What is the first fish you remember catching

The one I remember best was when I was about five. My dad had taken me to a local fishing hole. It was a small pond that had a canal that accessed a 9000 acre lake. The pond it self was small, but produced some nice slabs. At the time I had no clue as to types of fish and didn't care, I was fishing with daddy! The pond had a little pier that was about to fall in the water. Which of course held fish and through the years people had put cover around it. Anyways, I remember my dad took special care that I was rigged and in the water first. I was tickled. We were using telescoping bream poles at the time with minnows. My dad had turned his back to set up his rig and all o f a sudden I felt a big tug. I tightened my grip and held on. I remeber I was so excited I couldn't get anything out of my mouth. By the time my dad realized what was going on, the fish had already pulled me to the other side of the peir. Just before I fell in, rod in hand, my dad grabbed me. He was so excited, telling me to hang on. Finally the big rasccal surfaced. It was a 10lb long nose gar. The ugliest fish I had ever seen,but I wouldn't let daddy throw him back. I had to take it home and show it to momma. Luckily I didn't ask to eat it. Needless to say I didn't fish any more that day, I played with my fish.

If you have a good first catch story post it...

Don't know how old I was, but remember catching perch out of a ditch
right in middle of town, in front of the folk's house who I stayed with,
with a piece of twine, a safety pin, and worms dug up out the garden:p
no pole, just hand-lining. Then got a 202 Zebco and rod, man that was
something. Caught punkinseeds out of the creek behind our house, and
made the mistake of puttin' them in an aquarium with store-bought fish -
next morning, nothing left in the tank but them - boy was I mad:)

The first fish I caught was a crappie. I remember being 4 or five years old. We were sitting on a levee between two lakes. It was a lake behind Horseshoe Lake, we called it the Dollar Hole, however, I think it was really called Bruins. You paid a dollar to go sit on the bank to fish. !st crappie I caught was 2 3/4 pounds, dad had to help me get it in. The cane pole was too long for me to handle with that sixe of crappie on it. But I do remember it, dad was tickled to death.

I remember going to a farm pond with my daddy and catching some huge bream. We called the pond cow-patty pond because the cattle the farmer raised left cow patties all around it. They since filled the pond but I think about those fishing trips to the pond every time I pass down that road.

It was a small bream out of the french broad river just under the I-40 overpass in Asheville. I was 7 or 8 and me and my friend walked there about 3 miles from my house. I used a lime green lure that looked like an inch worm. I remember taking him home and trying to clean him. (he wasn't any bigger than 3 or 4 inches) I ended up butchering the heck out of him and there was no meat left to cook. That was the only fish between the two of us we caught that day but it was enough to hook me for life.

My dad was a state park inspector... but not a fisherman... He took me to one of the trout parks in south Missouri (too young to remember which one)...
The park superintendent was a friend of Dad's... he baited my hook with a nightcrawler and cast it into the stream. A big rainbow took it... I remember Dad's amazement when I actually hooked a fish. I hauled it out of the water, only to watch it flip off and swim away. Been tryin' to catch that fish ever since!

I remember catching the most bream I have ever caught at one time with some friends when I was ten camping with a piece of line, a stick, a hook and some worms we found. Accidentally put them all in one bucket and they boiled in the July heat!

My first fish I ever caught was a 2lb largemouth bass. I was visiting my grandma in Arkansas (I believe it was Lake Ouachita) and her boyfriend took me out in the evening on a "party barge" to go fishing. I remember when it fish hit the lure I thought I was going to have a hard attack. I was probably 10 or 11 at the time. Still to this day, I have only ever caught 1 other bass. Hopefully now that I started fishing again things can change.

Other then that I've caught a few trout (Eagle Lake, Nevada and Cave Lake, Nevada), lots of bream (Lake Ouachita, Arkansas), a couple crappie (Arkansas river, won't ever forget that day since it was a lightning storm and hail the size of golf balls) and tons of blue gills (Lake Otay, California). Oh, and the only other fish I've caught, 2 northern pike, (Big Mike Lake, Rose Barracks, Germany). Thats about all the fish I've ever caught.

I can't remember the first fish I caught, but here is the fish that I'll remember the most. Me and dad were fishing our farm pond for crappie. I was using a cork and minnow without much luck. I had finally gotten a bite. Well by then I had about fifty feet of line out floatin on the water. I had consumed a few hot weather beverages so I didn't realize that I had that much line out. I went to set the hook and slung my rod tip up into some tree limbs. My line got tangled up in there and it slid across my cig I had in my mouth. The line burnt through and there went the fish with all my stuff. A little bit later I saw my cork pop back up against the other bank. I grabbed the pond boat and headed out. I finally snuck close enough so I could grab the bobber and line. Well it ended up being about an 8 inch bass. Boy was I ticked!:D

The first fish I can remember catching was a danged ole puffer fish.. one of them that blows up into a balloon looking spiney thing.

We were fishing off of a dock on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. I was so proud and pulled that ugly butt fish in. Went to take it off the hook and got yelled at "don't touch that thing!" funny.. I don't remember what happened to that fish. :rolleyes:

My dad and brother took me to a place called Suson Park and set me up, I was about 6 or 7. They had a Catfish lake, a Bass-n-Bluegill lake and this one with Carp that were big as I was. It was the first time I set the hook on a runaway train. Pop and my brother were rollin on the ground laughing, and people around me were telling me how to play him. After 10 mins, dad got to thinking I might accidently land this cow and started coaching me. Took all of 45 mins. to get it in with absolutly no help. 42lbs. and I was done for the day. I think my pop was more proud me that day than any other time in his whole life, had to drag that butt ugly thing all over st. louis to show everyone he knew. Don't think that was my first but is the one I remember the best...izzy---Ever have Carp on a pine board?

That would have to be a saltwater eel that I caught behind the house I grew up in.Used garden worms and a boat pole with a conventional reel left out over night to see what I would catch from the creek.Than after that it was killie fish on a pin with white bread for bait.The salt marshes of NY City were a great learning time for me.
tioga

Well the first fish I remember catching was about a 4 pound large mouth bass.I was about five years old useing an old Zebco 202 and a very short rod.Mama kept telling me to sit down and be quite just watch the cork boy.Finaly that old cork went down and I couldn't reel in what was on the other end so I took off running up the bank of the small pond we were at.I drug that Giant bass all the way up on the bank and this was before catch and release was invented.I remember this so well because mama use to tell verybody she saw this story.

don't remember first fish but remeber first real sac-a-lait trip or like ya'll call them crappie. I was 12 years old went to a place called bayou benoit. We stayed on a house boat of an old crawfisherman and man then crawfisherman know where to fish. There was about 6 of us started fishing friday afternoon just our boat had 70 to 80 bream. Went back to house boat for the night and frie then patasas up which is french for bream. started early saturday morning our boat limited out in three hours and the same sunday. when we came home sunday we had over 600 sac-a-lait fillets and 200 bream. Man wish the fishing was still that good.

I remembered when I was growing up my father and I would go to Lawton, Ok to visit my grandparents. I remember going to grampas boat house on Lake Latonka. We would catch bluegill, crappie and small bass. At night grandpa, dad and I would get the homemade stink bait out and catch hugh carp and catfish. I remember most of the time I could stay awake all night and I would go and fall asleep. One day dad told me that I had to stay up and give it a try. I stayed up all night and finally got the bite from the largest fish that I have caught in my life. It was a 25# catfish. I remember that I couldn't reel the fish in I wasn't strong enough. My dad insisted that I kept up the fight and finally MOBY DICK got tired and let me land it. I really miss those days fishing with my dad and grandpa. Grandpa has passed but my father and I fish together as much as possible. I can't wait when I can take my daughter out with us and let her fight her first fish.

Interesting thread and very interesting that all the posts talk about begining to fish at a young age. I was about 6 or 7 and we had a Ski boat. My Dad would take us out bream fishing with these stiff metal rods, level wind reels with string for line ( I still have 2 of them). He sold the boat and we took up camping. I fished every chance I got. After that I fished in spurts with gaps of several years but for the last 20+ years I have been an avid fisherman.

I remember hearing stories about ME being cought by a fish. I was still in diapers on a dock while dad and grandad were catfishing. Some how I fell off and probally bounced my backside on a rock. I started screaming and crying about the fish that bit my butt.

Mine was a 2 oz bream at lake greenwood I think, I was 4 perhaps.

I am very lucky, I can remember fishing with both of my grandpas and my dad many times from a young age, but the one that always comes to mind, is fishing new years day on the miss. river around the lock and dam north of Prarie Du Chein Wi. I was 12. We had been fishing the dam and wing dams, hadn't caught a thing, dad decided we should go try some back waters, so we ventured out, breaking through some thine ice. Got to "the spot" and started jigging, it wasn't to long and dang I was hung up, or so I thought. The snag I drug up was a 7.5 lb. Walleye !! The funny part of the story is a few days later, we where eating those fish, and I asked dad what he had done with my fish, he said we where eating it. Well I was a little diapointed, I wanted to mount that fish ! Guess what I got for christmas that next year. Yup my walleye. I have caught quite a few larger ones since, but have never kept them. I have mine on the wall. My grandparents are all gone now, but I still fish with my dad often, and take my wife and kids as often as possible.

My first fishing trip was when I was five years old across the bean field from my house in a catfish pay pond. The man that owned it did'nt mind if we came to catch Green Sunfish out of it. I remember my dad and my sister bringing me. My dad rigged me up first with a dab of redworm with a split shot under a small float and then turned his attention to rigging up my sister. After he got her rigged up he asked me where my float was and I told him it went under the water and I didn't know why. It had been down there for a few seconds. I remember my dad franticly telling me to "set the hook, set the hook" so I did and caught the first of many small Green Sunfish. That was the only time dad had to tell me what to do, I thought I was Bill Dance after that. Well, long story short I think I drove dad and Mr. Northcutt (the owner) crazy the rest of the summer as I could'nt get enough.

I am 14, and I am sad to say that I don't remember what my first fish was, but it was probly a gill. Anyway, we were fishing at Green Valley and there was a peir that stuck way out in the water surrounded by 3 tree piles. We fished there all day with minnows in the trees. I was at the front of the peir, with my Zebco 202 and a rod, about the length of a snoopy pole, but stronger. I was catching crappies and probly some bass. I was a short little guy, so it was hard for me to see my bobber, but it went under, and i set my hook. The next thing I know, my dad is running to me, I had hooked a 5lb catfish. He had to maneuver it around the trees on the other sides of the peir, but he got it in for me. My grandma also got a 4lb that day. I have a picture of them somewhere, but I am not sure. I will probly always remember that day, especially that fish. We also used little, I called them macaroni, but they were orange things, supposed to immitate a minnow, but it had a little tail at the end that flapped back and fourth. I still have some of those. I got a 5lb. bass on a bigger version at my local lake messing around. Guess it payed off. Great stories guys, CoRy

Good subject bass!
I don't remember my first fish, but I distinctly remember when I was around 6 or 7, fishing around the docks at Whitehorn Cove on Lake Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. I too had a zebco 202, some small hooks, and a rope stringer. I had that thing full of Bluegill of all sizes that hung out close up to the dock. I was done for the day, so proud of my haul! I was walking back to the section that sold gas to the boats. My stringer slipped out of my grasp. It fell onto the dock. Then, the whole stringer slipped down into the water making it's way through the space between the planks. I cried about it for awhile. A stranger asked me what was wrong and I told him. He asked me if I thought I could catch some more and I said yes. He reached into his tackle box and handed me another rope stringer and told me to keep it. That he had, had it for quite sometime and couldn't catch anything to stick on it. That, it would do better with a fiserman such as myself. I thanked him and went back to fishing. I filled that one up, and that was the last time in my life, I have EVER lost a stringer of fish.
Another time, I was around 11. I was still using a zebco 202. I was testing a bright blue 7" plastic worm. There was some comotion at the boat ramp, and a guy had drove his trailer off the ramp and the axle was high centered on the side of the ramp. He couldn't get enough traction to pull it out, and two guys had to enter the water and lift the trailer up, so he could pull it out. Right after they had got it out, and the other two guys left the water. I tossed that worn right over onto the ramp, and let it fall off the edge around where they were. I got a hit, and it was a 2.5 lb bass! All three of the guys were just astounded! lol, it was a good day!

First fish was a small bluegill that I caught when I was 6 years old from my grandfather's farm pond. Wasn't much of a fish but I was really proud of it.

Mine was a bass in Bass lake, California around 1950. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then......

My first fish was when I was about five. My dad was in the navy and was stationed at Pt. Magu in California. After he got off from work we would down to the beach and catch Surf Perch. I do remember going fishing with dad before that but that is the first fishing I did.

My dad had bought a small farm that had a couple of ponds on it back in the early 1960s. My middle sister was about 17 years old at the time and I was about 5 years old. We had a couple of cane poles and #2 gold hooks and some dug up worms for bait. I must have had the best time of my life because I remember the fun we had as we caught the small catfish and put them on a cotton stringer.

She showed me how to skin them and Mom fried them up that night for supper. They were small catfish, but we caught plenty for everyone.

The pond's been dried up now for years and she's moved away to the West Coast with her husband. But, I still fish when I can and thank her in my heart for teaching me how to catch catfish with a simple pole, #2 gold hook, and fat worms.

my dad was a hunter not a fisherman,but when i was 7 mom and dad divorced and mom remaried a fisherman......so my first fish was a 42lb shinook saslmon out of the ontario river in western ny,hooked her in the tail snaggin(was legal then) and had quite a fight.....now i live in nc and my step-father is in michigan and dont fish anymore but my dad lives close by and we fish whenever we can

my first fish was trout in branson mossouri at a trout farm i was probably 4 or5 years old been fishin ever since!!!!HOOKBENDER!!!

My Dad and Mom and I were fishing from a small gravel bar on the Sabine river. I don't remember how big the carp was, probably 5 lbs or so, caught it on zebco 202 combo. Don't know if that carp was the first fish, but it's the first one I remember and to this day the most memorable, not the biggest that I have caught on rod reel but the best.

The first fish I remember catching was a bream when I was 4. I was with my Dad and Grandpa and I was using a cane pole and a cricket.

My first memory of fishing was when I was about 5 years old. It was a thrill to get up while it was still dark outside. Mom made me a thermos full of hot chocolate and Dad a thermos of coffee.

Dad took me out to Winchester Bay, with a fishing buddy of his. It was also my first time in a boat! Well long story short, I pulled in a sunfish. Ah what a great experience! To cap off the day, Mom fried up the fish and I got to eat the Sunfish. Dad said it was my catch and my dinner. Yum-yum!

I still think of that day often when I am fishing, even some 40 years later. Best time I ever had.

baitman
www.thefishingbobber.com

i was about 9 yr old, i'm sure i had caught fish before this but, momma. daddy and i were in a little 14 foot alumicraft, with 25 elgin outboard drifting mud creek near scottboro, AL . i remember unrolling my cane pole hook first in the water and low and behold a crappie had bit that big gold aberdeen hook without any minnow on it. Them was the days. I sure miss the old guy, and man old man how crappie fishin' has changed

im 16 and i dont really remember the absolute first fish but i do remember the first crappie that i ever caught. i was fishing with family at a local lake (kiser lake st. paris ohio) and i was fishing with worms and a bobber. which i was young and bored with the fish not biting. when i looked down in the water and there was a dead minnow so i picked it up and put it on my hook. well in a few min.s i was reeling in the coolest fish that i had ever seen (it was shiny). And i liked it, so we went to the lakes bait shop got some minnows and didnt catch another thing. i was a good day though. and as a matter a fact i still go to this lake, im going there this weekend to try to catch that darn fish again although this time he's not being thrown back in. yummy crappie sure do taste good.

When I was knee high to a short grasshopper we lived by a creek that was dammed up close to some Rail-Road tracks. At the bottem of the dam was a wallowed out hole from the force of the water pounding it for so many years. One year (late spring, early summer) we had a long dry spell and some big catfish had got caught in that hole. I tied one end of my slipover shirt up and waded in there and caught several of them catfish. I started doing that after every rainfall when the water went down. I overheard my Dad tell Mom that he was concerned as none of the fish I was bringing home had any hook marks in there mouth. From then on I carried a hook with me and placed a hole in their mouth. I'm sure I caught fish before then but these are the ones I remember.

I don't remember my first fish but I am sure it was a crappie. THe more important story for me is my oldest sons first fish. I was earlier this year, my wife and I took our three kids out to the lake and my parents went with us. WE were only there for about ten mins when his bobber went under he set the hook and pulled in a 10 inch bass. He was as proud as anything I had ever seen. He still looks at my wife when we go fishing and tells her she is mad because he caught one and she didn't that day.

I was 10 and got my first baitcaster. I tied a bass jig (1/2 oz) and slinged it out. Bumped it across the bottom and one big bump came up. I had a fish! I reeled it in and it was a 1 3/4 pound white crappie! On my first cast! My dad took a pic of it and me, and I released it. I will never forget that one!

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.

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.

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.

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.