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

[Chief Grey Bear]

It would also be my dad. As soon as I was able to walk, I was walking behind him on Spring River at night with the light from a Coleman latern. We would pick up softshell crawdads and leeches for catfishing. We would also go frogging with a Colman. I learned at a very early age the ways of a river not only in the day light, but also at night. I quickly learned how to read a river and know where to go and where not to go. Life on the river after the lights go out is totally different.

In the daylight I was taught about fishing and hunting. We were always in the outdoors either on a river, in a field or on the lake. It was in my mind the best childhood a child could have. It sounds crazy but I also learned about the hydraulics of flowing water. And that is really some of the best lessons you can learn. And he taught me in a way I wouldn't soon forget. Like letting me find underwater dropoffs on my own. By doing that, and learning about currents, I could identify dangerous areas by knowing how rivers work.

I have and am now doing the same. I sitll remember the first time I watched a crawdad shed its skin with my dad. I also remember the first time I took my kids out at night to witness the same thing. My dad taught me to handle a canoe at a very early age. I had my own canoe by the time I was 10. I have done the same with Dylan. In fact, he now has the last fiberglass canoe I got when I was still in school. I have passed it on to him now. I think it is kinda cool to have him still using a "old school" 17' fiberglass canoe that handles like a battleship. But if you learn how to operate one of those on these Ozark streams, you can handle anything.

Great subject. It gives us a moment to reflect.

[Mitch f]

It would also be my dad. As soon as I was able to walk, I was walking behind him on Spring River at night with the light from a Coleman latern. We would pick up softshell crawdads and leeches for catfishing. We would also go frogging with a Colman. I learned at a very early age the ways of a river not only in the day light, but also at night. I quickly learned how to read a river and know where to go and where not to go. Life on the river after the lights go out is totally different.

In the daylight I was taught about fishing and hunting. We were always in the outdoors either on a river, in a field or on the lake. It was in my mind the best childhood a child could have. It sounds crazy but I also learned about the hydraulics of flowing water. And that is really some of the best lessons you can learn. And he taught me in a way I wouldn't soon forget. Like letting me find underwater dropoffs on my own. By doing that, and learning about currents, I could identify dangerous areas by knowing how rivers work.

I have and am now doing the same. I sitll remember the first time I watched a crawdad shed its skin with my dad. I also remember the first time I took my kids out at night to witness the same thing. My dad taught me to handle a canoe at a very early age. I had my own canoe by the time I was 10. I have done the same with Dylan. In fact, he now has the last fiberglass canoe I got when I was still in school. I have passed it on to him now. I think it is kinda cool to have him still using a "old school" 17' fiberglass canoe that handles like a battleship. But if you learn how to operate one of those on these Ozark streams, you can handle anything.

Great subject. It gives us a moment to reflect.

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Emersom dandy spots

[Chief Grey Bear]

These too!

[Chief Grey Bear]

Thanks for making me look around a little for those two Kentucky pics Mitch. By doing that, I found the two pics of my dad that I wanted to post originally.

[drp shot dandy]

Like someone said above I remember going to bed wishing that when I woke up to dad would be poking his head in my door "you coming with me? well why are you still laying there?" Then on the way home he would poke me in the side when I would fall asleep so i would keep him awake which I never really caught on to till much later. I thought he just really liked to bother me. Those are some of my favorite memories heading to those father son tournaments. I can only remember winning once but we went to every one that we could and I can remember one year going to the national finals which I thought was the biggest thing that would probably ever happen in my life, from which was born the story of a guy botching the net job on an 10 year olds only nice fish of the two days and another team coming behind them catching what was the big bass of the tournament that still had the kids cotton candy french fry and hook in its mouth. He still gets an ear full for that one. Once traveling baseball started all the fishing ended and in high school for some reason we didn't get along as well but once baseball was gone and we were back on the water it seemed that things smooth out. Its amazing how we seem to work things out better with a rod in our hands. Lesson learned don't spare the rod.

Cant forget Great uncle Dale "heavy on the Great" he would say. I only got to spend two weeks fishing with him because most of our time was spent in the woods but those two weeks were what flipped the switch for me from fishing and fishing with a passion. This man was a perfectionist by nature and a very sore looser which fueled me to out fish him due to the ornery genes that we shared. Looking back its amazing he never threw me the lake. He wanted to catch more fish but his inability to see me use an improper (or in his minde improper) technique over powered. I can hear it like he was here "bleep what the bleep are you doing i told you to lift that rod tip not to reel." followed by a chuckle until I set the hook then it was game on. I bet went to the bait shop every other day for those two weeks to buy line after countless backlashes beyond recovery.

[On The Fly 6]

My grandparents or " Granny and Papa" were the people who got me into fishing when I was a kid. The first trip I really remember was a night trip going after catfish. I was armed with a snoopy fishing pool (which every kid should have) and I remember sitting in the boat alllllll night and us only catching 3 fish. The funny thing was, I loved it and never complained. Not long after that, my family moved to Germany and fishing became nonexistent. I didn't start getting back into it until I was in 6th grade. From 6th-8th I fished as often as I could between soccer tournaments. I also got my dad into fishing at that time. It was something he hadnt done since he was a kid but it helped us bond even more (still does). Once high school rolled around soccer, work, girls, and sleeping just seemed to become priority. I do recall a spring break trip when I was 14 that introduced me to fly fishing though. It was my best friends dad, Don, that got me going in the right direction with that and I haven't been the same since. One of the things I really look forward to is taking my son with me and my dad on his first fishing trip. I started planning it while he was still in the womb.

[Nighthawk]

My dad was not big on fishing, but took me as soon as I was old enough to walk. It was love at first sight, and I wanted to go all the time. I soon passed him in expertise and started going with neighborhood guys, including Charlie McNeil, who taught me to tight line for crappie on the Diversion Channel near Cape Girardeau, Mo. I taught myself to fly fish and never looked back.