What fish did you grow up catching? (besides bass)

[billmac]

I live in NY, so the waterways freeze over in winter.  When I was a kid, after ice out, and when the water levels went down toward normal, the first fish we always caught was silver redhorse (although we always called them redfin mullet).  We would fish for them just after sunset, with nightcrawlers. We would occasionally get an eel.  (about the only fish I would never intentionally catch)  About the same time, people would start night fishing for bullheads, and the local fire departments would start having bullhead feeds.  April 1 was the beginning of trout season but I was never much of a trout fisherman, with no trout waters within biking distance.  Once we got into May, we would start trying to catch walleyes.  Pike were also in season at that time but not in the waters I fished.  We would catch lots of shiners, but not much in the way of panfish except the occasional rock bass.  And of course we would catch smallmouth, lots of smallmouth.  There were musky in my river and I hooked several big ones, but I was always fishing with light tackle and never landed one.  I caught several smaller ones.

[MN Fisher]

First fish I caught was a white perch in Indian Lake, Worcester, MA. Caught some yellow perch and small bass there. Then I discovered that the stream that ran into the lake had brook trout. Most of my fishing until we moved out of Worcester was on that stream, catching brookies that I'd take home.

 

A few times, went out with the uncle and caught pickerel in a nearby lake, but trout was my 'magnet' until I was 12.

[Jigfishn10]

My first was a yellow perch while ice fishing. I was like 5 y/o, froze my butt off and hated the experience.

30+ years later I went fly fishing in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and caught a cutthroat trout. Fell in love with fishing.

[N Florida Mike]

My dad liked saltwater fishing, so we did a lot of pier and surf fishing.

Caught more Spots and whiting than anything else when I was a kid.

My uncle lived by a lake though, and I fished there for bream a lot also when I was 8-12 years old .Got into bass fishing when I was 14-15, mostly starting in the lake near my old house, that I live on now.

[gim]

I caught a lot of panfish (mostly sunfish) and northern pike when I was younger.  That's probably due to the fact that they are plentiful and very easy to catch where I fished.  I then moved to walleyes and muskies.  Then I discovered bass fishing one summer working for the DNR as a surveryor.

 

75% of what I target now is bass (both LMB and SMB).  I still panfish a couple times in the spring and walleye fish a couple times with my folks.  Muskies get targeted about 5-6 times a year too.  I don't specifically target northern pike but I still catch dozens of them chasing just about everything else.

[bulldog1935]

white bass were a priority, as were speckled trout, redfish, and Spanish mackerel ("smacks")

Of course I'm grown here, but this is a fly rod smack

 

and my daughter growing up with specs

[moguy1973]

As a kid we took trips to southern Michigan to visit my dad's side of the family.  Would catch a lot of bass, yellow perch, bluegill.  Around here I would go out with my grandpa on my mom's side and he would take me catfish and crappie fishing a lot.  We caught 100's of crappie, and he would clean every single one of them for huge fish frys.  Then I slid away from ponds and really got into trout fishing, spinning rod at first and then 100% fly fishing for them.  After my mom passed away, who was an amazing trout fisherwoman, who tied her own flies and everything, I got away from trout fishing and headed back into bass and eventually discovered the drug called smallmouth fishing.

[Jigfishn10]

Fly fishing for Spanish Macks looks like a ton of fun @bulldog1935...?

I miss fly fishing

[redmeansdistortion]

I grew up fishing trout, and they are still my favorite fish to pursue by far.  Hiking in, setting up camp, and wading the streams is so serene, beautiful, and full of adventure.  

[Mobasser]

Bullhead catfish. I caught a lot of them, before I moved onto bass fishing.

[J Francho]

The dock at our cottage was on prime water: a nice slope to 15' in front of the dock, with a drop to around 25 a short cast away.  There was slop between the docks, and a brush pile just off the corner of the dock.  As kids, you could pull sunny after sunny out all day long with small bits of night crawlers we caught the night before.  Night time in spring was for bullhead, which was always fun since we got to stay up way past bedtime to fish.  You could catch pretty much anything from that dock, and the occasional bass would eat those crawler bits.  Eventually I started casting lures to the neighboring docks for bass and pike.  Weather permitting, we took the boat out to the "big lake" which meant leaving the bay to Lake Ontario, to fish for smallies with softshells.  At around 10, I was allowed to take the rowboat or canoe to search water nearby for bass.  Sometime around 12, a guy in a fancy bass boat gave me some bullet weights, bass hooks, and Culprit curly tail worms and showed me how to make a Texas Rig.  That was the beginning of the end - I could now fish that slop I always avoided.  From then on, it was all bass.

[12poundbass]

My stepdad is the one who really got me in to fishing since my dad doesn’t fish so I grew up walleye fishing. We had a cottage on a lake in my area and would do a lot of pan fishing but walleye was the main target throughout the year. We’d make several trips up north during the open water season and eventually they bought property on Big Bay de Noc in Michigan’s UP. 
 

 

[Bankbeater]

Besides bass, we caught a lot of catfish, and sunfish.  Usually used the sunfish for bait to catch the catfish.

[DitchPanda]

From the ages of 5-7 when I really started fishing alot we lived outside of Corpus Christi Texas and we caught mostly speckled trout, redfish and flounder. Then we moved and stopped fishing for a few years...when I was 10 we moved to Illinois and fished mostly for white bass and catfish. Then we moved back to Texas this time outside of Houston and we fished inshore saltwater again for trout,reds and flounder but also started targeting sheepshead, croaker, whiting and Spanish mackerel. Moved to Iowa when I was 18 and that's when I started bass fishing...but back then I spent more time targeting bluegill,crappie,walleye and catfish. The past 5 or so years I've spent more and more time targeting bass and less time targeting everything else. The exception is ice fishing...I still target bluegills and crappies all winter along with perch.

[Way north bass guy]

Like most folks, I started with panfish and live bait. Got the odd smallmouth along with them. Once I got the freedom of a bicycle, I fished for anything I could. Lots of suckers and brook trout in the spring, pike, bass and whatever else bit all summer, and ice fished for lake trout and pike. In my teenage years I practically lived in my ice hut on weekends, and became a master of all things lake trout. Nowadays, it’s mostly bass, but probably 25% is for other species, mainly when bass season is closed in the spring. 

[billmac]

3 hours ago, Way north bass guy said:

Once I got the freedom of a bicycle,

I was just reminiscing with my family a few days ago about my first bike, a banana bike called a Cheater Slick.  There was a little opening behind the seat that a rod handle fit into perfectly.  The bike greatly widened my fishing range.

[TnRiver46]

I grew up on the top of a huge hill, bicycles didn’t help with fishing whatsoever. Lance Armstrong couldn’t pedal up it.
 

 I caught the same ole stuff then as I do now: Bluegill, white bass, drum, carp, catfish, snapping turtles, perch, walleye, sauger, crappie, etc. But I required adult transportation 

[billmac]

I don't know what the range of sauger is in NY, but I doubt I would know if I caught one unless I was specifically looking for it.  Kinda like pike and pickerel.  I can tell the difference, but only if I'm paying attention.

 

Update: Evidently sauger have almost been eliminated from NY state.

[TnRiver46]

47 minutes ago, billmac said:

I don't know what the range of sauger is in NY, but I doubt I would know if I caught one unless I was specifically looking for it.  Kinda like pike and pickerel.  I can tell the difference, but only if I'm paying attention.

 

Update: Evidently sauger have almost been eliminated from NY state.

Well no wonder you don’t see them often! They are very easy to tell apart down this way, they have large black blotches on their sides and no white fin tips 

 

[VolFan]

I had two green sunfish ponds and a crappie pond that I could walk to from my house in rural west Tennessee. I caught some really big crappie and big numbers of green sunfish from those ponds. Also fished a couple apartment ponds in Memphis when I would go to work with my dad, and sometimes the Wolf River by Americsn Way in Memphis for catfish on those days.

[Log Catcher]

The lakes I fished it was for panfish. Bream and Crappie on live bait. Might catch a Catfish or Carp once in a while before I got in to Bass fishing.

[scaleface]

I fished for everything . Caught bunches of bull heads out of ditches , Did a lot of fishing where a creek dumps into the Mississippi and caught just about every species of fish out there . Did a lot of carp fishing too .  Until recently I had a camper on a shallow bay and I was "the" carp master .LOL 

[Darth-Baiter]

White Bass.  Big schools of them at Elephant Butte lake. 

[WRB]

Growing in to 50’s California had a closed fishing for both bass and trout. Trout season opened May 1st, bass June 1st, both closed Oct 1st.

Pan fish Crappie and Bluegill no closed season with 25 fish limit. We fished for pan fish during the off season for food.

When moved off the mountain closer to the ocean we, my 2 brothers and I, started to fish/piers and 1/2 day boats for whatever we could catch. Ocean fish fought harder and better eating. Being a young teen ager fly fishing and back packing added another element to trout fishing.

My 1st long range trip to Guadalupe island Mexico opened Big Game off shore fishing that I enjoyed for decades.

My wife’s parents having a home on Lake of the Woods opened up musky, pile, walleye and lake trout fishing.

The goal to catch big bass always kept me interested in bass fishing. I think the boats and electronics with the unlimited tackle variety and close proximity may have been the reasons bass fishing became my favorite.

Tom

[The Bassman]

I mostly bait fished for bullheads and rough fish like suckers and creek chubs. Tried to cook a chub over a fire once but it didn't work out too well.

On 12/31/2020 at 10:25 PM, billmac said:

I was just reminiscing with my family a few days ago about my first bike, a banana bike called a Cheater Slick.  There was a little opening behind the seat that a rod handle fit into perfectly.  The bike greatly widened my fishing range.

My friends and I used to tie our rods to our bike frames with our stringers. Broke my dad's True Temper spinning rod with my leg one time.