Your Fishing Heritage

[bluebasser86]

My parents started taking me fishing before I was a year old and in fact have a picture of me sitting on a gravel bank in my diaper holding a fishing pole. We were pretty poor so it was mostly fishing for whatever we could catch to eat. Once we moved to KC I started bass fishing more and taught myself most everything I know now. Joined a bass club when I was 16 and won 2 tournaments, rookie of the year, and back seater of the year that year. I've always had a passion for the sport and it has become my passion to try introduce and teach others about this great sport.

[fishinwrench]

Of all the cool stuff I got to do as a kid there's just something about fishing that stuck to the point that I'll never be able to quit.

How does that one activity become such a major part of who a person is for the rest of their life?

Maybe it's because I never got into any trouble FISHING.

I got in trouble playing the various ball games, got in trouble riding bikes, especially motorcycles....Lots of trouble there. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find trouble fishing. And try I did too!

Stole my dads truck and boat once , 2 years before I even had a drivers license, towed it to a lake 30 miles from home and fished all day....but misjudged the time it was gonna take to get back home and put things back where they were supposed to be before they got back from wherever they were at. Mom was frikken LIVID!

Dad was silently proud.

I think that's what did it.

All that was when I was a young, testy, but apparently impressionable child though. Once I grew up I learned how to get in plenty of trouble fishing. But by then it was too late. What's done is done.

[Chunk Rock]

my moms grandma had a farm in Rosebud Mo. my Dad and uncles and I went to one of the clay pits on the place with cane poles! I was maybe 7 and first anything i hooked was a huge snapping turtle.scared the b.jesus out of me. Could

not get it to the bank and i wanted nothing to do with it,but my dad did! My uncle stuck a limb down its mouth it clamped down on it and out it came. Turtle soup!! for them bad day fishing for me!

[J-Doc]

No laughing but in all honesty, I attribute the following: Bill Dance, Orlando Wilson, Jimmy Houston, & Hank Parker.

I even told Bill Dance that when I was able to meet him at last year's Bassmaster Classic. He just smiled and I could tell it meant a lot to him. He's given back so much to a sport he loves passionately.

As a kid on summer vacation, I would watch TV and I would find these guys fishing shows on TV. It was just so fun looking and while I had gone on a few fishing trips for special events like Cub Scouts, the rare & occasional outing with my Dad (who was not a fisherman), the appeal took to me pretty strong. So I would jump on my bike, take a Zebco 404 Ugly Stick combo and a Zebco 33 rod combo, tackle box (which I still have to this day) and ride to my neighbors farm pond. Once there, I would fight off the cotton mouths and fish. The pond had some decent catfish but were very hard to catch. A lot of little perch but nothing of any size worth keeping. I didn’t care. A bobber and a crappie jig was all I needed.

Later in life, I would fish here and there over the years but really didn’t know what I was doing. Then I moved to the Ozarks after college in 2002 and since I was but a few miles from a major lake, I wanted to rekindle that love for fishing and it’s been a downhill spiral with a jetpack on my back ever since. It’s not only a hobby……….it’s a passionate obsession! I can’t stop thinking about fishing. I’m completely hooked.

I’ve been bass fishing since about 2004. Learning what I could along the way. I would say I have decades of knowledge to learn but that’s part of the fun.

[moguy1973]

Growing up in Michigan my dad was always a fisherman, but it was really my grandpa that took me fishing the most. He was quite the amazing fisherman. I was told stories about when he and his buddy caught 250 crappie at a time (I guess back when there wasn't a limit) and would clean them all for their fishing club's fish fry the following weekend. He wasn't all that much of a bass fisherman, but when it came to crappie and catfish look out cause he knew what he was doing. He used to have a cabin down on Horseshoe Lake in the southern tip of Illinois, a small 14' jon with a 9.9 Johnson on it and all he would use to catch a ton of crappie was a 9' flyrod with 20lb mono on an automatic fly reel using a bobber and minnows. No trolling motor, he would use a small paddle to get around the lake. Really was fun watching him do what he did when I was a kid. It was sad to watch him not be able to enjoy what he loved as health issues got to him in his later years to the point he wasn't able to fish anymore.

My mom was also a big influence when it came to trout fishing. She pretty much did everything when it came to fly fishing, even down to tying her own flies. And even though I usually outfished her when I went with her, there was a lot I didn't get to learn from her when it came to fly fishing.

[ness]

Cool topic -- fun to read other people's stories.

My uncle owned the old family farmstead in Bucyrus, KS. We stayed there one forth of July weekend when I was young and I got to fish the pond -- my first experience with it. Growing up, dad didn't fish a bunch, but we occasionally went out. He was more a duck hunter, and I loved doing that with him. After school, I didn't really hunt much and kinda decided I should take up fishing since it was easily accessible and cheap to do. (Turns out I was wrong about the cheap part). My uncle-in-laws were lifelong fishermen and I started fishing with them in the local reservoirs for bass, smallmouth, walleye, crappie, whatever, out of a Ozark fish and ski. Along the way I became interested in fly fishing, and that kinda took over. The uncles used to spend a lot of time fishing at Roaring River (one had his honeymoon there) and about 15 years ago we started a tradition of going down there each year.

[jolicious]

Born in DeLand, FL. But moved to NWA when I was a baby. Since all the family on both sides was still in FL, I tell folks that I grew up in AR (during school days) and FL (during summers). Spring and fall were spent fishing with my neighbors at Lake Sequoyah, the White River, and Beaver Lake.

Summer was a completely different story...

My cousins Rick and Ron Rawlins took over the family fish camp in DeLand on the St. John's River. Every summer I fished Lake Monroe, East Toho, Lake Woodruff, and Lake Glenn. Bryn, Rick's daughter runs the Highland Park Fish camp to this day, matter of fact ;-)

[Sprint21fter]

My good ole Dad taught me everything that I know now. Started throwing baitcasters at age 5 and have not put them down since. Quick tip passed from my dad now down to my kids, starting to throw a baitcaster: 1. make a long cast, 2. put some electric tape in the spool, thus not having a big backlash when the kids or beginners whip the rod makes it alot easier to fix.

Joined Green Forrest bass club 3 years ago and have competed in tournaments night/day since I was 10yrs old

[ollie]

Growing up in SW MO we had lots of places to fish. Did a lot of pond fishing in my pre teens years. Dad bought a 7hp Honda motor that we would take with us to lakes and he would rent a big ol Jon boat and strap that tiny motor too. Slow going was an understatement for 2 kids and an adult in the boat. Remember one time we put in at Prairie Creek and went upstream somewhere and got caught in a massive rainstorm. No fun that day. All my family fished or hunted. It was just a given to be around that type of mindset. When I got a little older Dad and mom discovered Taney and what could be. We would get up about 4 or 5 in the morning and make the 2 hour drive over there and rent a boat and motor from Fall Creek Boat Dock. One day my dad caught a nine 1/2 pound trout at about the 16 mile marker and we were hooked! Same day about an hour later my mom hooked into a bow that was bigger than the one dad had caught. Hers got to the boat only to break the line before getting the net to it. I think I saw her cry that day. After that they decided to buy their own bass boat and really get serious about fishing! We went every weekend we weren't in school and after awhile I started to lose interest. My other friends weren't into fishing so I dropped out of it for a long period of time. Then when my son got old enough to hold a pole a got back into fishing again. Haven't the desire to stop this time around!

[Fishin Hodge]

My grandfather (Chicken Hodge) brought me up in the boat. He isn't with us any longer, but I am forever greatful for the time I had with him. If there were contest for King of Bull Shoals he would be on the short list. Lots of my greatest memories were with him.

It all started when I was 3 or 4, tied the rod to my wrist, although I still lost a few over the years. I really don't remember the earliest years that well. I do remember by 5 or 6 we would crawdad fish all summer long. I realed in my fair share of KY's.

We spent a lot of time together on Bull Shoals and Table Rock Lakes over the next 20+ years. We chased just about everything you could in and around the lake. I saw some of the early stages of carolina rigged lizard fishing known to Bull Shoals Lake in his boat. I saw the rise of the Football jig in his boat, I would argue he tied possibly the first football jig with purple flashabu in it. I saw some of the biggest sycamores you could ever imagine, find new homes in the bottom of Bull Shoals Lake in his boat.I saw some dark nights and some blazing summer days in his boat, as well as 100 degree rides in an old Ford Bronco with no AC. I saw 34 degree rain all day in his boat, and never a word said about it being cold, the fish were already wet...... and biting. Double digit walleye, huge stripers, big gobblers, boat loads of crappie, more soft plastic baits than any one man should own. It might be easier to tell you what I haven't seen while sitting in his boat.

He taught me a great deal about fishing, hunting, life, and God. I could talk about my memories of him for days. Miss him. I hope I am able to repay the gift he gave me to a grandchild of my own someday. His memory lives on with me.