Your oldest fishing memory???

[CatFan]

I have vague memories of fishing with a cane pole with Dad when I was very young. We used the old braid from my grandpa's baitcasters on those poles. My most distinct memory was when I was about 5 or 6. I got one of my grandpa's old steel rods with a Zebco on it. I practiced casting in the backyard until I was pretty consistent. Dad and I and the neighbors went to Starve Hollow and were fishing an area with a steep bank maybe 50ft to the road. I was pretty proud of my new pole, but we fished all morning without a bite.

Some of us were fishing with doughballs and some with nightcrawlers, and when Dad had to rebait, he asked me if he should stick with doughballs or switch to nightcrawlers. I said "both" for some reason, and that's what he did.

A few minutes later, Dad had to go to the top to get the cooler for lunch and he asked me to watch his pole so a fish didn't drag it in. I remember thinking it was going to be hard to watch two poles. No sooner had Dad made it to the top, when the clicker started buzzing on his pole. I yelled at him, and the neighbor told me to reel it in. I was scared because it was Dad's pole, a Mitchell 300 which was strange to me, I had to leave mine unattended, and it was obviously a bigger fish than any of the bluegill I'd ever caught. I reeled it in, hoping somebody would take over, but I got it to the bank and did the classic walking backwards, dragging the fish onto the bank. 3 or 4 pound catfish. It was the only fish caught that day, and I must have told the story 25 times.

I was on top of the world. They took my picture with the fish, but the processor messed up the film. I'd give a thousand dollars for that picture!

Same thrill hits me every time I realize I have a fish on the line. I guess I'll never grow up!

[DRPEPPER]

I am told I threw my pole down the first time too.
My first memories are fishing Lake O Pines in the '60s when it flooded. I caught my first bass plus we fished in a flooded park around the picnick tables and loaded up on the bream.
DP

[crappiewisdom]

Staying all night at my grandparents (fifty some years ago). We'd look for night crawlers with a flashlight. Then we'd watch the Gillette Friday Night Fights on the old TV with the round picture tube or listen to a ball game on the big old radio. We'd get up way before sunrise. Grandma would make egg sandwiches for me and grandpa to take with us and pack them in a brown bag with some warm Coca-colas (those old small 8 oz glass bottles). No lunch has ever tasted better. Before daylight we'd head to the lake in Grandpa's black Ford Falcon pulling his little Sears boat (oars only). We'd stop along the way at some catalpa trees to pick catalpa worms for bait. Then we'd arrive at a farm where his favorite lake was and we'd put a dollar in a can next to the gate that led down the farmer's lane to the lake. We fished with cane poles and caught big bluegills all day long while Grandpa sang songs and told stories about everything, it seemed. Then we'd take the fish home and clean them on the counter next to the sink and grandma would complain about the stink in her kitchen, but then she'd fry 'em up, along with the fish eggs and fried potatoes (and maybe some mushrooms we had found, but that's another memory). I spent a lot of summer weekends doing that. I think about them both every time I fish. Great memories.

[Pepop]

Well be glad you didn't experience the 60's. You might not have survived. Those were the dayz as they say.

Al's I can say is, I experienced just enough of the 60's to where I wasn't sure I'd make it thru the 70's.

[Cane Pole]

Well, I believe it was when I talked a big whale to puke up Jonah.

[Cray]

First trip with my Grandad. I was 4 and he had just retired from running the little country post office in my home town in Oklahoma. He had never fished much and was just really getting started. We parked on an old country road and had to walk about a quarter to the creek we were going to fish. We had to walk through a cotton patch that was full of cockle burs. Remember getting them in my hair and crying while he pulled them out. Got to the creek had to fish off a bluff bank that looked a mile high to me. Hooked a catfish that looked like it weighed 20 lbs to me ( more like 2 ) and my grandad had to slide down this mud bank to land my fish. He made sure I landed my first ever fish. He was my Grandad and my father figure. He taught me to love fishing and the outdoors along with instilling the love of God by the examples he set every day. Sure do miss him and our fishing trips.

[chili]

Gee, I feel old! My first memory is in 1953, in Three Rivers Michigan, where my father often rented a little cottage for weekends. The men had left in the boat and I wasn't happy to be left with the women, cause I was almost 5....so, I eventually slipped away , went down to the little wood pier and ended up with a small bullhead. Guess I wasnt the brightest then either cause I took it back to show the women, then got in trouble for sneaking away to the water. Someplace, I still have the picture they took of my crime.

[ezgoing]

I was six and fishing with my grandfather on the Tennessee River. I was proud that he would allow me to bait the trot line hooks he had in the trot line boxes. This was a wooden box that had slots cut in the sides to hold the hooks and the line went into the bottom of the box. When you set the trot line the line and hooks would smoothly come off the side of the box into the water.

We were using a wooden boat he built. It used a Model T engine for the boat motor. The motor set in the center of the boat, with a shaft running to the rear of the boat where it turned a propeller. He also had two wires running from the motor to through the shaft box to the rear of the boat. These lines would trail into the water at the back of the boat when he unrolled them.

If his trot lines were not productive enough to suit him he would connect the wires to the motor alternator and "telephone" the fish to come to the surface. Yes, this was illegal, even back then but I did not learn it was illegal until I was eight.

We were "telephoning" when a game warden caught him with the fish coming to the surface. The game warden thought he was using poison since he disconnected the wires when he saw the game warden coming.

I remember there was quite a shouting match and some of the other fishermen came over in their boats, with all of them shouting at the game warden that nobody on the river would poison fish as they could not eat nor sell them if they poisoned them.

Since the game warden could not prove what happened he finally left, after warning my grandfather he would be watching him and would catch him at it.

I remember this as I was quite frightened at the time it happened. I remember that my grandfather told me afterwards that he hoped that taught me a lesson. In the future we both need to look everywhere before we "telephoned" the fish. I asked him why the game warden was mad. He told me you were not suppose to "telephone" the fish but people had to eat, even when fishing was slow.

I fished with my grandfather until I was eighteen and left home. At the end he stopped commercial fishing due to age but we would still go out and fish with cane poles in wooden boats he would build, then sell to other fishermen. I helped him build a lot of those boats after school.

At the end he could only build one boat a year but it was always sold when he started building it. He would fish it for three months to ensure there weren't any problems before he would allow the buyer to take it.

I learned a lot from him, and not just about fishing.

[bhgammon]

My dad took me out in a row boat when I was 8 years old. We were fishing tree stumps for rock bass and whatever when my dad told me to grab the top of a big old stump. Something didn't feel right, all of a sudden several snakes came scrambling off the stump and some went into the boat. That scared the bejesus out of me but I've never had a problem with snakes. I will catch a rattler or cottonmouth alive in a heartbeat. I am darn careful though and have never been bit - - - Yet. I'm 73 now and still will catch one if the opportunity presents itself, but I do look where I put my hands.

B-

[river scum]

i remember my black with white stripes zebco202 being pulled over the side of the boat in about 75. still makes me mad too. lol