how did you get started fishing

[roadrunner]

I lived on a farm in southern Illinois. My dad was a dentist but he had a large farm and raised cattle when I was young. He also had two D7 caterpillars we had four ponds on our farm we did not let the cattle in the ponds but used them to fill water tanks. This became my job to fill all the water tanks about every other day. I would take a cane pole and fish while I was letting the tanks fill. One of the ponds was right behind our house and dad would let almost anyone fish this pond. We had gentlemen who fished the pond and he had a tackle box with a lot of lures and nice fishing rods and reels for that time. I was about seven and I would go out to watch him fish and would always go through his tackle box to see all the new lures. Well I finally bought me a rod and reel a few lures and tried bass fishing. This man gave me a jitterbug, I was fishing it from the pond dam late one evening not doing any good there were cattails on the other bank so I threw the jitterbug in the water and walked to the other side when I turned the corner to go to the cat tails the jitterbug cut the corner and about a two pound bass hammered it. I did not reel the fish in I just backed up the bank and drug that bass up on the bank. I will never forget that moment it was the first my firs bass and I have not been right since then. I still have fond memories of the gentleman with the nice tackle box. I spent a lot of time drooling over his shiny lures and he gave me several lures. This was about fifty seven years ago great memories and great post.

Thanks

[crappiepappy]

It's all HIS fault > http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...randfather.jpg

I was "taken" fishing, long before I could even grasp the idea of what was going on. Grew up in a family that loved to fish. Lived with my grandparents from about age 10 til I got back home from Military Service. The gentleman in the above picture is my Grandfather, and he & my Grandmother took me most everytime they went. Mostly it was fishing for Crappie, but we did fish alot for White Bass (Spring Run & jumps @ Herrington). My boyhood buddy & I got going on Bass fishing, about the time we were old enough to drive. I followed thru with mostly Bass fishing, with the occasional Crappie fishing trip, until I was in my 30's. Then I flip-flopped back to mostly Crappie fishing, with the occasional Bass trip. Been pretty much a Crappie angler since then ... but, still fish for other species, now & again. Don't really have to target any other specific specie of fish ... since I seem to catch most of them anyway, when I'm Crappie fishing ... LOL !!
Most of the Crappie I catch, end up eaten (either by me, family, or friends) ... everything else is C&R.
Some of the more memorable "accidental" catches (when Crappie fishing) are :
12lb Tiger Muskie - GRL - mounted on wall
6lb LMB - Watts Bar Lake - released
4lb SMB (several) - Watts Bar Lake - released
(all caught on UL equipment & 4lb mono)

... Pappy

[know1]

Being from Minnesota originally, I do not ever remember a time of not fishing.

My Grandparents had a cabin on a lake in Wisconsin and we'd go there every year for a week, plus other weekends when my parents could get away.

My Dad, Grandfather and all my relatives fished and it just seems like something I've always done and enjoyed.

[smljaw]

My mom has an old photo of me when I was about 3 or 4 yrs old. I'm holding a stick with a rope tied to it and I'm sticking the end of the rope in a small puddle of water. She tells me that I took an interest in fishing at that age but she has no idea why. I do have memories of my dad taking me a time or two when I was a youngster.

I grew up in Northern California. When I was 7-8 yrs old I would take a block of yellow cheese to the local creek and catch gills. At 9-10 I started experimenting with soft plastics. I still remember the night I started catching bass on Mann's Jelly Worms. I remember "getting it." Understanding what it felt like when a bass sucked that worm up and setting the hook!... At 11-12 I learned to throw a baitcaster and it was all over from there. I was hooked! At this time of my life my step father and I often fished a large farm pond in CA we called "Jim's." It was full of good bass up to 6 pounds or so. We were fishing Jim's one morning and I walked up to a grassy area throwing a Super Frog (I forget who made it... ???). I made a cast up the bank and started hopping it back. A bass blew up on it and knocked it out of the water. My heart stopped and I froze. The frog came back to rest on the surface. I moved it one more time and the fish inhaled it. Ended up being my first 2 pounder and biggest bass to that point in my life. Have been ate up with bass fishin' ever since!

[AndyG]

I was in highschool before I ever did much fishing. My preacher took me wading in the river back in Harlan. We were fishing hellgramites for smallmouth. I remember being scared to touch those mean looking things. I got hooked and fished nearly everyday that summer. I believe I was 17. For the next four years I pretty much just creek fished in Harlan, then Elkorn around Lexington when I lived there. I was 21 when I got hooked on big largemouth. I read an article about a guy in florida who had caught hundreds over 10lbs. I decided I wanted to do that, since then its all Ive thought about. Now I believe its border line mental illness.

[publican57]

I fished with my uncle when young. He liked catfishing and his ideal of fishing was tossing a hook and worms and waiting all day for something to bite. Boring. I liked going with him and we used to go to the wickets (Falls of the Ohio). Me and my brother had more fun exploring than fishing.

I took it up again about six years ago when I met my now best fishing buddy. It was something I decided to try because I like the guy. He hunted and fished. I was never going to hunt (nothing against hunters or hunting, just not something I can do). Anyway we fished a few times and I fish as much as he does, if not more.

I must say, if my uncle would have been a bass fisherman, and I knew that you could fish by casting and reeling back to you as much as sitting and waiting, I may have stayed with it. Oh well, then I may have missed good times playing tennis, volleyball, biking and softball. It is what it is. I am having fun with it now.

[smljaw]

Laughing out loud at Andy saying, "Now I believe it's border line mental illness." On one hand that's funny. Uhhhhh, on the other hand, I can completely relate.

[aceoky]

I as a bit shy of 18 Months old and in a suit just coming back from a funeral, my uncle took me to my grandfather's farm pond and I hooked a fish and not knowing any better went IN after it I'm told that wasn't the first time fishing, granddad had taken me prior but I actually remember that trip!

Been fishing ever since (but did learn to bring the fish in to me not to go in after them)

[joeyblueblood]

my dad and me on the bank of levisa fork, cane poles and nightcrawlers. i caught a "monster" catfish and we came home and put it in the bathtub. my mother didn't take kindly to that idea when she got home