What got you hooked?

[Copen1822]

Growing up my dad would take my sisters and I pan fishing at a local lake, usally a family thing with mom bringing a picnic and spending the day. Then when I was about 10 we bought a small fishing boat and on a few special weekends during summer dad would wake me up at 5am and we would take the boat to the lake. Some of the best times I've had with him were out in that tiny boat with the sun just coming up and fog on the water, I don't remember catching much but still I loved it. As I got older dad switched jobs and started working way more and we sold the boat, I didn't really care because I wasn't super interested any more but now of course I wish he would have kept it! When I was about 16 I read my first Bassmaster mag and my life has never been the same. It's all about the mental side for me. When I realized you could develop a pattern and catch more and bigger fish I went in full force. I can't stand fishing with a worm and waiting for a bite, I need to be thinking and working things out in my head. Thats what it's about for me. Now I just wish my dad would quit working so d**n much and go fishing with me again, I don't think he's been out for probly 10 years. Great thread, made me remember the good ol days  ;D

[eastkybass]

When I was growing up my Grandparents owned a house boat on Cave Run Lake.  I can't remember a time when I didn't fish.  I can remember using the my Snoopy pole to pull in crappies while setting on the front of that boat and getting mad when I wasn't allowed to go when my Dad and uncle would go out in the Ranger fishing.

[JUST]

Fourbizz!!!

[Dean]

What got me hooked you ask? My answer is simple, the thrill of catching a bass.

[bigmountaineer]

The excitement of catching something and trying different stuff out, I love the great outdoors.

[Izzy3374]

Needing something to do other than sitting around doing drugs and drinking my life away.  Needed something to occupy my time.  And it wasnt just fishing that did it.  I can thank FISHING and GOLF.  I like fishing more though.  LOTS CHEAPER. :

[Fish Chris]

When I was not quite 3 years old {more than 40 years ago} my late, great uncle Elton Wise took me down to his private pond, and placed a cane pole in my hand. He told me to pull up, when the bobber (he called it a cork :-) pulled down. I caught a bunch of Bluegill (he called them Brim) which might have well been 15 lb Bass, because apparently, I could not have been more stoked !

Here's an old fuzzy picture of that pond I first dropped a line in.... All of about 2 acres I think.

My Uncle Elton passed away about 30 years ago, but I still think about him all the time. Every time I stick a big one, I can just see him smilling and telling me "Thata' boy' ! That's a good'un' there" :-)

Anyway, on kind of a philisophical note, I think a person is either born with fishing in their blood, or they are not. But either way, a person still needs to have the door opened for them, so they can experience  the thrills that are waiting for them.

It might be kind of cliche' but the statement, "Only a fisherman would understand", is SOOO true !

Peace,

Fish

[fishfanatic]

my Grandpa took me fishing for the first time at a trout farm in CA  I know its a sure thing   but i caught the fish bug    he took me out to different places and bought me my first rod and reel      he even foolishly let me try to teach me to fly fish    that lasted about 15 min   never was able to cast any where but the trees  

[MaineBassMan]

I got hooked because I was very fortunate to grow up in a bass fishing family at a time when a lot of the locals considered them trash fish, can you believe that? I use to get hell in class when I told the other kids that I fished for bass and not trout. They kept telling me that the bass were eating their trout and I reassured them that bass hated trout, ;D. Then when they asked me what my favorite color was for a bass lure I told them trout ;D.

Spending time with my father and grandfather in a boat listening to them tell stories and catching bass until my arms fell off and when I caught my first 4 pound smallmouth at 10 years of age pretty much hooked me.

[ejtaylor822]

Grew up fishing with my Dad and Grandfathers. Got away from it during college, but got back into it about 5 years ago. I do it now for its pure simplicity, beauty and reminder of when life was simpler.

At its purest form its a rod, lure and a fish - no computers, no boss, no fax, etc. Just me and the fish.  Nothing like being on the water early in the AM.

[justinrose40]

I've been fishing since I was a little kid, and I don't remember exactly what drew me to fishing in the beginning. But as I grew up, I know that it was just the time spent outdoors with my dad and friends that made me grow to love this sport.

Spinnerbait fishing in timber is my favorite technique, but the thing that keeps me up at night, is thinking about a slack line at night under a black light. Just watching ever so closley for the slightest jerk to bounce the line, and then the feel of a solid hookset.

It is amazing to me that so much joy and pleasure can come from something as simple as a jerk on one end of the line waiting on a jerk on the other end.

[Blake R.]

I have fished for as long as I can remember. That being said;

The fish that hooked me was a little, maybe a pound, bass that slammed a Mann's Classic Spinnerbait. I saw him hit, and set the hook so hard he turned into an unsuspecting torpedo. No fight, but I was as pumped as possible for an eight (or so) year old.