Your oldest fishing memory???

[Scrapper]

I know it will take some pondering for some of us but I'd like to know what the first memory everyone has of fishing...doesn't matter the type...or who with...or whatever. What is the oldest memory you have. I ask this because my parents came down to visit last weekend and me, my dad, and the boys were sitting around talking and looking at baits at the bar...and he decides to tell a story that I THOUGHT I remembered...

My first memory was fishing around Mena Arkansas (where I grew up) at this stock pond. I remember there being a dam and a concrete spillway and docks with boxes. I remember catfish and my parents fishing for them. I remember that place like it was yesterday...although I was VERY young. The funny thing is...my dad told me the story of my first fish. He was good friends with the owner of this pond and they were talking and he told me to put my bobber in this box. He said I put the bobber in the box...a fish grabbed it...sucked it down...my dad said REEL IT IN...and I threw the pole in the water and ran off! OH what a fishing story for the 10 and 13 year old boys to hear! lol. It was great though. They have had a TIME retelling that story to the guy teaching them to crappie fish. lol Needless to say I didn't remember the throwing the pole in part...just the place and the joy I had being there as a kid.

Ok that was mine...have fun with it...It always enjoy thinking about and hearing others tell of the old days.

[CrappiePappy]

The oldest memory would have to be the first (& only) time I went fishing with my Dad. I would have been around the age of 9 or 10. My Dad, Uncle, and I went to a lock on the KY River ... probably Lock 9, just below Valley View, Ky. We had ONE rod/reel between us, and a box of earthworms. The rod was a 5' fiberglass, with a metal level wind (baitcaster) style reel, and spooled with multi-colored nylon braid. We walked out onto the concrete lock & put a gob of worms on the hook. We had a cork bobber up the line about 2ft. My Uncle caught a small Bluegill, on his turn, and threw it back. My Dad tired of waiting for something to bite, when it was his turn, so he gave the rod to me. I don't remember the bobber going under, but I think I remember them telling me to reel the fish in. I did, and it was a Bullhead Catfish, maybe 6-8" long. It, also, was thrown back in .... and my memory eludes me beyond that. I think I remember Dad & Uncle Johnny telling me I did good, but that may just be a case of pride on my part.
A couple of years later, after my parents divorced, & I went off to live with my Grandparents (my Mom's Father & Step Mother) ... my introduction to "fishing" took on a whole new level & meaning. They loved to fish, and introduced me to Crappie fishing. I've been rurnt ever since then ... and loved every minute of it !!

... cp

[jimp]

My first fishing memory that I remember was the summer sometime when I was about 8, family was moving from Ark to E TN, and my parents dropped my brother and I off at our grandparents in Hendersonville TN so they could do the house hunting in peace and quiet. They lived on Old Hickory, and had a floating dock. Granny and I would go down and bobber fish for gill and cats everyday I was there. Mom and Dad came back for the fourth of July, and we were shooting some fireworks on the dock, and dad laid some bottle rockets on the railing and lit them. One bottle rocket went straight out/parallel with the water, a gill jumped at the wrong time and got broadsided by the bottle rocket. found that fish the next day with a big hole in its side. Granny and I would take the fish we caught up to the house for dinner. Granny was a good cook too.

[gone fission]

I was one year old and caught a 10 pound crappie!
Or, was I 10 years old and caught a one pound crappie? Dadgum Anheuser's disease.

[kyjohn]

I have lots of memories of fishing with my Dad when I was very young (4 or 5). He used to take me to the Clinch River near Oak Ridge, Tennessee long before it was impounded by Melton Hill Dam. Not sure which of those trips was the first but I do remember when I fished out of a boat the first time. Again it was on the Clinch, the boat was wood and belonged to a buddy of my Dad's. I don't remember much about the fishing, but I do remember being scared and remember the motor being really loud.

[Cricketcage]

Sometime around 1965. I had already been fishing for a couple of years, but don't have any memories of the earliest trips. I was 5 and Dad took me trout fishing in a lake out in CA where they stocked Rainbows in the winter. We were fishing minnows under bobbers and had been fishing for awhile with no action when all three bobbers went down simultaneously. I think two out of three reeled in a trout, but watching 3 bobbers spaced probably about 20 ft. apart in a line disappear at exactly the same time left an impression that stuck with me.

My first crappie memory wasn't long after that. My dad had read about a technique where you attach a balloon to a crappie you catch and then release it. The theory is that the crappie will head back to the school and the balloon would mark them. We went to the same lake as above and my dad rented a boat (also my first outing on a boat). Early on, my dad caught a crappie and tied a 20' piece of monofilament to it with a balloon on it and threw the fish back in. We followed the balloon for awhile and sure enough I caught another crappie soon thereafter. We never caught any more after that and only took those two home. We never tried that trick again. Thinking back on it now, I think the crappie we caught that day may have been black crappie and probably were not congregated in a school.

[eric 3501]

The first memory I have of fishing was back while my father was in the Marine Corps, and stationed in 29 Palms, California. My brother (6 years older than I ) was in the scouts, and dad was an assistant scout master. They went on a camp out down to the Colorado River for a week-end. I had the pleasure of accompanying them. Well to keep me out of the boys hair while they were busy earning merit badges, my father took me to this little cove not far from camp, and we commenced to see about catching dinner. Don't really remember catching very many fish, but I do remember catching my first. It was a small bluegill, but it was a huge fish for me. Thank you for rekindling a fond memory of a swell time spent with my dad.

[deathb4disco]

Farm pond.

Catching bluegills with a cane pole and crickets.

My dad, brother and me.

[M R Dux]

My 1st would have to be when I was maybe 5. I really don't remember who all was there but I know my GrandDaddy and my Mom were there at his farm pond. We were using worms we had just dug at the barn and I was chasing and catching grasshoppers for bait. We all had cane poles that had been cut close by and those red and white bobbers about the size of a softball. We caught some tiny bluegills and one bass about a pound. That memory hooked me for life I'm afraid.

[Pepop]

Like kyjohn & most all of you, I have memories to glory of fishing with mom & dad but one that I just recently found proof of was a trip to Lake Arrowhead, West of Wichita Falls where we would fish the oil derek's and often load up on crappie there. They actually started me crappie fishing a few years earlier on Lake Meredith, North of Amarillo. There too we loaded up on crappie many times. Here's the photo my older brother found shortly after my mother passed away. Nov. 5, 1970 part of a catch of 36 crappie. BTW, that GOOD LOOKIN FELLER on the right is Pepop, LOOOOOOONG AGO!!