Who Influenced Or Taught You To Fish? Here's One Of Mine! Video

[LittleRedFisherman]

I'm sure there several of you out there, that might of had a particular person, perhaps a family member, or an old man down by the river, that taught you a lot about the sport you love at an early age. Mine would have to be my late friend Wes. He passed from this world to early, but as a youngster, he taught me a lot about the sport he loved, catfishing. He was locally known for being one of if not the best catfisherman in the area around here. He friended my dad and I when he moved down the road from us where he farmed as we did. He took a liking to me, as I did him and started taking me fishing any time we got off from the farm. We caught thousands of pounds of flathead together from the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers. He passed away in 2004 from a heart condition, but before that, he left me a lifetime of memories from some of our fishing excursions. I talked him into going bass fishing with me once, but that wasn't for him..lol This video was given to me the other day by his daughter, it's the only time we ever videoed any of our fishing trips. This wasn't the best of our catches on the Mississippi, it's nothing to catch 200 pounds of flathead per night, but that's not the point here. Having this video is precious to me, and putting it together was fun, and also shed a couple tears along the way. If someone like this took you in as a young'un, and taught you how to fish or hunt, share your story here. Bret

[dennis boatman]

Harold Ensley and Virgil Ward...

[laker67]

My father was born and raised on the big niangua river around what is now sunny slope, and directly across from gunther mill. Gunther mill is now ha ha tonka state park. He taught me to fish and hunt and respect the outdoors and every thing it had to offer. Dad loved to fly fish and passed that on to me. Thanks Dad.

[Old plug]

I think I was born with a fishing fever. I would have to say Homer Circle Homer Circle the writer for Sports Afield. Virgil Ward the granddaddy of TV fishing shows. Then there is a whole bunch of fishing friends that have been important to me through the years. Some older some younger.

[bfishn]

Buck Perry.

[Justin Spencer]

My father was a big outdoorsman but only a very casual hunter and fishermen, he loved to canoe, kayak, and sail so we were always around the water. I'm sure he bought me my first rod and reel, but me and a childhood buddy took it upon ourselves to become better fishermen. I don't remember his father being a fisherman so I'm really not sure how he got started. He lived close to a good bass pond that we had permission to fish. As youngsters I would often spend the night with him and we would get up at the crack of dawn, walk about 1/2 mile to the pond and jump in a small leaky johnboat to fish the 3 acre pond. We would fish until it got too hot, and would either retire to the air conditioning, or get a game of stickball going until it cooled off for the evening bite. I would guess this ritual went from about the time we were 9 or 10 years old, and continued until our high school years. Some of my fondest memories of childhood come from summer mornings fishing that pond.

[Terrierman]

I'm sure there several of you out there, that might of had a particular person, perhaps a family member, or an old man down by the river, that taught you a lot about the sport you love at an early age. Mine would have to be my late friend Wes. He passed from this world to early, but as a youngster, he taught me a lot about the sport he loved, catfishing. He was locally known for being one of if not the best catfisherman in the area around here. He friended my dad and I when he moved down the road from us where he farmed as we did. He took a liking to me, as I did him and started taking me fishing any time we got off from the farm. We caught thousands of pounds of flathead together from the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers. He passed away in 2004 from a heart condition, but before that, he left me a lifetime of memories from some of our fishing excursions. I talked him into going bass fishing with me once, but that wasn't for him..lol This video was given to me the other day by his daughter, it's the only time we ever videoed any of our fishing trips. This wasn't the best of our catches on the Mississippi, it's nothing to catch 200 pounds of flathead per night, but that's not the point here. Having this video is precious to me, and putting it together was fun, and also shed a couple tears along the way. If someone like this took you in as a young'un, and taught you how to fish or hunt, share your story here. Bret

Good video. I used to live in Jefferson City and we would set lines on the Missouri. We would do throw lines - one end tied to a tree or something on the bank, about 35 feet or so of main line, five droppers about five feet apart. Live bait - carp minnows four or five inches long if we could get them, goldfish if we couldn't.

Where was your bait tank? Mine was homemade from a plastic 55 gallon barrell that I cut down and re used the lid to keep the bait from jumping out. Rigged up a spray bar that I made with a bilge pump and some garden hose. Made changing the water on the bait super easy.

Brought back some good times that I am afraid are now gone for good. My main fishing partner died just about a year ago, my other one is retired and has other interests now and I sold the big jon boat too. Oh well, nothing lasts forever and now I spend a lot of time on smaller waters.

[Terrierman]

Harold Ensley and Virgil Ward...

Same here.

[LittleRedFisherman]

As far as bass and trout fishing, my story is similar to Justins, my dad was a very casual fisherman, bobber and a worm, sometimes a beetle spin down at the lake. Fishing to him was just rest and relaxation, as it was to me then. A switch clicked in my mid teens, where I started reading articles, watching shows. I'm pretty much a self taught bass angler, other than literature and trial and error. Now I take my dad smallmouth fishing from time to time, which he loves! Hopefully we get to do that for many years to come!

Good video. I used to live in Jefferson City and we would set lines on the Missouri. We would do throw lines - one end tied to a tree or something on the bank, about 35 feet or so of main line, five droppers about five feet apart. Live bait - carp minnows four or five inches long if we could get them, goldfish if we couldn't.

Where was your bait tank? Mine was homemade from a plastic 55 gallon barrell that I cut down and re used the lid to keep the bait from jumping out. Rigged up a spray bar that I made with a bilge pump and some garden hose. Made changing the water on the bait super easy.

Brought back some good times that I am afraid are now gone for good. My main fishing partner died just about a year ago, my other one is retired and has other interests now and I sold the big jon boat too. Oh well, nothing lasts forever and now I spend a lot of time on smaller waters.

Terrierman, I'm about the same way, I've got one buddy that likes to run lines like this on the Mississippi. Let me tell you, this is a lot of work, we didn't film the hard part of setting the lines, it takes some skill and safety concerns. Wes had a system that was the best I've seen, others use it now, but he figured it out before it was common. Those magic bait clip are awesome for setting lines in swift water, and we just coiled the lines up in ice cream buckets with nothing but the swivels attached, they would feed right out with rarely a snag. We used 50 plus pound rip rap rocks off the banks for weights. I think we used the boat live well for the bait cooler, but we used green sunfish, or what we call riceslicks here in the delta. You had to have one of those areators that sprayed in the water, riceslicks are tempermental, but seem to catch more flathead imo. That Mississippi River is a catfish factory, I've never seen anything like it, in the video we had a nice catch of flathead, but you could tell Wes was disappointed, we usually caught twice that, with a 30 plus pounder to boot. You need to go with me sometime, if you can run my boat, I can do the rest!!

Keep um coming, good stuff!

[rainbow]

No one in my family really hunted or fished so I was at a disadvantage. My best friends dad was an avid hunter and fisherman and he took me with them everywhere. I learned all the basics of fishing and hunting from him and my friend. We went fishing or hunting most every weekend of the year. His dad was a great guy and we lost him too young but the memories live on forever.