When Did You Start?

[JellyMan]

Probably around 7 years old. Lake across the street from me.

[Bluebasser86]

My parents have a picture of me in diapers sitting on the bank holding a fishing pole the week before I turned 1. We mainly fished for catfish and crappie because money was really short so catching fish we could eat helped my parents stretch money a little further. Started fishing for bass when we moved to KC when I was 13 and got much more serious when I bought my first 2 man when I was 14.

[Hawghead]

Since before I could remember.  I have 4 older brothers and my dad took us all hunting and fishing all the time.  He couldnt afford any hobbies besides fishing.  We all had second hand gear and had a blast with it.  We fished for everything.  Usually the days started with bass fishing, but by the end of the trip we would be catfishing and going after just about anything.  

 

Spend a lot of time on the Mississippi north of St. Louis fishing.

 

My brothers were always draggin me along on their various adventures. I got to do and see a lot of cool stuff as a kid.  We all still fish together to this day.  

[Lil'skeeter]

My mom and dad separated when I was two but i got to spend the summers with my dad. My granddad owned a small bait shop in a small town in Louisiana and my dad would take me bream fishing as far back as I can remember. I started bass fishing seriously at 18 when my wife bought me my first "bait caster" (yeah I was actually married at 17)! Been hooked ever since. All my kids have grown up fishing and still love it...I built  my granddaughter a custom rod and she can't wait until Pawpaw takes her fishing. What a life! Gotta love it...... and yeah, still married to my high school sweetheart.

[jkroosz]

I started around 6 or 7 on Schroon Lake NY during family vacations. More "serious" bass fishing began around 10yrs ago, with some intermittent other species.

[Dinger2410]

For as long as i can remember I have been snatching lips off.

[200racing]

the house my family lived in when i was born had a pond and some of my earliest memories are fishing.

 

my moms dad had a pond in his back yard and we would use cane poles for brim, and my other grandad  had a friend with a catfish pond we would frequent.

 

at about 7 my dad started working at a tree nursery with several nice bass ponds and its been on like Donkey Kong

[GeorgiaBassBros]

I really cant remember not fishing. Theres pictures of me when i was around 2 catching koi out of my aunts pond with a paper clip tied to a stick with sewing thread. 

[The Rooster]

In 1996 I was 21, nearly 22, and in April of that year a co-worker asked me to go fishing with him. I didn't want to because I'd only ever been a few times and it seemed very boring and a waste of my non-working time. Live bait was all we'd ever used anytime I'd gone before with family. He promised it wouldn't be that way if I went. He loaned me a rod and I agreed to go. We went to the lake about an hour away and took a bunch of night crawlers for bait but also had lures too. I had an ultralight micro rod combo with whatever line was on it. Probably too heavy considering I could only cast about 25 feet, but it was enough. Catching bass on that rod made them feel huge even though they were just one pound fish. I caught a lot of sunfish, bluegills, and bass that day, up until the time I had to leave to go to work in the afternoon. He and his father in law stayed to fish after I left, which I hated to go, but had to. I can remember driving home and thinking that I knew then that I'd just found something I'd always do after that for the rest of my life. I told my wife at that time I had just discovered a new passion, which she was not overly happy about in the long run. Thankfully the one I have now is. There have been several years since then where I've fished as few as about 5 times due to life's drama at times but there have been many where 50 days on the water was the norm. I've had 3 different boats, many different rods and tackle, and my wife goes with me on the boat, but mainly for company, and sometimes fishes. Dad and my brother go also, and for a time my mom even got into it HARD, but doesn't go anymore now (can't stay out in the sun).

[Dennis324]

Probably started fishing around 1965 or so. 

[JT Bagwell]

I was always told that I caught my first Bass when I was 3 but I obviously can't remember it.

 

A few months back I found a photo at my grandma's house of my holding up a nice Bass. In the

picture I looked like I was 3 or 4 years old.

 

My grandpa used to tell me that I got Bass fever when I caught my first Bass because after we got

done fishing that day I got really sick. lol

 

Overall though, I do not remember a time in my entire life when I did not go fishing. A lot of our family

trips as a kid had to do with going fishing somewhere.

[basshole8190]

I can remember fishing with my gramps around 4 yrs old but have pics of me fishing from 2. my son started going pond hopping with me around his 1st bday and we go almost every week unless its cold or raining

[WRB]

About 1946

[SirSnookalot]

Born in 1945 so I'll estimate 63 years ago when I was 5.

[Cryoglobin]

We lived on a lake in East Texas when I was little.  I was told that I was fishing on it when I was about 2 and a half.  The earliest I can remember was when I was about 4.

[HokieBen]

I didn't start until about 6 months ago at the age of 29. No family or friends were in to fishing growing up. I started watching Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, and Hank Parker on Saturday mornings with my one-year-old daughter because there was nothing else on and she liked to see the fish; that really sparked my intrest. I'm looking forward to taking her out this spring... I'm jealous that she'll grow up fishing and I'm just starting from scratch.

[Catt]

1954

[RoLo]

1959 at 8:15 am.

Hootie

 

What took you so long, Hootie? 

 

Roger

[RoLo]

Thinking back, I was around 4 years old which would make it 1946.

Dad didn't own a boat at the time, so we bank-fished for catfish in Passaic River, NJ.

For rod rests, dad jammed 'Y' shaped branches into the mud bank,

and some 67 years later the smell of that black muddy bank is still in my nose. 

 

Roger

[ww2farmer]

I was about 10 or 11 when I caught my first fish (circa 1986 or so)..........a hammer handle pike. And I was hooked. It wasn't long after that ,that I was catching small bass, bluegills and bullhead.

[Ratherbfishing]

I didn't start until about 6 months ago at the age of 29. No family or friends were in to fishing growing up. I started watching Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, and Hank Parker on Saturday mornings with my one-year-old daughter because there was nothing else on and she liked to see the fish; that really sparked my intrest. I'm looking forward to taking her out this spring... I'm jealous that she'll grow up fishing and I'm just starting from scratch.

 

But what a teacher YOU'LL have!!!

[Ratherbfishing]

I dunno.  My dad took me and my 7 siblings to a pay lake to catch some stocked trout when I was about 5 or 6.  Can't say if that is what first sparked my interest or not.  From  age 11 onward, I mostly fished by myself for bullheads (or whatever else would bite) beneath a bridge about 2 miles from my house.  I remember seeing Virgil Ward on the idiot box and I'd sit in a spell when he'd bounce a jig or whatever in the aquarium at the end of the show.  Of course he mostly fished for species that I had never even heard of before.  I yearned for more than carp, catfish, and sunnies and then a friend who lived along a scenic river took me smallmouth fishing with him.  We didn't do particularly well (more goggle eyes and sunnies than bass) but the river was so beautiful and the HOPE of catching more kept me going.  Eventually I moved mostly to largemouth (because of their extended range) but my first (and greatest) love is smallies.

[augustine_11]

First started fishing at the age of 5 or 6, but realized I had a passion for fishing around the age of 10. After a long day of fishing without any bites, when dad and I got home I had a chance to reflect on the day and what I could have done differently. Many ideas came to mind and I was eager to get back on the water the next day and try them all, only to get skunked again the next day....  20 years later I still have the passion  

[bartdude186]

my earliest memories are also of fishing. mostly crappie from ages 3-10. when i was about 10 i found an old rusty spinner bait without a skirt on it( didn't know it was suppose to have one) and caught what seemed like a 20 pound bass on the second cast,and after that i begged for lures every birthday and christmas, and after i got my drivers license there was no stopping the addiction.

[michang5]

I started bass fishing when I was 39. I'm 40 now. Can't get enough of it!