How did you get started fishing?

[allingeneral]

My dad used to take me to Lake Shelbyville, near where I grew up in Illinois and we would catch white bass by the dozens. White bass are similar to stripers, but they are much smaller. A 2 pound white bass is a good sized fish for that species. They live in freshwater lakes and prefer to hang on the drop-off from a point.

Anyway, we would troll around the lake for hours...then we'd go home and I'd stand around watching dad with his magic fillet knife...it really seemed magical back then...not so magical when I catch a couple dozen catfish and have to spend an hour+ cleaning them!

It's all worth it though...I plan to follow Dad's tradition and have a big fish fry this summer so I can get rid of all the fish I caught!

[in2fishin]

My friends and I used to pack our gear into backpacks, jump on our bicycles and ride down to the local riverbank just to hang out and try to catch a fish or two. Being kids, we didn't spend a lot of time fishing. Instead, we spent most of our time running through the woods, looking for interesting things to do. One day, we actually sat down on the bank and spent most of the afternoon with our lines in the water. We had gotten some nightcrawlers and had hoped to catch *something*! Our normal catch were small catfish around the old trees laying in the water. So, we were fishing around the trees and next thing we knew, my fishing pole nearly jumped off of the bank! I grabbed it just before it went ker-plunk in the water and spent the next 30 minutes reeling and fighting to see what was at the end of my line. I finally got it up to the bank and it was a catfish the likes of which I had never seen! I swear it must have been 4 feet long! Well, looking back, I know it wasn't quite that big, but as a kid it looked HUGE! That was the day that I caught the fever. I was HOOKED! I spent every day that I could for the rest of the summer going to that spot, hoping to catch more monster catfish, but it was pretty much the same old small ones. Every once in awhile we would catch what I would call a "keeper" today, but they were few and far between. Still though, all it took was that one monster and I have been a self proclaimed fisherman ever since!

[RACN35]

A picture tells a 1000 words right.......I had to go back to my introduction as well: THIS IS HOW I GOT STARTED FISH'N......

[allingeneral]

oh...something else...my son has that exact same fishing set. He uses it in the bath tub.

[troutfisher]

My grandpa first hooked me.

[Mike G]

Great pic RACN35!

Personally, I was on a camping trip when I was about 7-8 years old and someone gave me a cane pole to use. I caught a 6" bluegill, put it in a bucket to show it off and was hooked (no pun intended) ever since.