Were You A Natural, Or Start Like Me?

[South FLA]

I was casting baitcasters at 5, was throwing a castnet at 8.Sea trout,  snook, bass, dolphin, sailfish, etc.  if it had fins I pursued it.  So I guess its in my blood....natural!

[Dwight Hottle]

I was casting baitcasters at 5, was throwing a castnet at 8.Sea trout,  snook, bass, dolphin, sailfish, etc.  if it had fins I pursued it.  So I guess its in my blood....natural!

 

 

That would be level 3, right Adam?

[Thornback]

Another time my buddy and I returned to the boat ramp and there was a little shaver about 5 or 6 on the end of the dock keenly watching us as we motored up to the bank. He was there with his grandpa and he seemed very interested in us. I took a 2 lber from the live well and showed it to him. I put it back and a few minutes later he asked to see it again. I asked his grandpa if I could let the boy hold the bass so I could take a photo. I showed the boy how to hold the bass and his grandpa also took a photo. I hope that thrill put the boy on the path to becoming the next KVD. Here's his photo holding the bass . . .

 

 

 

[Raul]

Excellent quality picture for a camera from the Flinstones age.

[F14A-B]

Sorry Catt! Had to like that, too funny

[Catt]

Excellent quality picture for a camera from the Flinstones age.

My wife's dad who I knew all my life was a photographer & developed his on pictures. Y'all should see the ones he took during WWII!

[gulfcaptain]

Well I guess I had a harder road, didn't have anyone that fished but I wanted to learn.  Bought my first rod and reel myself with money I saved ($25) back in like 1984.  Fished bluegills with mealworms.  Learned a lot from the older guys who fished where I did.  I was that kid that asked a thousand questions but they were kind and showed me what I was doing wrong, how to tie the right kind of knots.  Then decided to do it for a living fishing saltwater when I moved back and succeded when I was 20 to get a job on a fishing boat and worked my way up to running one.  Now in the last 4 yrs have rediscoved bass fishing and hardly ever fish off the sportboats anymore and enjoy my time walking the banks or float tubing.  But I do use the years of experience when I fished almost everyday when I go to assess the water, what the fish maybe doing and form patterens to be successful.  And I enjoy passing these on to my son when I can get him off those stupid electronic games and out of the house....lol

[Brnnoser6983]

I started when I was young... real young. It was always my grandpa that taught me how to fish (being I don't know my dad). I was always in ah of his tackle box. So many lures I use to think. How, and why would a fish go after wood? So my grandparents bought me a small Plano box with some hooks and weights from my gramps box. I would put acorns in the box to and a fish scaler...

I would like to think I am always learning, Watching, and listening to others. Seeing what works for them and trying to replicate it. I think that's why I go for so much tackle. I need/want what others have to try to replicate their success.

Anyone who says they where born with the talent I think is full of it. You still need to work at it, some more than others. But work we must.

Share what you know because You never know who might be listening. You could be the next role model to some young Fisher.

[Bankbeater]

Started fishing with my Dad when Nixon was in office.  I don't think I was a natural because I remember my Dad telling me not to wander off into the woods.  Stopped fishing for a while when I was in college, then for about 10 years I would only go maybe once or twice a year.  Then one day something just clicked and I started going whenever I could.  I think it had something to do with the BPS opening up about 10 min from my house.

[00 mod]

I started under the Reagan Presidency.  While mainly bass, that was with my dad, who never took pictures!  HAHA!  Here are some early pictures, but I haven't found the album with the earliest pictures yet.  When I do, I will update this thread!

 

Jeff

 

 

[FunkJishing]

I caught on fairly quickly but I definetly remember the shoelace knots and still lose a lure from time to time lol. I remember casting my two piece pole and sending the second half of it out with the lure i had tied on. I remember casting my lure farther than i needed to and having it smash into pieces on a bridge piller lol. good times.

[corn-on-the-rob]

Had a rod in my hand for as long as I could remember because my dad was/is an avid fisherman. He said we would be on Erie for smallies and I would always ask him frequently "what does a bite feel like" as I drag a tube. He said he always knew when I hooked one when I would start laughing uncontrollably.

 

I would say I am a whiz with a spinning rod but this past season was my first with baitcasters and boy have they reset the learning curve after using a spinning rod my entire life.

[OK Bass Hunter]

Speaking of getting started -- a buddy and me returned from a fishing trip to the boat ramp and there was a lad of 8 or 9 on the dock by himself. I could see he was holding a stick with a line in the water. We loaded the boat and I walked back to the dock to speak with the lad. He had fishing line wrapped around a stick and was letting the line out into the river hoping for a bite. Beside him on the dock was a container of worms and a cell phone. My buddy walked across the street to a bait shop and came back with a fishing rod. I retrieved a spare fishing reel from my boat and we rigged the lad up with rod and reel and then he asked me to show him how to tie on his hook. I showed him the simple Palomar knot, showed him how to make a cast, and he was now fishing like a pro. As we stood there he picked up his cell phone with one hand and made a call. I heard him say, "Mom, I don't need a rod and reel now, I have one." I walked away with a tear in my eye. I hope we made a bass fisherman out of him

Trying to make a grown man cry over here.

[halfpint33]

I started fishing with my dad when I was a wee Lil lad.Would've been early 70's. I was raised on a farm so we done a lot of pond fishing.As I got older we fished spring river and grand lake.Like others here I quit in my teens when I discovered girls and trucks.Started back up several years back when my youngest daughter wanted to learn the hobby.

[kcdinkerz]

Just started bass fishing 2 years ago. But I've been fishing since I was little. I remember when we would go out and fish crappie in the spring, when you caught a bass it was like oh man another bass....

now its total joy seeing that bass at the end of your line funny how things change haha

[DogBone_384]

Lmao great post

I started young as family fun with my dad

The shoelace knots caught more bluegill than I can remember

I quit when I discovered cars, women and computer games

Started again a year or so ago for the first time with a desire to do it right

I now have lures that cost more than all the rods and reels I started on

But I'm afraid it will never be enjoyable as much as my youth

Sounds like my fishing career, less the computer games.  My daughter went with me until her teens, but I kept with it and while I can't say I have lures that cost more than my 1st setup, I can say I've spent a good chunk of cash on kayaks, kayak accessories, and alike.  I definitely own more medium to medium/high priced baitcast setups than I really need, for which I just blame tackle monkey....

[scaleface]

Ive been an angler all my life. When I could barely pedal a bike Id go the Mississippi river with fishing pole in hand. I'd walk the banks with a "Doll Fly" jigging around any cover. Line between my finger and thumb to detect bites. I still hold the line that way 50 years later. Id catch all species , pedal back home and clean my catch for supper .

[J Francho]

I don't remember not fishing, or at least tagging along with my dad or grandfather for fishing. I have very early memories of my dad catching pike in a creek, sitting by a fire at night waiting for the smelt to run or a bullhead bite, I even remember falling off the dock. Dad says I was just three when those things happened. I guess at some point I started fishing. Haven't stopped.

[fisherrw]

That's how I started when I was 7 now im almost 15 and have tons of tackle and rods and reels. No boat yet though.

[Paul Roberts]

I actually have a picture of my first, a rock bass, caught in ‘65 or ‘66. This trip to the Raquette River in northern NY started the whole thing for me. Those memories are forever etched in my mind.

 

 

I remember my dad cutting saplings for my brother and me with a hatchet. Dad rigged it with black nylon braid and probably a snelled hook. I remember feeling apprehensive standing in the tippy boat. I remember the smell of mothballs and must in the life preserver that had hung in the cabin over the long northern winters. And I remember that first fish -or at least its bite. I was distracted, a bit nervous about the boat moving under my feet when I did, until I received a tug on my line, from down in that mysterious water below us. I was shocked. I remember the feeling was “That wasn’t me. There’s something…alive…down there!”

 

Later, I remember my Dad coming in after dark with the other men, with two BIG fish. Bass (smallmouths) they were and I was in awe. Dad caught them on a Jitterbug his father had given him back in the early 1950s. That particular plug has a story all its own. I still have it and have caught many bass on it since.

 

Some pics from the 70s, when my fishing success took off, after getting hold of Fishing Facts, Spoonpluggin', and In-Fisherman.

 

 

 

Natural? Hmmm…not sure what that means. I fished a lot. I suppose starting young helps. There is no shortcut really. I’m glad of that. I wouldn’t trade that time for any other.

[Ratherbfishing]

A natural fool, perhaps, but not a natural fisherman.  Though I still have TONS to learn, where I am today took a fair amount of time and effort.  Had I not had a natural affinity for fishing, the effort would've probably ended long ago.  I would have simply become one of the nameless "rabble."  Actually, I am still that but I'm usually too busy fishing to care.

[CCfootballchamps69]

I did not start bass fishing until I was 21. My family lived in Alaska and all I ever knew was Salmon, Steelhead and bottom fishing. When I met my wife her dad was huge into bass fishing and I was hooked. Mostly because of bass fishing tournaments. I found a way to fish for money. While it has not been easy to learn to bass fish I think with all of the online content you can find now days anyone can learn how to bass fish and can be competitive in a short amount of time. The biggest thing with fishing is having the money to invest in the sport. I am now 25 and have had the opportunity to become a pro staffer. Don't get me wrong a guy can learn to fish on his own but I owe most of my success to my father in law and his friends and bass clubs. Find someone who knows the sport and go fishing with them. Pay the gas bill be respectful with others stuff and you can go a long ways in earning the respect of others. Remember its all about confidence when your fishing and confidence in what your throwing.

[Darren.]

Don't remember which president was in office 

when my Dad got me into fishing. Probably 

Nixon. 

 

Bait du jour was a nightcrawler on a hook with a

bobber attached. Bluegill were the main forage, 

but my Dad went for pickerel and such.

 

I really got into bass in the 90's (some in the 80s), 

and then big time in the 2000's  to where I am 

today.

 

Oh, and I don't consider myself a natural. I had to 

really dig in and learn the craft - specifically the bass

craft.

[AQUA VELVA]

Oh, yea, I was a natural. At being clueless. It's hard to say which was more pitiful, my lack of knowledge or my equipment. This persisted through most of my early years right up into my young adult life. It wasn't until I started fishing with a co-worker who was into bass fishing that I realized how much I didn't know. I've come a long way since then but when I read some of the posts on this site by guys who know this game much more than I ever will, I see how much more there is that I have to learn.

[bassr95]

I'd say I picked it up without too much trouble. I have been fishing as long as I can remember, and tended to out fish my dad, cousins, and uncles on a regular basis. My first high school bass tournaments were a rude awakening, and I realized that I had a lot to learn to become a competitive fisherman. I have come a long way since then, but I still am not fishing near the level of the top college guys. Long story short, I thought I was a natural because of who I compared myself to.