What is the first fish you remember catching

[CrappieLips]

I was about 10 my grandfater and grandmother an i were fishing for crappie and i pulled in a slab my grandfather was all excited kept hollering keep it in the water, don't pull it up, he got the net and got it it weighed 2 1/2 pounds and was 15" long. there were lots of other times with my granddad i cherish those days with pawpaw.

[crappiefishergirl]

i've caught many little bream but the fish that got me going was caught with my cane pole. my parents would take me with them fishing. dad with his open reel. mom with her zebco. i had a 6 foot can pole with fishing line and a "bumble bee" jig (the jig was yellow with black stripes and had a yellow feather tail).
my parents were casting here and there not catching much. i was dipping my bumble bee in the water here and there just trying to past the time. then i saw a bass flip out of the water under a tree. my parents both casted towards it and caught nothing but branches. i flipped my line under the tree and caught it ! i have no idea how big it was but i do remember how much fun it was to fight with it to pull it in. i probably had about 5 ft of line on my pole.

[okiefish]

wow, this brings back good memories.
I grew up in western new york and used to go visit my Grandmother who lived in Celeron , on Lake Chautaqua.
We fished off the old concrete break water where Celeron Park once stood. My Dad worked there as a kid and had great stories about how big it was and how many people visited the park.
We fished with worms we gathered as we "flashlighted" the night before.
My pole was a 7' piece of 1/4 round moulfing with braided nylon cord, a wine cork for a bobber ,,lol My brothers and I caught huge stringers of sun perch and lake perch, sometime numbering over 100 fish!
Dad got us serated steak knives and said,,"you caught em' you clean them"...
The 3 of us cleaned fish for what seemed like hours and had a great fish fry of pan fried sunfish and lake perch.
GrandMa sure enjoyed seeing us so excited and she also enjoyed the fish fry too.

[labill]

It does bring back memories! I hadn't thought of my first fish in decades. We lived in Houma LA at the time, I was only 5 about to turn 6. I was a skinny little f*#t and one day my dad wanted to take my brother and I down to the canal, just a half block from the house, and get us started fishing. After an hour, bait was almost gone, hadn't caught anything, but my older brother had a few potasa and an eel. Dad said he would get another box of worms just a couple of bait stands away, he told me to hang on if I got a bite and don't let go!! Well, my brother went a ways down the canal when I had a hard pull on my cane pole. The ground was wet due to a rain the night before, and the fish was slowly dragging me to the canal, and I'm digging ditches with my heels and rearend in the mud, getting worried I may get drowned or eaten. An elderly black man saw my struggle, and rushed to offer help, asking if he needed to help me. I said I can't because Dad said not to let go of the pole! The man said he would hold me under my arms and wouldn't touch the pole, and I was glad!! Shortly after that my Dad came running up and we all got the fish out of the water. Turned out to be a Gaspar Gou, almost as tall as I was, and even heavier. After I bragged to my brother how good a fisherman I was, and after showing everyone in hollering distance my prize, I asked my Dad if I could give it to the man that kept me from being pulled in the canal. I saw tears come to his eyes as soon as I said it, and knew instinctively I was doing the right thing. He had a lifetime of good things to teach me, and he did. Mechanics, building, electricity, respect, honesty, and love of our fellow man. He had many more things to teach us, but he left us 13 years ago. I guess this is what I wanted to remember more than the fish, may God bless him.

[Glowgood Jigster]

I think the first fish I caught was probably a small rainbow trout from the creek near our house. But the first one I remember was a silver salmon (Coho), when I was about 6 years old. My dad worked on a charter boat out of Charleston, Oregon (Port of Coos Bay), and they had a no-show customer so I got to go on the trip. The salmon were biting real well, and everybody on the boat were getting fish. When I hooked my first fish, Dad told me to keep the butt of the rod in my belly and reel it in. Well, being so small then, the butt of the rod went down my pants and down through the hole in the knee of my jeans. I kept reeling anyways, and got a nice silver that was around 12 lbs. I caught two more that trip for my limit, and each time had the boatfull of customers laughing it up.
We had the fish canned in Charleston, and I remember crying my eyes out when I learned that we gave ALL of that fish to my Uncle who was sailing his homebuilt trimaran to the South Pacific Isles. I never got to eat any of my first salmon. But we always had fish of some kind to eat, and I got over it.
Now I catch the heck out of the crappie, and I get at least half of it. It all evens out over the years, don't it?
Doug

[Glowgood Jigster]

I have to amend the above salmon fishing post, I was going on memories but now I have photographic evidence that I'd forgotten, and pushes those salmon I'd caught, up a year or two. I now belive I was closer to 8 years old when I caught those coho on the charter boat my dad worked on. Because these flounder and petrol were caught when I was 4 or 5.. Many historic details were lost when my family died by 1971, and the rest of the relatives didn't have many details. I'm just patching things together now, with the help of these lost photo's. Apparently being severely nearsighted as a child affects your memory until you get glasses for 1st grade.

[handybat]

It's not the first fish I ever caught but it's the fist that I remember. I was just a youngster fishing with my dad and my uncle. We were fishing in some backwater in Lake Overcup in Arkansas. The bank was a little bit steep where I was and I had my rod on a forked stick. I hooked an 11 pound carp and it almost pulled me in, lol. If that forked stick hadn't been there I would have been all wet for sure. I was hollering at my dad to come help me but he and my uncle were in tears from laughter. It was a struggle but I finally got it in. That was a lot of fun and something I'll never forget as long as I live

[GRIZZ]

I've been addicted to fishing since the first thump when I was a little kid. Its kinda a funny story. I was 3 yrs old, and my family was vacationing at a lake in PA called Canadohta Lake. Nearby was a small pay fishing lake full of trout. We went there just to watch I think, and me being me, a bit of trouble, wandered off by myself to watch an old fella fish. He had a block of Velveeta cheese he was cutting squares off for fish bait sitting next to him on the ground. Well, hes minding his own business and he turns around to see whats behind him and a 3 yr old (me and I was cute little feller back then) is hunkered down beside him, eating his bait. I don't remember exactly what he did or said, but everyone thought it was pretty funny including him. He was a nice old guy, and after he retrieved his bait from the jaws of uh.. well me. He offered to let me hold his fishing rod after he cast it out, which I did, feeling rather important. Well, a trout hits the bait, and I remember what that felt like to this day. The thump, the tugging on the line, the old guy helping me land the fish. I was so excited I think I wet my pants. Actually I don't remember doing that, but it sounded good in the story, but I distinctly remember the thump and the fight and the feeling I had. Its a very vivid memory. I've never been the same since.

[handybat]

That's a good story bud, lol. Yes I bet you were excited. The bait that I used to catch that carp with was called dough balls, a mixture of Wheaties, peanut butter and bread, lol. Good bait tho.

[Glowgood Jigster]

dough balls, a mixture of Wheaties, peanut butter and bread

I remember seeing Jimmy Houston giving a similar receipe for carp dough balls, but it was Wheaties, Strawberry Jello powder, and strawberry soda pop enough to make it into stiff dough. I tried it once but the carp were jumping all over and not biting. I think they were spawning and off the bite.