What Age Did You Start Fishing And What Have You Learned From It?

[buttonreel]

Patience

[notevenanibble]

i started at 16(now 32), watched a banjo minnow infomercial and i was sold.  Optimism, blind dogged faith i'm going to catch something.

[Felix77]

37 - Turning 40 this year.  In 3 years I have learned a TON ... if there is one single thing which I learned is that confidence is key!  Do what you must to gain confidence in a lure, technique etc and you will be a better angler for it.  Period.

[tomustang]

You can never have enough fishing gear

[Jar11591]

I started around 4-5 years old, 22 now. The things fishing had taught me: Appreciate the outdoors and the brown and green fish that live in them, appreciate my time off of work and most importantly, fishing is absolutely 100% addicting. The only cure for this crippling addiction is more fishing.

[mebisho]

I'm 53, started fishing when I was about 6-7. I fished hard in the 70s and 80s, worked at a tackle store for 7 years. Then in 91, the flame went out. I stopped fishing, just went a few times in the years since. Then this spring, something lit that pilot light and I got a canoe, dusted off the 25 year old gear and have had a great time fishing. What I learned since my return is that it is great to be back, even though I put a few lures in trees, dropped a rod\reel overboard, got the canoe stuck on a log and this old back hurts after a few hours sitting in a canoe, I'm d**n glad to be on the water

[Broadcreek karl]

I'm 50. Started when I was 3. Biggest thing I've learned is I'd rather go fishing then go to work.

[OroBass]

Serious fishing started around 17. I was an eagle scout and had the opportunity to catch trout while hiking through the Sierra nevadas. Today Im 28 and fish for LMB, salmon, trout, stripper, and sturgeon.

[WRB]

Very fortunate to be raised on a lake and started fishing shortly after I learned to walk.I learned to enjoy my time on the water and have been blessed to spend a lot of time there.

Tom

[F14A-B]

Started at 3, but began buying my own rigs and such at 13.... It's been a great hobby... I love fishing for all fishes, honestly .. Inshore is my fave but bass fishing is my passion... It's a small world when I look back over these 35 years.... I have learned more than I can ever use, but it's safe to say the future of fishing is not at a loss for participants , great gear abounds great lures of all types. There's a lot for many of us to share, and still so much to learn.

[roadwarrior]

Well, "always" would be my answer. My dad and grandfather took me fishing when they were chosen to babysit!

 

What I have learned is that fishing a lot does not equate to catching a lot. My serious bass fishing began in 1997

after attending a regional sports show and discovering the Senko.

[Paul s]

I started fishing when I was about 4 im 24 now, one of the biggest things is always take time to fish with family, I got started fishing with my pawpaw and if it wasnt for him I wouldnt have ever started fishing.

[skeeter1980]

I grew up in New York,dad would take us fishing in upstate.We fished for whatever we caught.lolI met my wife in Delaware,and I moved there.I was in my twenty's when I started bass fishing.I guess I learned on my own,using a spinner bait.I bought a jon boat,then a bass tracker.I joined a club when I was 34 or so.I sold my tracker and bought a procraft with a 140 engine.I fished all of the time,my job allowed it.I made Delaware's eight man team,and that was a blast.My best friend in the club,took his own life,and I couldn't deal with it.I quit the club,sold my boat,and quit fishing.I bought a two man plastic boat,so I could fish with my son,just for fun.That boat finaly broke down.I stopped fishing in the early 90's,until I became disabled in 2011.I got bored staying home,so I bought a 1980 skeeter with a 115 merc.I now fish for fun,with my son and grandson.What I learned from fishing is too enjoy what the Good Lord,gave us.

[everythingthatswims]

  My dad says that I could cast a spinning rod when I was 2, I'm 16 now and have been "ate up with it" for as long as I can remember. I think the main thing I have learned is to not worry about what others think about fishing, because at my age, when someone asks if I play a sport and I respond with "No, I fish" they think I'm pretty weird/crazy/etc. (I don't even try to argue whether or not fishing is a sport, that just makes the situation a whole lot worse). I know that most kids my age will never even begin to understand what I do, most of them see fishing as a bobber and worm in a pond, and can't understand how I could go out and do that with basically every bit of my free time. Part of the reason I'm on this site is so that I can see there are plenty of other "crazy" people out there just like me, that understand this obsession known as fishing.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

I started at around 9. Me and my dad were going to go to the zoo, but it was closed so we went fishing instead. I learned to respect the environment, and all the fish and other life in it. (YES, including the Carp), and it also taught me that you should ALWAYS look behind you before you cast.

[Scott F]

I first started fishing around 50 years ago when I was around 9. I didn't really start learning much until I got a boat just over 25 years ago. I'm still learning every time I fish and every time I visit Bass Resource. The biggest thing I've learned is that I will never know everything and that bass seldom stick to any rules.

[Sam]

10

[SirSnookalot]

I started about 6 or 7, nearly 69 now.  My dad's passion rubbed off on me, I was his fishing partner before any of his friends.  I remember charters in Lake St Clair that the men didn't want me being young, my dad just chartered the entire boat for the 2 of us.  Living in Michigan there was water every where, Canada was a few minutes away too, we fished a lot. Later in life he took me to places like Cabo and Northern Canada.  When retired he bought a center console down here in Miami, I made trips thru out the year for a long weekends of fishing, that's when I fell in love with Florida.  He's been gone 22 years, I still have the bug.  Lot's of locations and all kinds of species under my belt.  #1 would be backwater in the keys followed real close catching anything off the beach.

[Kevin Beachy]

I started fishing in our creek about 6 years of age. The creek only had suckers and bluegill in it. I really started fishing when i was about twelve and now am 14.

[kstring]

I don't remember not fishing. Have pics of me in a diaper with a cane pole...I'll be 30 this fall.

Things I've learned: patience, confidence, stick-to-it-ivness, and a grand appreciation of the creation.

[Catch and Grease]

I started when I was little but didn't really take it seriously or start going almost daily until a year or two ago....

[Bluebasser86]

My parents have pictures of me in my diaper holding a fishing pole on a sand bar the week before I turned 1. It's all I've ever wanted to do and my fascination with the water and the creatures that live in it only gets stronger with time.

 

I think I get a lot of my problem solving skills from my time on the water. 

[Will Wetline]

I particularly like a phrase that Bluebasser86 used, "problem solving skills."

 

Successful fishermen become, over time, more patient, observant and find an optimum pace for a given activity. We also learn to "change up" an approach that's not working.  Too, I have a growing sense of gratitude for what I've got both in a material sense and otherwise.

 

I've been wetting a line for 50 years.

[porkleaker]

I started around 5, and 34 now. I didn't get to go fishing on the boat but I would sit at the dock and catch them with a net and pieces of bread lol. Since then I learned that being bigger and older is better because you get to go on the boat...lol

But really, I've learned a lot of patience, appreciation for nature and a whole bunch of mechanical skills because my boat motor is a pile of junk. 

[Ratherbfishing]

....I'd rather go fishing then go to work.

 

and?  Oh, that's all?  I assumed that was always the case.

 

I was around 12 when I got the bug.  What did I learn?  How much money could be spent chasing a little green and white fish around a lake.