Yep, I'm 65 so my experience was somewhat different. At 7 years old, I'd dig some worms in our yard or go to the neighbors 'slop' spot where she dumped kitchen water and other stuff since she didn't have indoor plumbing to get some worms. I also walked up to our country store, about 400 square feet and asked the owner lady for the 'scraps' from slicing bacon for my 'Mud Cat' bait. Caught ONLY 'Warmouth' and 'Mud Cats' from the small creek we lived by, but mom and I would clean them and she would cook them up for dinner. I did progress to artificial bait when I had some money, but the worms and 'bacon' scraps worked well at the time.