How did you earn money as a kid to buy fishing stuff

[Junebugman]

hi all we all started fishing at a young age I earned my money mowing grass selling night crawlers doing odd jobs selling crab apples I got from a neighbors orchard my dad on occasion would buy me new tackle like the "holiday" spincast reel and fiberglass rod how did you earn money back in the day to get your stuff? Thanks! Junebugman

[IndianaFinesse]

Lawn mowing, plus whatever odd jobs I could get a hold of.  Refereeing sports games was and is a good way to make some good money to.

[BrianinMD]

Worked on a family friends farm doing raspberry, strawberry, corn, fire wood, then xmas wreathes. Got me fishing gear, first car and first year of college.

[scaleface]

I shagged balls and kept score at the ball park .

[riverbasser]

When I was younger all I needed were ribbon tail worms and a broke back rapala. I don't remember doing any jobs specifically for fishing gear.

[Russ E]

i grew up next to a large creek in eastern Iowa. a neighbor taught me how to trap muskrats, raccoon,and mink at a young age. the creek was loaded with  them.

this was when furs were worth a lot of money. one muskrat would bring $10.00 dollars. A mink would bring $25. A large raccoon would bring $50.

That creek supported my hobbies all through my childhood.

it also had a decent population of Catfish and Smallmouth Bass.

[lo n slo]

got a job flippin' burgers at Hardee's when i was a jr. in high school. then it was stacking boxes in a warehouse down at the cotton mill when i was a sr.

git r done.

[Gundog]

Let me see....well, I worked on a farm, worked in a Bonanza Steakhouse, worked for a local auto mechanic, worked for my uncle's business digging up septic tanks (and no, I didn't get the easy job of sitting on the backhoe) but my favorite "job", if you can even call it that, was catching hellgrammites and crawfish and selling them to the old guys who fished the banks of the river. There was always a bunch of us kids doing that. Local kids, some I knew, some I didn't. That was the highest paying job for us kids in mid summer. We'd spend the days catching bait and selling it and the nights fishing with the lures we bought with our money. Now kids don't do that anymore. Sad to see that cause it was fun and taught me the value of a dollar. 

[NHBull]

This thread just made my day!

So glad to hear a young man looking to earn his way!

Things I did when younger

Lawn mower 

Rake leafs

Caddy

Clean motel rooms

Stock shelves

Make up posters and put them in your neighborhood saying you do odd jobs

Volunteer your time, it's good KARMA

Wash and wax cars

Paint fences

Blacktop driveways 

Fill cracks in driveways.....I paid a kids 250.00 last summer

Deliver news papers

Wash dishes

You get the idea

 

Also, eBay is your friend, sell crap you no longer need

 

You will appreciate your purchases so much more..

 

Good luck!

[Quarry Man]

I help my neighbors with their lawn, work for a landscaping company, and shovel snow.

 

Making apps professionally brings the big bucks.

[MIbassyaker]

Paper route, odd jobs, running errands for some neighborhood old-timers, and watching the neighbors' dog when they were away from home, which was pretty often. 

 

Still, I actually didn't spend much of it on fishing stuff at all. We used live bait mostly, often that we caught ourselves -- nightcrawlers, frogs, crayfish, clams, or whatever else we could find.

[islandbass]

I didn't fish when I was a kid (starting when I was in my mid-thirties), but I had a newspaper route that paid about $130/month. It was a job that required discipline. In addition to delivering papers, I had to collect money for the subscriptions and there were no holidays or days off.  Had to wake up at 3:30am because that was when the papers arrived. If it rained, I had to put plastic bag over every paper. I also had to fold them up and band them together before starting my route.  I used my BMX bike and lived on top of the hill so every trip home was an uphill hike. Had to be done before 6am so that I could get ready for school. They even made us have to buy the rubber bands and rain bags.  I also worked during the summer on top of that.  Where I lived, the minimum wage was $3.30/hr.  

 

So hats off to you if you're a teen or younger. What you're doing at your age is honorable and respectable. Sadly, a good percentage of the younger generation seem to have a sense of entitlement, or no desire to work, and worship what I call the "new" god (intentionally lower case), the almighty hand-held smart phone.  Take it away from them and they think it's the end of the world, lol.

[.ghoti.]

Playing piano.

[Choporoz]

Cut a lot of grass; and did some baby sitting....delivered newspapers every day from a few days after my 12th birthday until I was 16 and the dime store would hire me.  I never spent much on fishing stuff....there was no interwebs and I didn't yet know that I needed all this crap I gots now

[scbassin]

Paper Route

Fur Trapping

Clam Digging

[Bankbeater]

Cut grass, washed cars, shoveling snow, and taking care of

dogs. 

[Jtrout]

My neighbor 3 houses down actually owned a bait company. From 5th grade til 8th grade we walked home from the bus stop and would stop by his house for a few hours and pack nightcrawlers. He paid us 5 cents per dozen we packaged then eventually 10 cents.  We made pretty good money and he also gave us brand new spinning rod setups. He still owns the bait company and i see him once in a while and i got a newer tundra than him now lol. Man im feeling old now and im only 30!. 

[WRB]

Summers worked for my brother as a dock boy age 12 to 15, then helped run the marina 16 to 17 and managed it during my college summers.

Paper boy during the winters and any odd jobs plus collecting bottles.

16 on worked for wages.

Tom

[SuperCorona]

Mowed yards and worked on the golf course behind our house.  I'd fish in the creeks and pond on the course after the last golfers finished up.  I set up my sister and one of her friends in the used golf ball business.  All the balls I'd find in the woods, rough and water were cleaned up and given to them to sell.  All was good until the pro shop got wind of it.  All of that kept me flush with roadrunners and beetle spins.

[papajoe222]

I'd do odd jobs during the school year for cash. During the summer, I'd do my best to eliminate the overpopulation of squirrels in the woods by our summer cottage.  Back then, a half dozen squirrel tails shipped off to Mepps would get you a bunch of free spinners. I'd end up loosing a dozen or so every season, so I needed a good, cheap supply.

[N Florida Mike]

• mowing yards

•bonanza steakhouse bussing tables

• working on a farm.

[DINK WHISPERER]

Picking produce on farms and mowing yard for me. Soar, sun burnt and sometimes bloody.... But so worth it when i took that trip to the local Walmart to load up!

[Catt]

My great-grandfather, grandfather, 3 uncles, & dad were carpenters. My starting job was go-far, go for this, go far that. We dug footing for slabs by hand, graded (leveled) the area for the slab by hand.

 

By age 12 I was building cabinets & by age 14 I was a Journeymen carpenter.

 

When construction was slow I worked on my uncles charter fishing boat as a deckhand & the first mate.

[badgerboyng]

I detailed (cleaned) cars in my driveway for $80, which ended up being more like $100 with a tip. It would take me around  4-5 hours and it was hard work, but all you need is a hose, a bucket, some high quality towels, cleaning supplies/wax, and a nice shop vac. 

 

Doing that just a few times was enough to buy some nice equipment/lures. I didn't do it every week though, it was something I would do a few times per month during the warm months.

[Turtle135]

I believe my primary source of income (before getting an actual job) was the push lawn mower. Like one poster mentioned, Rapala Floating Minnows and plastic worms were the mainstays. A fishing rod or a reel usually was received as a birthday or Christmas present. Took a lot of years before I had more than one combo.