trailered to the ramp, when we got there apparently I jumped up and said surprise, which they were very, had to go back to the house to let my Mom know I was with them, got chum, and got to go fishing with them. They told that story all the time, to all that would listen, but apparently thats when my bug started. If you are reading this and your lucky enough to have Parents that are still alive, call them, thank them for teaching you the love of the outdoors, and tell them you love them, mine are both dead, and writing this really makes me miss them terribly, and I wish I could go fishing with them one more time. Peace

[biggw]

uumm-- It may have been that Cane Pole with a piece of line and the hook that had a fish on it .--lol Guess i was around 7 yrs old

[chasmo]

I was about 7 years old and my father and I went to Ike's pool at Stoner with my cousin, who had a bass boat. I was excited since I finally got to go with "the big boys". After going upstream what seemed to be forever we stopped and I picked up my Mitchell 300 and flimsy fiberglass rod and picked out a Big-O that was chartreuse with an orange belly and had silver glitter across its back. After dad tied it on, he told me to cast it to the bank so I made my first cast to a bare mud bank. The lure hit the water about 4 inches from the bank. I then asked dad what to do. By that time, I hadn't noticed the swirl and the lure was running to the middle of the creek. He said, "reel, you've got one". After a long battle and many jumps (probably about 10 seconds and two jumps, but to my mind it took forever) my dad netted a 15 inch largemouth into the boat while my cousin laughed his a** off!! To this day, I don't know who was more proud, me or my father!! We fished the remainder of the day and didn't catch another fish and they had to pry me out of the boat as it got dark. I then learned the best lesson of my life when they made me reach into the livewell and release the bass back into the creek. At that time, I didn't understand why we let it go and the image of that fish swimming away down the ramp into the deep water is forever etched in my memory.

[Tim_T]

I cannot ever remember not fishing. Grew up practically in the water. Dad and both grandpas loved to fish. One granfather had a lot on the upper end of Rough around Everleigh and we would spend weeks there at a time while dad was on shut down from Ford. My other grandfather lived on the outskirts of Scottsburgh Indiana and had a farm with a small pond on it and also a pretty good sized creek running through it. Porbably been fishing for 40-years and I am only 41.

[jgevedon]

First off, great thread. I've really enjoyed hearing everyone's stories. I started fishing with my grandpa at about age 5 in the Licking River for drum but really just anything that would bite. My dad was always a big horseman and didn't really have the patience for fishing. That was perfectly ok though because I loved spending time with grandpa. I remember getting up long before daylight digging red worms for the day and us just talking about which stretch of river we were gonna try that day and what everybody had been catching. The patience that my papaw had was something that I look back on now with great joy as he would never get discouraged or upset if they weren't biting. Whether it be a day that we caught more than we could carry or a day when the bites were few he kept the same joyful attitude and that's something that I try to continually apply to my life. I attribute any success I've had fishing in my life to the example he set so long ago about enjoying God's artistry and just having fun with one another. As I grew older I started to develope a greater interest in bass fishing. A local friend of the family was a avid bass fisherman and he took me under his wing and taught me so much about the sport before he passed away from cancer several years ago. I will always remember at age 14 I fished my first tournament with him. That day I learned that there was more that went into fishing than just casting and reeling. At the end of a long day we had caught nothing as it was a COLD march day on Cave Run. The last stop before weigh in I was pretty down about the day and thought it was over when he pulls up at the mouth of a cove and points in a direction for me to cast and says there should be a good one laying right out there. After looking in that direction I see absolutely nothing to cast at but go ahead and cast that direction out into the lake. He says ok now just ease it over that log that you feel down there and when it falls over the other side you should get bit. Well the rest of the story is that there was one fish weighed in that tourney and it was a 15 1/2 incher that I will never forget. God Bless you all and have a great day.