I'm like a lot of other guys here in that I don't remember at what time in my life that I became "hooked" on fishing. All I know is that I've been going to the lake since I was born, maybe even since before I was born actually, if that makes any sense. Growing up all we ever did for a family vacation was go to Lake Cumberland...I remember way back in the day when Kings Island first opened and all my friends in school were talking about going to Kings Island, etc...heck my dad even had family that lived in Ohio, but he wasn't having any of it. Nope, we were going to the lake for our vacation...each and every year, no matter what, no matter who wanted to go or didn't want to go, we were going to Lake Cumberland.

I also remember plenty of "guys only" fishing trips when I went with dad too. Sometimes it was just me and him while there were other times it was me, dad, my dad's uncle (who could flat out put a hurtin' on any species of fish by several different methods, trot lines, you name it), and uncles two sons (my cousins). On a few trips I remember leaving from home right after dad got off work from working second shift. He was supposed to come home and wake me up, but I never could sleep when I knew in a few hours I would be riding down the road in dad's 1960's model Dodge truck with our 16' jon-boat trailering behind. So as soon as he got home from work around 12:30 am or so, I was usually ready to go, hands in my pockets, asking him what we needed, are we forgetting anything, what do you want me to do, etc...and away we would go into the night. I didn't have a good sense of time back then it seems for it always seemed to take forever to get there. I'd usually fall asleep along the way. Sometimes waking up when the truck came to a stop at some small town red light. On these trips we would always arrive before day break and I remember parking along the side of the road, actually right in the parking lot of a bait shop called Chubminnow Farm (no lie and hence the reason behind my screen name, lol). Dad new the owner’s of the place quite well. The guy who owned the place was a commercial fisherman on Lake Cumberland and that’s who dad bought the jon-boat from. It had a Holsclaw trailer and a 33 Johnson Sea-Horse tiller style motor, I swear that thing could have pulled a skier, lol.

Other things I remember was catching crappie at Lake Cumberland…we would just find a cove with debris, motor up in the thickness of it all, drop our minnows over and catch the heck out of them. I remember “keeping score” too…I’d ask Dad if he wanted to be the Pirates or the Reds (my two favorite teams) and I’d pretend that each fish was a homerun, etc…kind of goofy I guess but what the heck.

I remember white bass and/or hybrid stripers in the jumps too…man talk about fish catching action…we caught so many fish when they were in the jumps that we didn’t even take the time to put them on the stringer, just take the fish off, throw it in the boat and cast the Shyster back out.

My own personal tackle back then consisted of a small flip open hammered aluminum tackle box with two shelves. Inside the tackle box was some of dad’s “older stuff” mixed up with some bobbers, packets of Eagle Claw snelled hooks and some sinkers, along with a few Shysters of course. My rod and reel consisted of the old Zebco 33 and the flimsiest fiberglass rod you guys have ever seen, but I learned to cast those Shysters a country mile on that rig. Eventually I moved up to a Mitchell 300 spinning outfit.

Like one other guy here mentioned, somewhere along the way fishing escaped me for awhile when I was a teen, but it came back to me before I hit twenty and I was still using the old leaky but ever faithful 16’ jon-boat with the 33 horse Johnson. My towing vehicle then was a 1970 Chevy Van, old school style with the flat front end. Then I got married and continued my love of fishing and then I got divorced and once again, fishing escaped me for a few years. Now I’m remarried for almost eleven years now and that old jon-boat is long gone now, but I just have a feeling in my bones that fishing is here to stay with me for the rest of my time on earth as long as God is willing and my health and income allows.

But to get back to Elwood’s original question about when we got hooked, my answer is I have no idea. Nice thread Elwood and nice having you back on the board!