First time fishing story.

[N Florida Mike]

5 hours ago, Shanexd9 said:

My Parents live in Calabash. I lived there most of my life until I moved to florida. 

I love Calabash. We went there several times and got seafood when I was a kid. There were only a couple restaurants there then. The one We went to was right across the street from the docks where they brought it in. I think the name might have been Thomas seafood.( This was app. 50 years ago.) Calabash is special to me because it was my parents favorite place to get seafood.I can still picture us there in my mind.

My Granma and uncles family lived at Shallote NC for many years and Id go there for 2 weeks every summer, hang out with my cousins, and fish. Caught a 3 pound or so black drum at Ocean Isle when I was 8. That fish is the one that really got ME hooked on fishing!!

[Shanexd9]

I miss home sometimes. There are a few good places down there now. Captain Nance's is good. Good clam chowder. I've never fished on Ocean Isle Beach. I like the cherry grove pier just across the state line. I used to fish there every Saturday for several years.

[fishwizzard]

I fished for the first time when I was like 35.

 

I do event setup work and often my bigger shows end up with a day or two at the very end where I do is stand around and watch other people work.  The official name is "subcontractor management", but mostly I am there to wave to the client and fill out forms if a forklift hits a truck or vice versa.  It's a pretty sweet gig, but it can be super super dull if you are stuck somewhere with no/poor internet and hours in the sun to keep yourself entertained.  We don't (usually) sub out to idiots so rarely is there ever an issue and as no one ever likes working with their client looking over their shoulder, I keep my distance and just poke my head in every 30 min to look around.  

 

So I am in Florida watching some guys take down a huge double decker tent.  This will take three days.  After a day and a half one of the groundskeepers, noticing that I was just doing slow circles around the park in a golfcart, asked me if I fished and told me about his "secret" dock in the park next door.  Having n nothing better to do I walked through about 300-500 yards of mangrove to a little lagoon.  There was a crude dock made from plywood and 4x4 posts.  I could see like 12' down and saw these huge fish swimming around.  I remember thinking "I wonder if I could catch one?".

 

So I rooted around in my jobox and found some nasty old mono, a tiny safety pin, and a 3/8" hex nut.  The next morning I took a bit of chicken from dinner and headed to the lagoon.  I somehow tied up a dropshot like rig and tossed it into the water.  And a fish (a mangrove snapper I later learned) bit the hook and I yanked the SOB right out of the water!  The hook wasn't set, I literally jerked like a 1lb fish right onto the bank.  I picked that fish up and I instantly knew that every second of my life before this moment had been wasted.  Fishing was all I wanted to do.  It was all I had ever wanted to do, but I didn't know it before. 

 

I flew home and immediately googled up the nearest tackle shop and drove over.  I told the clerk that I was hot to get fishing.  He began to ask questions, but I butted in and explained my sudden revelation.  When he stopped laughing he sold me a cheap bottom-fishing combo for perch and catfish and said to go out, catch a few fish, then come back once I had an idea what I wanted to do and we would sell me a some proper gear.  

 

I went out and caught the smallest white perch in the world and I have never looked back.

 

[Shanexd9]

That's awesome. Did you keep the mangrove and eat it? Those are tasty.

[barrycam]

My first catch was about 4 years old,  Jackson Lake kinda SE of Atlanta, Ga.  Dad, Mother and I had been driving around parts of the lake. Think Dad was gonna lease some Ga. Power land, as he worked for Ga. Power at the time.  Dad had brought some cane poles, we stopped at a steep(too me anyway) rocky bank.   Dad baited my hook and before he could put his in the water I had caught a small sun fish.  I remember I was extremely happy,  Dad had a nice grin on his face, but was not impressed with the fish size.   That was my first of many fishing trips to Jackson Lake, Ga.

 

Barry

[Bankbeater]

First time I can remember catching a fish I was about 8 years old. I got a worm, put it on my cane pole, and my Dad sent me over to some rip rap to catch sunnies for bait. My hook was in the water for about a minute and the bobber went under. I ended up catching a 2 pound channel cat. 

[fishwizzard]

9 hours ago, Shanexd9 said:

That's awesome. Did you keep the mangrove and eat it? Those are tasty.

 

Hah, nope, I tossed him right back in.  

[Shanexd9]

1 hour ago, Bankbeater said:

First time I can remember catching a fish I was about 8 years old. I got a worm, put it on my cane pole, and my Dad sent me over to some rip rap to catch sunnies for bait. My hook was in the water for about a minute and the bobber went under. I ended up catching a 2 pound channel cat. 

Nice. It was a long time before I caught my first catfish.

[Jtrout]

When me and my twin brother were around 4 or 5 until i was 14 dad would wake us up at like 3 or 4 in the morning to get to a small creek before the crowds got there to  catch stocked rainbow trout. We had so much fun usually me and my bro would out catch dad or he would be busy untangling our lines lol.  I didnt do much fishing from then til about 23 i went to a pond with a zebco and a telescopic rod with no bait and caught tiny frogs off the bank and used them and caught bass after bass. Been hooked ever since.

[Shanexd9]

Id like to try trout fishing one day. I've heard that it's very challenging.

[caclunker]

deedfirst time was on a bass tracker with my dad and papaw (both winning local tournament fishers) tied me on a buzzbait that I ended up hooking my grandfather in the cheek with...my grandfather has since passed but my dad will remind most days on the boat...