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

[Burrito]

I fished!  Every day in the summer I would ride my bike to a paylake in Central Illinois called Dixon's.  They payed $1 per pound for the largest carp caught before 2 pm everyday.  Then at the end of the year they would have a $100 tourney for the top 5.  That's how I made my money for bass lures.  Carp fishing. Best job I ever had!

[gim]

I got a weekly allowance from my folks for doing household chores until I was 12.  Then I started officiating little league baseball and doing maintenance crew at the ball fields.  I continued to be a little league baseball umpire until I was 20 years old, and eventually started officiating ice hockey and football in college.  I got my first part time job at the local Kmart when I was 16.  I didn't have a lot of fishing gear until I had a more reliable, steady income in my 20's.

[Pro Logcatcher]

I did lawncare work with my little brother

[Goldstar225]

Hauled hay (square bales), planted, pruned, and picked tomatoes, caught chickens (20,000+ chickens per house, worst job I ever had).  I did have a charge account at the western auto store when I was 11.  Used my allowance money to make weekly payments.

 

[RPreeb]

When I was a kid in the 50's, we had a job sheet with the pay scale for each chore.  My brother and I didn't get a straight allowance.  We got 10¢ for washing the dinner dishes, 5¢ for drying, 25¢ for mowing each half of the lawn, etc.  

 

If we wanted more than that (and we usually did) we had the opportunity to cruise the ditches along the roads and collect glass pop bottles to return for the deposit.  Regular bottles were 3¢ and the larger (quart maybe?) were worth a nickel.  If we hadn't done it for a week or so, that could be the equivalent of a gold mine for us - might make a buck or two in a couple of hours.  When the soft drink companies quit refilling glass bottles, it dried up a cash source for kids and it greatly exacerbated the litter problem along the highways.

 

Back then most lures were $1 or less, so that, plus the willingness to go to great lengths to recover any that got hung up, was really all we needed to keep us in tackle.

[david in va]

 I was raised on a tobacco farm, I did not get an allowance , but did not go liking. Dad or Granddad would come through if I needed anything. when we were caught up on the farm, I would get a job working for other farmers. I would get paid $3.00 a barn for pulling tobacco , grown ups got $6 , handers got $2 and $4. I pulled just as much as they did , but that is how it was back then. I also picked up drink bottles 2 cent each trade or a penny cash. Oh and you could always pull a tooth, that was worth a dime to the tooth fairy Tough times but I wish they were like that now.

The country has few problems back then. And about everyone fished. Folks  don't seam to have time now.

Edited August 23, 2017 by david in va
spelling fat fingered

[the reel ess]

I cut grass. We had lots of pines around so I raked and sold the straw (needles). But my sister was the one who wanted and got clothes. She didn't even work. So my mom was usually willing to buy me something when we were in a store. I went fishing with my dad so he bought me stuff. But he certainly didn't believe in the adage "Buy the best equipment you can afford." When I turned 16 I got a real job and never looked back. 

[Bluebasser86]

There was a guy at the semi private lake I fished that loved to eat bluegills but hated cleaning them. He'd pay me a quarter each to fillet bluegills and occasional crappie for him. Another guy paid me $10 a turtle for snapping turtles to make turtle soup. I mowed yards when I was 13, painted and did laborer work when I was 14-15. Started working at Cabela's when I was 16 until I was 21. Did construction from 18-21. Been a LEO since I was 21. 

[AustinHellickson]

i still am a kid and i mow lawns, and i am in sales for my dad's company

[XpressJeff]

My Dad was a Chef, back when there was such a thing.

 

I was volunteered to bus tables very early in life.

 

Lawns

 

Leaves

 

Shovel snow

 

Etc...

[J Francho]

I started working at my family's restaurant at 12.

[geo g]

I didn"t need any.  A jar of salmon eggs lasted a long time.  Trout fishing New Jersey rivers.

[bowhunter63]

Paper Route and Mowing lawns,We liked to fish and hunt so much we didnt have time or money for anything else.Kept us out of trouble .

[MickD]

Two of the best jobs I've ever had, paper route and working in a small sporting goods store.  Got the discount, didn't take a lot of money home.

Two of the best jobs I've ever had, paper route and working in a small sporting goods store.  Got the discount, didn't take a lot of money home.

 

Brings back the memory of my boss floating a local river and cleaning up on rock bass and smallies, with photos of LOTS of fish.  Used an F7 Helin flatfish, silver chrome finish.  After that we sold hundreds of them over the next few weeks.

 

Neat post, thanks for starting it.

 

[Airman4754]

Hey dad, I want some bass gear.

[jay bird1138]

I'm 16 now. Cut grass and other weird jobs like watch dogs etc. I make some pretty good money, enough to support all my hobbies anyway. Buying a small boat soon too

[AustinHellickson]

13 minutes ago, jay bird1138 said:

I'm 16 now. Cut grass and other weird jobs like watch dogs etc. I make some pretty good money, enough to support all my hobbies anyway. Buying a small boat soon too

Congrats man! Fish tournaments yet?

[jay bird1138]

51 minutes ago, AustinHellickson said:

Congrats man! Fish tournaments yet?

No, I'm not sure if I will. I'm invested big into dirt bike racing also so that takes care of my competitive side. Maybe down the road though

[IgotWood]

I was very fortunate for my circumstances. One of my parents closest friends owned a tackle shop. When I got a little bit older and wanted to start buying my own gear, I began working weekends at the shop. I think I was making about $200 a weekend. It was glorious. I still lived with Mom and Dad, had no bills, no responsibility. But what I did have was $200 a week to burn on fishing gear

 

Today, I have a real job, a wife, two kids, house, cars, etc... And I don't have $200 a week to burn on fishing stuff....

[Chowderhead]

For me, it was a paper route first (liked it except when chased by dogs), and then bagging groceries at Shaw's SuperMarket. 

[charliepff]

I love this thread. I have been really sick most of this week and this thread has really cheered me up and actually brought up some good memories. 

 

I had a few tricks to getting money for fishing. First was my uncle always went to Canada every year for pike and walleye with his buddies. They would buy 500 worms off of me. So nighttime I would be busy hunting night crawlers. Especially after rains. The cops knew me and use to come watch. Especially since there were times I would be breaking curfew. We had a nosy neighbor next to the community park and pool who would report my friend and I as burglars all the time. They use to bring us a candy bar or a soda and talk to us for a little. The second was washing and waxing cars. I did it twice at my dads house and when he got his water bill I had to improvise to on site washing and waxing. So I set up a wheel barrel with the stuff I needed and went house to house. At one point I had an appointment book. It got really busy. Almost to busy. While in high school I worked for two dealerships doing the same.

 

I also did the standard cutting grass, shoveling coal into peoples basements, and helping friends with farm work. I think the best was working with my dad on the cars he use to work on in his garage on the side. He did a lot of motor swaps and project cars. One was replacing the motor in a Suzuki Samurai with a motor from a Geo Tracker. I learned a ton about everything including life its self. 

 

I fished for trout and panfish mainly and these jobs gave me the money to buy new reels, rods, and even get into fly fishing. My dad never had a lot of money to spend on fishing gear so I was able to get him stuff for his birthday and such that he would never splurge on for himself. They even helped pay for a camping trip to fish for native trout in north central PA one summer. 

[Sword of the Lord]

All the money I earned as a kid came from local trading card game tournaments. I was into everything from auto racing, football, fishing, to trading card games. Magic: The Gathering was my thing. My mom would buy me some random decks and packs from Wal-Mart when she could spare it, which wasn't often and the cards you get are a crapshoot. So I would sit for hours and assemble the best deck and ideas I could, and then take that deck to local tournaments and win better cards and money, until I had the best decks in town with money to live rather freely as a kid. 

[bigbill]

Odd jobs, don't spend my lunch money. I made p&j sandwiches instead. Rake leaves, mow grass, anything to make money. Don't forget a zebco 202 reel was $5. We fished so much we wore one out per year.

 

there wasn't much in fishing lures during that time. Creme worms as the only one. I ordered that back page in the comic books it was 40 lures for $4.95.  That included fishing hooks too. Remember? Five dollars was a lot of money back then. Today it's a KFC box lunch.

[thinkingredneck]

Yard work, Veterinary assistant (crap shoveling,  cow working, etc) for $1/hr.  Bagger at grocery, flipped burgers.  Momma wouldn't let me grt a paper route because she didn't want me to wake up the family.

 

Funny how we thought a plastic Zebco, and fiberglass rod with stren mono were BIG TIME.  We seemed to always catch fish with a few jigs, spoons, Mepps spinners and worms.  Used a lot of minnows.  My Grandfather fished for the table out of one little tackle box and was relentless.  Never talked because it might scare the fish (read:  ruin his concentration and relaxation).  Had to learn by watching and reprimands.  He was a hoot.

[scaleface]

On 8/22/2017 at 7:13 PM, gimruis said:

I continued to be a little league baseball umpire until I was 20 years old

 

I umpired one little league game and was so bad at it that they wouldnt let me umpire anymore nor did I want to . I stuck to keeping score . LOL