Your First Fish Story...

First fish ?, who can remember that far back ? 

Okay I'll try, must have been at Clear Lake ( Grandparents cabin )( 1960-61 )( 3-4 yrs. old)
I'm sure it was a bluegill from the dock, we used to catch them with bare hooks.
It really was that good of fishing. Although probably not legal we cut some of them up and take the boat out at night for kitties & bass.

We also used to sit on the sea wall and eat watermellon and spit the seeds in the water, the next year we came up there was watermellons growing on the shore.

Thanks Al for jogging the memories  out of my burned out brain. ( Now I need to take a trip down to my mother's house and hunt through some very old Pics. )

T.L.,Tim

Technically my first fish WAS at a trout farm but my first really memorable catch was at Loch Lomond fishing with my Dad. I was probably 5 and we were fishing from shore. I walked over to the rocky point opposite the boat ramp. I tossed my nightcrawler straight off the point and let it sit for a few seconds then tried to reel it back. I got snagged on a rock and was about to call my Dad over for some help when the rock tried to swim away with my worm. After a very spirited fight I pulled up a 2-3 pound LM. Not knowing much about fishing at the time I just lifted my rod straight out of the water and said, "Dad!! Look what I caught". My Dad was freaking out trying to get over to me from about 50 yards away hoping the fish didn't flop off. He was hopping over rocks dropping his rod screaming, "Deva!!! Don't move!!" My Dad is pretty excitable when it comes to fishing. Managed to keep the fish from flopping off my hook and back in the water. It was a very proud moment for my Dad and he tells the story every time he gets a chance 

I wish we would have released that fish as it turned out to be a female chalked full of eggs 

-FF

My first fish was when I was 5 years old. We lived in Vietnam at the time, up in the mountains. We own land that is covered with tea bushes, coffee trees, fruits and vegetable. Maybe a quarter mile or so away from the house is a man made pond (by us) and a creek. They were only about 10 feet apart from one another. I sat in between the two body of water while my brother, who was 14 at the time, put a worm on the hook for me. He then handed me the bamboo pole/stick with the string on it. I put the hook down into the water and for the first time I felt a jerk. I knew it was a fish so I got really excited... excited enough to pull the bamboo stick too hard and sent the fish flying from the pond into the creek lol... all I heard was a plop behind me.. then that was it lol no other fish wanted to migrate to the creek 

When I was a kid we lived in So Cal  and my dad was big into surf fishing and pier fishing.   Mostly I remember lugging his big heavy tackle box up and down every beach and pier because that was my job apparently.   I'm sure others here will remember that kind of box..   plywood with leather straps and a fold down front / bait cutting board.   He had old reels in there, various weights, knives and other crusty tackle... all the kind of junk I liked to pull out and mess with.    It was even worse when we moved up to this area and I had to lug that POS all the way out the Doran jetty.     Wish  that thing was still around.

My first memory of actually catching a fish was when we had rented a dingy in Newport harbor that had a live well in it.    I caught a  hali that I thought was bigger than me and  barracuda that my dad kept saying were going to bite me.     That trip we had a friend of my dads with us who must have weighed about 300...  he caught a BIG ray (manta?) and it took him a while to get it to the boat.. at which point it he either yanked up on it or it decided the boat looked better than the water because it came bout half out and the guy almost fell backwards into the water.

Dude that was your first true "C&R"    I'm more into Catch and fillet!!! 

Just asked my dad cuz I don't remember... cept on mendo with my grampa fishing for your elusive crappie...  catching slabs.... mid 60's remember a fat bumble be buzzing me killed it put it on the hook and "BAM"

Dad said... "can't remember but in 73' u had the freezer so full of fish there was no room for anything else!"    That was Wyo fishing Salt River flows into Snake.......man those were the days.........

im all about C&R myself

catch & refridgerate!

No way I can remember my "first" fish, I have pics somewhere of me at like 2-3 yrs. old with rod, reel & fish.

I do remember going down to the pond though with my grandpa one time when I was really little. He had about 30-40 ft. of line left on a spool and 2 little splitshot sinkers and some hooks. We walked down to the pond and he pulled out his HUGE knife (it was probably a small pocket knife but at 4-5 yrs. old any knife is HUGE) and proceeded to cut off two decent size willow branches. He stripped the bark off the tip to about 1/2 the way down and then cut notches at the very end. He tied on some line, a hook and bit the sinker on and then told me to go look for some bugs/worms.

I ran around for awhile picking up rocks and chasing bugs. Finally I had an earthworm and a grasshopper. He tossed in the earth worm and then put the grasshopper on my hook for me. At 4 I didn't have much focus and I got pretty easily sidetracked so it wasn't long until I was goofing off with my little grasshopper soaking. Maybe 4-5 minutes after we tossed him in, I got bit hard by something. My Grandpa likes to remind me that I turned around and ran up the bank as fast as I could. He says I hauled that catfish out of the water probably 40 feet before I even looked back. He actually managed to fall off the bank he was laughing so hard supposedly.

I think about this a lot more lately. Every time I see a shiny new rod or reel and I think "I bet I could catch more fish on that!" I remember hauling in a 7 lb. catfish on a home made willow fishing rod with a bit of line tied on. I know the fish don't care what you haul them in with, but for some reason fisherman do. So I just try to remember that.

What a great thread.   

I have lots of early fishing memories, but not so many fish!  My Dad was so into fishing.  He was a flyfisherman.  I remember him setting me up with a bobber and salmon eggs in a hole about 1/2 mile above Fernbridge on the Eel in the mid 70's.  He went right downstream to the riffle to toss his flies.  I hung out next to an old woman in a lawnchair with my bobber floating around in water that I remember looking flat and boring.  But then I was hooked up!  I brought in a nice healthy half-pounder steelhead, and the woman in the lawnchair was like, "get outa here, Kid!" - fish envy!     I ran with that half-pounder down to the riffle where my Dad had waded out for flyfishing.  I yelled at him - "I caught one!!!"  He looks up, "well it's dead now!"  Apparently I was supposed to have unhooked it and continued fishing (no cameras, Hawg Troughs or i-phones around...) nonchalantly.  My feelings were hurt, but important lessons that you remember all your life do come out of those tough moments.  It's like when my son Collin pulled a nice berry along with the entire strawberry plant out of the ground as a 2 year old, held it up proudly, and I had to squash him with "you've killed the whole plant!"  Everything in me screamed of how crappy it was to tell that kid what he did wrong, and I'll bet my Dad had that same feeling when he chastised me for killing that half-pounder.  I can reconcile it all though.  I can be glad that my Dad taught me to be an efficient and conscientious person, because he always made sure I knew that he loved me.  I find myself reminiscing about such things quite often as I raise my own kids, and I know there is an important balance between instruction, even if it's sometimes harsh, and praise.  When I consider such things I feel that my entire M.O. as a fisherman, waterman, sportsman, parent, friend, businessman...etc. is influenced by those early lessons.  So much character to be built out there, and for many of us it started with fishing.   

RIP, Dad.  1/29/08

Can't remember the fist one at all...was probably in a lake near Casper Wyoming or maybe in the bayou outside my grandma's old house...

There was a picture before Katrina of me at like two years old asleep in the dirt on the bank of a lake in Wyoming with a fishing pole in my hand...

My first "real" memories are of going out in the Gulf Of Mexico and casting with a super light spinning set up alongside the legs of oil rigs and catching "trashfish" (angel/spadefish, trigger fish, hardtails, small black tip sharks etc). Every now and again I would get a "real" fish (mangrove snapper, lemonfish, dolphin, tripletail, spanish mackerel etc), but mostly it was catch and release and I was more than happy to do that all day while Mom and brother worked the bottom for Red Snappers and Amberjacks and Dad put drift lines out back for King Mackerel.

Probably TMI, but I learned a lot of great lessons fishing from my Dad (patience, perseverance, respect for the environment to name a few)...but also some bad ones as well.....I remember on these trips how when he got frustrated or angry he would kick the cooler or an empty beer can and curse and bang the steering wheel or whatever....typical stuff really...

Always made me feel shitty and scared and I promised myself I would never do that with my own family....

Surprise, surprise I find myself doing the exact same shit now with my wife in front of my daughter... 

Been working on not doing it and have been having some success....but still got a long way to go...

Anyway, still love fishing with my Dad and spending time with him is one of the things I really look forward to everytime we manage to see each other.

Good thread.

Sincerely,

Jim

What a great thread.   

I have lots of early fishing memories,

  When I consider such things I feel that my entire M.O. as a fisherman, waterman, sportsman, parent, friend, businessman...etc. is influenced by those early lessons.  So much character to be built out there, and for many of us it started with fishing.   

RIP, Dad.  1/29/08

"Some Peoples Kids"  I'm sure everyone that's met you feels a New enthusiasm towards life/fishing and to think it's all from your parents attitude toward life and the!!! Feel sad and happy as you reflect about your father, sounds like he was an all around wonderful kind of man... Thanks for sharing all you do........  it's not always about fishing!!! 

My grandparents used to live in Costa Mesa CA near Tewinkle Park. There was a small lake with bluegill. All I remember is going to grandpas house and watering the crap out of his yard trying to get the earthworms  up. Then the challenge was filling a coffee can with dirt and worms and avoiding the dog crap from the 80lb lab. Flash forward to the lake and pulled in a fish ( although I don't actually remember it) my grandmother still reminds me every time I see her that when I landed it I looked back at her and told her that I "trapped a fish".

Next memory was first fish I cleaned on grandpas orders, I gutted a rainbow trout at big bear lake and corn kernels fell out. I am still a little weirder out by it.

My first fish was a large catfish caught in the bay around Baytown Texas when I was 4 or 5. I was sure proud of that fish. I even got a picture of it in my Baby Book(remember I am 68 years young). I have  chased and caught many fish since but I an still waiting to get that first fish with my YAK. There will be blood on that YAK yet.

My Mom just emailed me this old pic of me with a hardtail from back in the day...probably one of my first ones because we learned quickly they weren't worth killing to eat and were better to just catch and release.

 
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Jim, that is priceless!!

Damn!  Nice Tan Jim!!

Where was that taken?