The beginning

I touched on what got me started as a crappie angler in my story titled "Partners" After writing that article, I began thinking back to see what set of circumstances led me to become a fisherman.

What I believe is the case with most that become avid participants in an activity or hobby, a special event had to take place.

Way back when, 45 years ago to be exact, at the ripe old age of 7 is when it happened for me.

My father, a lifer military man, a heavy drinker and socialite, and a man that never really did to many things with his children, decided to take the whole family on a picnic and fishing trip to the Wateree river.

A few of you may know the spot, it's where the river crosses under the Hwy. 378 bridge. Back in those days, 1969 or 1970 not many folks used that area other than a few bank fisherman.

I was all boy back then, and more into exploring the mud and water than the fishing. After getting filthy, and worn out, I decided to sit on the bank and practice casting and reeling.

I did this until my father tired of it, and he hollered for me throw it out, and leave it be. Of coarse I didn't listen. When I began to reel it, a heavy weight was on the other end.

My brothers thought I was hung up, but I insisted that I had something alive on the other end of my line. I cranked that Zebco 202 as hard as I could, all the while, the drag continued to squeal.

It was at that point my line began moving upstream, everyone now knew I had a fish of some size on the other end.

My older brother attempted to take my pole, but my father would have none of it. He told him to leave me be, and lets see if he can land it.

I fought that fish for what seemed to be hours, in reality was probably 10 minutes before getting him to the bank. I had caught a carp, a 6lb. carp.

I could not of been prouder or happier of my accomplishment and insisted we take it home and eat it.

My mother is German, in Germany carp are considered a favorite food fish, hence the reason they were stocked in all US waters.

My folks were hesitant, but obliged me. The fish was cleaned, placed into a clay roasting dish, and baked. After an hour or two it was served up for the family supper.

I will state; that was by far the best tasting carp I've ever eaten. As a side note, the only carp I've ever eaten.

Now that y'all have heard my beginning, would any of you wish to share a memory with us as to how you became a fisherman?

My dad started me fishing, but not just any type of fishing it was crappie fishing. This would be in the 50's, and on Santee. We would go to stumphole and fish with minnows, we caught lots of crappie back then. We started jig fishing in the 60's, and also caught lots of crappie. This would be the main reason that I still love crappie fishing. I think that as we see people write their start of fishing, someone in their family started them fishing. I know its hard for us older kids to take the youger kids fishing, but their are many lasting memories for the kids old and new, with this said TAKE A KID FISHING.

My start would have been in the late 60's also. Dad didn't fish any fresh water only salt but there was a older couple that lived 2 houses from us. He asked my dad if I could stay the night with them and go fishing the next morning and dad agreed. This couple didn't have any children and that night I was treated like I was the only kid in the world! The next morning before daylight we were baiting rods with mullet and setting on the bank of the Saluda River. My first trip of a life long love for the river that I still fish. We caught a lot of fish that day and I learned to respect what a catfish can do to your hands but my love for fishing was born that day.

This couple became my adopted grandparents, they have been gone for many years now but I think of them often while on the water. Like the movie, in my heart a River Runs Through It.

I'm going to make this thread a sticky for awhile as I think we will read some very interesting post. Thanks Tim for starting it.

I wished I could say how or when I started fishing. I can remember trying to catch a fish while camping when I was very young but mostly all I can remember is I've fished all my life. I was born in '56. Back in my day of growing up us children in the neighborhood were turned loose everyday (and the screen door was locked when we went outside HA!) and all we had to do was make it in the house at 12 Noon for lunch and at 6PM for supper and in for the night by dark. If you were late for meals you didnt eat. Life was much simplier back in those days. Kids didnt get kidnapped nor was anybody doing drugs. Me and my neighborhood buddies spent every day at the creek fishing and swimming. We dug and sold worms for a dime a cup to the grown folks that came to fish and afterwards we headed to the neighborhood store with our monies for candy and ice cream. We fished with anything from set hooks to reed canes to our own rod and reels. Mostly our catches would be bream, cats, and the ocassional carp. Usually we'd tie our rods to a stump or a bush with a stringer while we swam in the running creek behind the backed up waters. Every once in awhile one of the neighbor's Dad would carry us to a catfish pond. Man, what a treat that was. Fishing has always been a BIG part of me for as long as I can remember. I was told my Grandpa LOVED fishing and was pretty good at it too. I never knew him as he died when I was just a baby but I'm guessing my love for fishing came thru him as an inheritance. And, as a bonus, my son took to fishing like a fish takes to water. I started him when he was 2 or 3 years old and he hasnt tired from it one little bit, and he's 33 yrs old now.:)

Got my start very early. My mama worked 2nd shift in a cotton mill. Pop was on 1st. So when he came home he would load up the old car we had and me and head out to the carp ponds. His uncle ran one so we was regular customers. Now I was about a year or so old I am told when we would go fishin. He had a wooden box to keep me in so I wouldnt get in the way or fall in. Had my bottle and a toy to keep me quite. As I got older I got to get out of the box. Then I finally got to fish. Well anyway I would throw my line out. Then drag it in about 2 minutes later. But I was fishin. The first time I actually remember fishin was at a carp pond in Gaffeny. Thinkin bout 5 or 6 at the time. Grandpa had got me one of the new spinning reels for my birthday. Made me a rod stand out of a forked tree limb. Had some real carp bait on it. Chunked it out and put it on the stand. Wasnt long and I had a bite. Pop kept saying let him take it before you jerk. Well he took it. Pulled it right out of my rodholder and splash. My new rig was gone. I think I cried for a week after that. But soon as I got the chance I was back after em. Been chasin scaley critters for a while now. Gave up deer huntin cause you cant throw em back after you shoot em and decide you dont want it. Love to take folks that have little or no fishin experience .Nothin better than seein em light up when they get that big one . Specially the kids. Guess thats cause my bride says I am still an old kid. Who cares. Long as it is fun and aint hurtin nobody.

first time I remember going fishin was around 1955 or 56 somewhere around there I was riding the bus home from school and saw my dads car at Taylor Greens cat fish and carp pond so I took a real good chance at getting a good blistering and got off the bus at the store and walked down to the pond where my dad scolded me a little and then got me a pole and made me sit down and fish till he got ready to go home -- cant remember if I caught a fish or not but I did set there and fished. my dad died when I was 13 and a man that owned a farm close by sort of took me under his wing and gave me a little money for cutting his grass and he had two ponds on his farm so after a while he bought me a rod and reel on conditions I pay him back -- it took a couple summers to do it but I did -- he also bought me two shisters one black and a yellow one that week I sneaked in a pond 2 miles away and caught a few small fish and then wham-ooo a 5lb bass liked to scared me to death but I got him in -- that ended my day fishin so I headed home with my catch == has anybody tried carrying 6-7 lb. of fish on one them nylon fish stringers 2 miles on a dead run at 14 years old? mama was proud of me because we had something to eat besides pinto beans and taters and that's how I got started fishin. and I still love to go fishin --any way any how any kind don't matter if I catch any or not I just love to go :fish :biggrin

I just always liked fishing. Far back as I can remember.

I don't remember the first time or a particular year...but, by the time I was old enough to have the interest, my dad & grandpa had quit crappie fishing. Dad was strictly a canepole/live bait fisherman and I guess I got the crappie addiction from him & grandpa...however, it was not my first love. I was mesmerized by running water and nothing suited me better than being on the Saluda river shin deep standing on the shoals and catching thousands of bream, catfish, carp, smallmouth, largemouth and any other creature that bit my hook. In the summer, dad would take me to fish the Nantahala or the Little Pigeon river or even Douglas Lake. When I was about 11 or 12, my uncle taught me how to cast a fly rod and after hearing his tales of adventure and wonder...another monster was created. I knocked the paint off every red/white popping bug that I got my hands on. Nothing matched the excitement of a bull gill exploding on topwater to inhale my bug....Very fond memories were made wading the banks of those rivers and many valuable lessons learned...nothing like a wood infested river with thousands of overhanging limbs to teach a young lad how to cast and tie knots. As I grew older the lure of big water seemed to be a natural progression...I bought my first boat, a 60's model aluminum v-hull with a 50's model 18hp Evindrude....that thing skipped like a kid playing hop-scotch.:) But I started terrorizing the lakes and fish that inhabited them. I thought I was Virgil Ward & Roland Martin all at the same time....lol. Life has a way of circling back though...kinda like beagles running rabbits. Although I can't count the number of fish that have come over the sides of the old boats I've owned...fish that I dreamed about as a boy...the faint call of the river is beginning to grow louder. And in my heart, I know that I must return...

I grew up in the country and fished a little creek that was near my house. Most of the neighbors were black families that farmed the land around us and my Dad had a little country grocery store so we knew everyone within 3 miles of us. The kids in those families were my playmates and we terrorized every sparrow in the county with our BB guns. We also fished in a little creek near our house with cane poles.
I read every outdoor magazine I could get my hands on but it wasn't until high school when one of my schoolmates gave me a Johnson Century reel which I put on an old fiberglass rod that I got from somewhere that I began fishing with rod and reel. I had a Hula Popper that someone gave me and my friend and I went to a farm pond that I had permission to fish. (Things were different as a child in the 50s) I never had much faith in actually catching anything with a rod and reel but my buddy had been taught by his dad from an early age so I followed his lead.
He saw some swirls and told me a big bass was bedding in a little opening in some lily pads and had me cast my plug in there. I made a poor cast just barely to the edge of the opening so he told me to leave the plug there while he made several cast to the opening with no luck. When I went to lift my rod to retrieve the plug it looked like the whole lake opened up and my plug disappeared into what looked like a foot wide mouth. I had him on for about 2 seconds before the line popped and I stood there dumbstruck.
My buddy asked "You did put new line on that reel didn't you? I told you it was old and brittle and needed changing before you used it." Well, no I hadn't because up to that moment I never expected to catch anything on a rod and reel. That was the moment I realized that stuff did work and I have been buying fishing stuff ever since.

These are some truly great stories, and I find it amazing how I can relate to each and every one of them to some degree or another. With that said, I'm going to add more to my story.

We (my family) returned from a tour in Germany in 1969, it was that year when my beginning took place. Like Butch, my mother had to whip me to get me to come in the house, not like the kids nowadays, who have to made to go outside.

All the neighborhood kids got together for sporting events, we played everything from football and baseball, to kickball and basketball. I hated to lose at anything I competed in, and my desires to win fueled my abilities to practice until I was good at whatever the event was.

We had a couple of nearby ponds, and when ball games were not being played, those ponds were where I could be found. Bream and bass were the species of choice back then, we would dig our own bait when bream fishing, for bass, the artificial lures being used were mostly plugs that were found snagged in trees and stumps.

Plastic worms became the go to baits for bass, so I begin cutting lawns and cashing in returnable soda bottles for money to buy more and more fishing stuff.

A new couple moved in two houses down from us, Charles and Linda Hallman. Charles was an avid outdoorsman and took a liking to me and my brothers. He would take us deer hunting and fishing in the many private lands and ponds he had access to. He was also the first person that I fished in a boat with.

Bass fishing was his thing, and a purple spring tail worm was his bait of choice, so it became my favorite bait too. I eventually changed to Jelly worms, then to Mr. Twisters. Though I enjoyed bass fishing, the action was never fast enough for me, so I evolved into a bream fishermen.

The miles I traveled on bicycles to the many, many ponds I found would surely be in the thousands. Every chance I would get, I'd be sitting on the pond bank fishing. I absolutely loved it, and to this day nothing makes me happier than being on the water.

Tim, i also went through a few bikes going fishing. Brings back many memories. :) Mom couldn't keep us in the house, she did good keeping us at home as all the kids spent many hours in the woods and creeks. We would find a deep hole in the creeks and dam them so we had a swimming hole. Good times even with the hard times everyone had to deal with.

well i grew up on on the 3 rivers savannah chagua & the chadtoga . trout fishing with my father to him that was the only fish that swam in fresh water he was great at trout fishing setting 2 state records back in the late 60s to mid 70s im thinking they was rainbow and a brown trout and he had a great love for deer hunting. oh i forgot he was a Yankee but a red neck yankee from way up in the Adirondack mountains on the u.s. and canada border but spent his adult life here in good old s.c. he went in the u.s. navy at the ripe old age of 17 where he met my uncle a cook on the uss cv60 saratoga and the rest is history well now i fish with my father in my hart he past on last dec 12 once i got up to age got me boat i did get him out and show him that they was other fish to be caught i also grew up fishing creeks for Horne heads and swamps for brim and cats and frogs a trick my dad showed me get ready to a kick out this one frog fishing yep frog fishing you can take a stick or a rod and reel or a fly rod and use a fly and stick it in his face and bam you got a frog for the sack boy it would be nice to go back for a week and do it all one more time.

Your stories bring back a lot of memories some I relate to. My tracks where following the foot steps of my brother and a older cousin. They helped me learn all the ways to fish and hunt rabbits and squirrel and later took up deer hunting. My trail was and is right here Rock hill area except my 22 years in the Air Force where I had the chance to see parts of the world and continue my habit of fishing and hunting. I have forgot a lot of things over the years and choose to for some of them. But I think you hit the spot with your tales. It brings a gentle smile to me. Thanks for reminding me I was a kid one time too.

My dad started me fishing when I was four years old. Loved it from the start. We fished for bream, crappie, and catfish. He left home when I was seven. But my mom and older half brother who would take me some. However we didn't get to o to often so got away from fishing. Then, when I went to work in the furniture industry, I met a man we called, "Steel" Keller. Steel, who never had any children, took me under his wings (I was 16 at the time) and re-introduced me to fishing by giving me a Zebco (black one) reel and rod. That was 52 years ago and I haven't stopped since and whenever I can, I take a child fishing.