That one moment,...you knew 2024

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

Everyone has that one moment they remember, the moment they became addicted to fishing. Mark Zona brought this up today on tv and sure enough, I remember plain as day my moment.

It was when I was prepping for my first opening day of trout season. Back then, the place we go allowed camping. I went to the school library (elementary school) and got a book on camping. All kinds of hands on stuff I could do from making a toilet stand out of sticks with the pit below to how to make a stringer w/ a stick. It was a time I remember clear as day, the excitement of "survival" w/o modern elements.......It's only grown since that day a long time ago. Now, my passion is giving kids that first memory. I can't think of a better gift.

So,...when, where and what was YOUR moment? The moment you "KNEW"?

guest reply :

Cool topic Mr. Russ.

I do remember.

It was probably 1976. I had been fishing before, but this was the "moment"

I was fishing from the shore when I noticed a swirl near the bank about 75 yards upriver.

I didn't think too much of it but less than a minute later I saw another swirl about 50 yards upriver.

Now I'm looking pretty intently.

A few moments later I see a third swirl, this time abut 35 yards away.

I'm throwing a creek chub Pikie minnow, and have never caught anything on artificial bait.

So there I was, definitely getting excited as the awareness that this fish (had no idea what it was) was, without a doubt coming my way.

There it is again another swirl, 25 yards away. I cast my lure and what luck,

it lands a few feet off the bank about 50 feet upstream.

I let it sit a moment or so and twitch it.

Ka-Ploosh!!!!!!!!!!

there he is. It was total excitement.

The bass was about 2.5 pounds and a jumper.

Virtually all of my freshwater fishing experience up to this point had been for trout, so

I played the bass like it was a trout.

It worked.

I didn't know about 'lipping" a bass to land him.

I just fought him till he was whipped, admired him a few minutes,

looked around to see if there was anyone I could show off to.

There wasn't so I let him go.

Then I just soaked in the moment.

I felt like I was on top of the world.

I was hooked.

Dirk_Jig---Lure reply :

I was raised to wake up at dawn and go with my dad. Around 7th grade, girls were more important, fishin on saturday was more of a chore and i got away from it.

Then around 9th grade, I went down to Stump Pond, bored, had a few lures in my tackle box I hadn't touched in a few years. I always used mostly dads stuff or he had me using live bait to keep me interested.

It was so bad, my best lure I had after inspecting my box was red devil,lol

well a couple casts from shore, daydreaming about how I will spend the rest of the day once I prove to myself why I got out of doing this, and WHAM. I had a fish on. It was probablt THAT moment although I never really thought about the exact moment till reading this. Cool thread. So, I kept casting and was catching fish after fish,......on an artificial. I think this will be a key factor in many of the replies to come on this thread. Just like Avid, it's the first "real" one,...on an artificial....that makes you feel like you may have talent,...very rewarding, very addicting feeling for a young male.

Now look at me,...hahaha I can't control it.

guest reply :

I was 12 years old, we used to go to Greenwood Lake NY on the Jersey border. I was using dough to catch bluegills off the bridge where old 17 comes into the NY side. I was reeling in a bluegill when a flash exploded by my bluegill and I felt my line pull, like never before. I reeled it in and it was a big Pickerel. I didnt know they had teeth and went to take the hook out of it's mouth , two hours later I got out of the emergency room, they had to pull teeth out of my fingers with forceps!!!!!!! That was it i discovered that I was not only a Mook but a Mook with a fishing jones!!!!!!

cart7t reply :

My Dad wasn't much on fishing, he considered it a waste of time though he did know how to fish. I loved it but didn't get to do it much as a kid.

Then I was at my Uncles house and picked up a copy of Field and Stream or Outdoor life, I forget which. Homer Circle was a contributing writer and he did an article on the first Bass Masters Classic on Lake Mead. I was mezmorized. Somehow everything just clicked.

It's been a serious addiction ever since.

KU_Bassmaster. reply :

Don't know exactly how young I was (I am going to guess 3rd or 4th grade) and was my first "real" fishing trip with my dad and a friend of his. Before that moment I had just gone down to the local lake during the day fishing with mainly a worm and bobber. And when I say "real" I mean like how I do it today.

I remember waking up and the ride to the lake in the dark. I thought it was pretty d**n cool to be up before the sun came up. I also remember going to a donut shop and having my first HOT donut. Pulling up to the lake just as the sun was starting to peak with steam coming off the lake. Then the boat ride. Even though I was young, the whole experience up until then had me hooked.

When we got to our spot my dad's buddy put on a jitterbug and who knows what my dad and I were throwing. With in minutes my dad's buddy caught the first ever fish I had seen hit a topwater. I knew that's what I wanted. My dad's buddy gave me a jitterbug which I proceeded to throw and caught my first bass on a topwater. HOOKED!!!!!!! Not the bass ..... ME!!!!!!!

But it wasn't just the fish. It was the whole experience. Til this day I still think half the fun of fishing is the anticipation the night before and the ride to the lake.

Catt reply :

My first bass fishing trip was in 1961 with my dad on Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge where I watched he catch a 5 lb bass on a top water which was totally unbelievable. Later that day while eating lunch I noticed some thing weird between the wooden floor slats of the rented wooden hull boat, after a couple minutes I retrieved a Crème Scoundrel worm black with two yellow strips. After questioning my dad about he showed me how to rig it on a weedless hook, I toss it out and forgot about while eating my ham sandwich. I was looking around when all a sudden I noticed a line of weeds just lying over like something was swimming though them. I thinking now that weird when I hear my dad yelling you've got a bite and I realize it's my line causing the weeds to lay over as a bass was swimming off with my new found worm. I grab my rod, set the hook, & reel in a fat 2 lb bass.

Needless to say I'm still hooked on worm fishing to this day

Red reply :

i remember i was very young...maybe 9 or 10...my dad took me down to the river behind the soccer field...i dont remember what i was using...i think a yellow mister twister.....i was just reeling it in and wack! i reeled it in and it was a small northern about a foot long or so.....i was so happy and excited....we didnt have a camera and i HAD to show my mom....so dad put it on a stringer and i held it out the truck window for all to see as we drove through town to go back home...i can remember just holding that fish and looking for someone to see it as we drove along.....good times.

i always loved fishing but didnt get really serious about it until i was in high school and my parents bought a place on cayuga lake.....dad bought me a new rod/reel that year and then i caught my first smallie....that is the moment i got really serious about fishing.

Cliff

=Matt 5.0= reply :

I know you're probably sick of seeing this pic, but this might have been "the moment". Other than that, just growing up in the sticks, being involved in Boy Scouts, going to camp every year and being out in the woods. Those were the days....when you could ride down to the country store in the back of dad's '73 F100.... 8-)

Jake. reply :

The moment I got "hooked" on fishing was when I caught my first bass. I was 9 years old and had just been to dick's sporting goods to buy my first plastic worms. I tied one on to my first fishing rod. I headed down to my neighborhood pond to see if these things would work. I casted by a floating weed bed and my line immedietly started moving. I fought that bass for what seemed like an hour. It gave my ultralight rod quite a fight. I finally got it in and it weighed 3 lbs. To me that seemed like a world record. I have been addicted ever since.

8-)

JCrzy4Bass reply :

I thought I was going to be a carp fisherman. The first two times out (early spring of this year), I was dragged along cause a couple of my friends who hardcore fish, like almost every day said I needed to at least try it. Before then I always asked them why they wasted their time and came home all dirty and smelling nasty from the fish and the bait. Well the first day I caught about three white perch at Occoquan. Thought it was cool but was like ehh... the next day... same thing.

Well a week later before work one of the guys that started out with me asked if I wanted to fish on the army base, so he drove me and one other chick up to Ft Belvoir to do some catfish fishing. Well I just casted out a nightcrawler on a bottom rig and launched it as far as I could out into the river. About 15 minutes later as I'm talking to my buddy and trun my head from my pole I feel my pole almost drag me into the water. My pole was a 7'0 mh shimano fx. My pole looks like a donut by this time and my drag is set so tight I swore my pole was going to break. Well my friend said to loosen the drag just a bit so he came over and helped very gradually letting some of it out. It felt never ending because as soon as he did that all you heard was zip zip zip zip zip zip zip for eternity. Finally after playing the fish and letting it run all over I started reeling very gradually when it would slow down and start to turn in torwards me. After about 10 minutes I finally landed the fish. I had no clue what it was but my friend knew right away. He's like whoa dude you got a carp. The colors were so pretty the reds oranges and greens and stuff. Very unique looking fish. That fight was so amazing. To this day I still fish for them occassionally at a local lake just for the fight. Throw some corn on a bobber rig and leave it next to the shoreline about 10-15 feet out. They are just an awesome fight!!!

Anyway the fish ended up being 22" long, we didn't weigh it but my buddy suspected somewhere in the 6-7 pound range. It was a great day and I talked about this fish for such a long time after that that people started to think all I cared about was fishing... well... lol, j/k.

I do care for family and friends first, but other than that I don't think there is anything I'd rather be doing than wetting a line for smallmouth bass and wading in the river, fishing from the bank for bucketmouths, or lookin' for the perfect spots in my dad's boat. Fishing is my life.

Tin reply :

I got hooked when I went to my first bass tournament and witnessed a "blast off", seeing a bunch of boats flying down the lake to get to their "honey holes" on a perfect morning. I love fishing but I think I like the competitive side more. Don't get me wrong catching a big fish is awsome, but catching a big fish in the final minutes of a tournament to win it is much better.

Redlinerobert reply :

Wow. Talk about bringing back some memories!

I was no more than 12. Mmy dad, his best friend and I went to buy some rods at the flea market to go fishing at the rock jetty in Moss Landing. I remember getting the biggest surf rod possible because you need a big rod to catch a big fish. ;D

I ccould barely cast that thing ;D But I did manage to catch some perch and a flounder or two.

Those were some of the best memories of my life.

electrikal reply :

I was around 12 and had been fishing since I was 4 or 5 but that day still thrills me. A thunderstorm had come up and Dad didn't have a rainsuit for me. He put me out under the Natchez Trace bridge and headed up river (he was hardcore). I had a wornout purple fliptail worm (the HOT thing back then) that I proceed to throw towards the nearest pylon and, before he was out of sight, I set the hook on a nice one. The drag peeled as I reeled and I saw the fish jump. Usually Dad would have been there to give me advice (keep the tip down, don't reel too fast) but I had to manage on my own. I finally got the fish in to shore and realized I didn't have a stringer so I fabricated one by doubling up some line & tying off to a piece of driftwood. When Dad returned, after the rain lightened, I loaded my gear and pulled up my catch. Dad's eyes lit up and then grinned . He weighed it at 2 1/2 lbs (largemouth) but I was as proud as if it weighed 10 especially since he didn't have a thing to show for his fishing in the driving rain for over an hour . I've been hooked ever since that day 40 yrs ago.

Painter Dude reply :

Up till five years ago fishin was sittin on the bank with a jar of Catfish Charlie and my favorite cold beverage in hand. Then a friend took me out in his new Stratos and introduced me to the Senko and the LMB and from then on I don't think I have sat down with a beverage since.

Jimzee reply :

I was 6 yrs. young. Went with dad on the Memphis Belle (his boat) for the first time. He casted a floating Rapala out for me and let me reel it in. About 5 cranks on the handle is all it took for my first 12" green fish to grab it. I thought I would never get that fish in but I did and upon completing this task and admiring this beautiful creature the rest as they say....is history.

Alpster reply :

I can't remember a specific "moment" because I can't remember not fishing. I grew up in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana. When I was a kid I knew people who had boats and didn't own a car. I know that I went fishing with grown ups long before I was old enough to be able to fish. Living at the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico, I had fishing adventures before I was 12 years old that most guys can only dream about. 4 or 5 red snappers on a single cast was common at the oil rigs in the Gulf. In the pipeline canals we caught redfish and speckled trout until we were tired from reeling them in. When I was 11, my brother helped me catch a shark that weighed 5 lbs more than ME. On a trip with a friend of my dad's we caught 1400 lbs of drum in a 400' deep hole 15 miles out in the Gulf. When I was a kid, Louisiana really was the "Sportsman's Paradise". I miss those days, but I still love to fish.

Ronnie

dink reply :

4 yrs. old and in the boat with my brother (6 at the time) and Dad on Lake Caleveras, TX. Dad had just fished and won a tourney there a week prior and took us to his honey hole, some mid-lake hump or ridge. I remember vividly sitting on the port side of his bathtub style bass boat and my brother on the starboard side. He had us fishing big minnows on the bottom and he threw a strawberry Manns worm TX rigged. Dad didn't get to fish much that day. My bro got seven keepers and I had six with the BB of the day at 3.5 - 4 lbs. I love to hear my Dad tell the story of that day, especially of the big fish I happened across. We were using his bass fishing rods with the old ABU 5000s on them. He would bait us up and cast them out, then hand us each a rod and say 'Don't let loose of that pole for even a second'. I took it to heart I reckon. In the instant it took for him to re-bait my brother's rod, the biggie ate my minnow and made a hard run directly underneath the boat. 'Don't let go of the rod'. What he saw next was me about to go swimming with my four year-old death grip on graphite. I was half-way over the gunnel when he yanked me back in the boat by the seat of my pants. Now securely in the boat, I gave that greenie everything I had and then some. We took all those beauties home and filled the freezer. Every now and then I run across the pics of those fish and get that "feeling" that cannot be put into words. That day sparked the inferno for me.

Great thread, LBH.

dink

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

Quote
I love to hear my Dad tell the story of that day, especially of the big fish I happened across.

Another "root" to a lot of our stories, making dad proud. this is something Dirk is awesome with. He will make sure he tells his wife (Julie) all about how awesome the boys did and their particular achievements for the day, making sure they are juuuust within earshot.

I think it's extremely important for a child to know they are respected in dads eye and this is such a fundamental and natural way for a dad to do that.

LCpointerKILLA reply :

Have always been an inshore fisherman, so was (and still is) my father, who never bass fished. But one day a couple years ago I saw some guy fishing on the golfcourse i live on and he caught a huge bass. I mean I knew about bass fishing, but i didn't really think that fishing for bass could be nearly as fun as catching redfish and trout. well a grabbed my shimano stradic with braid and a chartruese zara spook, and on the first cast, caught a pretty big bass. I had no idea how hard they fight, this bass made any speckled trout i ever caught look like a bream. Since then I have fallen in love with bass fishing, and increased my knowledge and tactics dramatically.

Ky_Lake_Dude reply :

June 13, 1999. I was 4 years old and had been fishing since I was 2 but this really got me hooked. I was always casting and reeling in my bobber and minnow or whatever the bait was so my dad went and bought me some $.99 spinnerbaits and told me just cast and reel. We were tied up close to the bank in Beech River which is a tributary of the Tennessee River at Decaturville, TN me, my dad, and mom were tied up to a tree on the bank trying to catch crappie and other panfish. I get tired so I throw the spinnerbait out into the middle of the creek channel and let it sink to the bottom then go to sleep for a little while. I wake up and my dad has just got hung up and broke the line on his crappie rig. I decide to reel mine in and when I go to reel I can't get it to reel. I then tell my dad I'm hung and he says we'll get it when he ties his on. About 5 minutes later get gets retied and picks up the rod to get it unhung. He stars pulling on it and immediately hands the rod back to me and says "you got a fish!" I start reeling and it starts pulling. Probably 2 or 3 minutes later although it seemed like hours to me theis fish surfaces next to the boat and we are in shock its so big. We get it in the net put it in the livewell and we are headed home. It weighed 5lbs and now hangs on my bedroom wall. The funny thing is my dad had been bass fishing for 20 years and never caught one more than 4 1/2lbs. Ever since then I have been absolutely hooked

Fish Chris reply :

I was not quite 3 years old, when my late uncle Elton placed a cane pole in my hand and told me to wait for the cork to pull down, then pick up......

Of course I don't think he, nor anybody else, realized how that experience was going to grab ahold of me, and so dramatically effect the rest of my life !

In a nutshell, I've been adicted to that pull on my line, ever since :-)

Peace,

Fish

jwo1124 reply :

Great stories guys.

I can't truly remember "the" moment I knew I was addicted to fishing, I would say obsessed since it sounds less pathetic , I do remember, what seems like centuries ago and I'm only 21, when I was about 10 or 11, I used to go up to my friends summer house in Laconia NH. His house was right on the lake with a dock in his backyard. We used to fishing nightcrawlers to catch sunfish. I vaguely remeber bringing up my own rod excited I'd be able to do some fishing. I think this is where the bug was implanted. Ever since then I was in love with fishing. I think I love it so much because my mom's father was a big fisherman, and after he passed when I was young I would go through all his tackle and found it interesting. Maybe it's in my genes though, and I got it from my grandfather. it's good to know that even though he;s not still around, I can remember him with my love of fishing, and pass it down to future generations.

guest reply :

Quote
I was not quite 3 years old, when my late uncle Elton placed a cane pole in my hand and told me to wait for the cork to pull down, then pick up......
Of course I don't think he, nor anybody else, realized how that experience was going to grab ahold of me, and so dramatically effect the rest of my life !

In a nutshell, I've been adicted to that pull on my line, ever since :-)

Peace,

Fish

Knowing you it was probablly a 3 pound blue gill to boot!!!!

Zel... reply :

Although I have been fishing since I was a little guy, it was April 21, 1991 when I realized I had became addicted to bass fishing.

I had been fishing primarily for bass since 1989. At the end of 1990 I thought my skills were good enough to try bass tournament fishing. I joined a local bass club in January of 1991, and looked forward to my first tournament. When that day came about (April 21, 1991), the tournament was on Greenwood Lake on the NY/NJ border. The air temperature started out at 20 degrees, and it only got warm enough that day to get freezing rain. The rod eyelets kept freezing up on every cast, and I broke two rods. The deck was a sheet of ice, and we wore our life jackets all day for fear of slipping off the deck. We couldn't even feel our fingers after an hour on the lake, and with no feeling, tying a lure onto the line took about 5 minutes. When we went back to weigh-in at the end of the tourney, we found out everyone else quit about 4 hours earlier than us, and had gone home. The tourney director was the only guy left, and only because he had to wait for us. My boat owner caught his limit, and I blanked, but I learned a lot. We both ended up with mild frostbite on our fingers and toes. And the only thing I could think about on the ride home (other than hypothermia and escaping death) was fishing in the next tournament.

BackOnTheWater reply :

Unfortunately, I can't recall a specific event that "hooked" me.

My Dad starting taking me fishing as soon as I could fill out a life jacket, and I have many fond memories of those early days (the '60's).

Texas-rigged purple worms...that was all that I can remember using back then...I'm sure that the first solid hook-set after a tap-tap did it for me...that and a topwater hit are still the most thrilling moments for me even today.

I also remember him teaching me to scull an oar behind the little boat he had to move us around. It had no motor, so I was proud that he let me "motor" us around.

Even today, it feels like he's with me every time I go out.

Infidel. reply :

When I was in five I went out with my dad, brother, and sister. I was using the classic red and white bobber with a chunk of night crawler on an eagle claw snelled hook. I still remember watching the bobber get pulled under and I missed the first one. But that day I caught a bluegill that was 6.5" and a largemouth that was 6". That same year I got my first subscription to Bassmasters and it has been my life ever since.

BASS fisherman reply :

This is a really cool thread LBH!!

I have been fishing my whole life, but I do remember the moment I was hooked to bass.

It was early in the summer of 2005, the year they fished the classic in Pittsburgh. Let me set the scene: I was living in a shelter in Gettysburg. One evening a new guy moved in and had a ton of fishing gear with him. Of course the conversation turned to fishing almost immediatley. I told him I am more of a trout fisherman and he basically laughed at me and told me he goes for bass, and that he'd have to take me out to a local pond soon. I didn't have any "bass" gear, and only one med action spinning rod with an equally horrid spinning reel. A few days later he takes me to the towns Walmart and showed me some good stuff to get. I picked up some FLW finesse worms, some 2/0 and 5/0 hooks, a few lures and a med action Abu Garcia spinning rod. Then we drove way out in the boonies to this little pond. He gave me some old plastics to try out one of which was a pack of watermelon senkos. He explained the best way to fish them and I was off. I believe it was my first cast next to some weeds and BAM!! fish on! That was the moment I was hooked.

Another moment that sticks out in my mind is fishing the same pond on another occasion. He was throwing a fluke and I had a small Storm sub-wort crank tied on. I caught a couple fish with the crank and he made a big deal of how I discoved the pattern that day. That got my curiosity peaked and started me into learning everything I possibly could about the habits of LM bass.

I also remember out fishing him one time that made me even happier since he was a huge bass fisherman that absolutley knew what he was doing. That boosted my confidence tremendously and made me want to get into tournament fishing.

His name was Jeff Jones and unfortunatley we have lost contact. I want to take this oppurtunity to urge anyone in the South Central area of Pa that knows a Jeff Jones to contact me with a number or address so we can get back in touch. I think he'd be quite impressed on how far I have come since the summer of 2005. I have tried to find him so we could go fishing, but my searches have been fruitless.

skillet reply :

I had saved my money from an evening paper route and bought a really inexpensive baitcaster and rod. My parents were cane pole fishers from way back and thought I was crazy to buy something you could go cut in the bottoms. Had never seen mono at that time (actually don't know when it came out) and filled it with that black braided line they used on their cane poles . It's a wonder I learned to cast ;D. My parents took us to Norfolk Lake in Ark. We were waiting for a ferry and I cast into the wake of one that was leaving with a red and white Red Devil spoon and caught one that must have been 13" or 14" and that's what set the hook in me ...

As Ever,

skillet

flyhatch reply :

i was fishing the clarion river with my best friend

he had been bass fishing for some time and had been reading bassmasters for years

i had alot of fishing under my belt but nothing species specific id catch whatever would bite and mostly used live bait.

anyway.... we get to the river thats in this this pine forest valley at the crack of dawn

its fall and its foggy and quiet, he hurries down and uses his baitcaster to whail a spitin image topwater bait across the river

it lands and he starts to walk the dog, the movement creating a wake in the crystal clear glasslike water.

a third of the way through his first retrieve a smallmouth explodes on his lure with a loud echoing smack

he lands the fish and i think to my self

i want some of that:)

Gatorbassman reply :

I've been thinking about this since this thread began and I honestly can't remember when or if there ever was that one moment. My dad was a rafting/fishing guide on the Snake River in Wyoming back in the early 50's. (Long before I was born.) I have been fishing literally since I was born. Every family vacation, every father and son trip, every chance we got, we went fishing. He taught me how to tie flies. I was fly fishing in North Georgia when I was eight and I can't remember seeing anyone fly fishing up there until I was 15 or 16. But my dad is not a bass fishermen. Any rod that is stiffer than a light action rod is to stiff for him. lol

But if I had to pick the one moment I became addicted to bass fishing. I would have to say it was when I was 17 and I had been fishing with my best friend Adam (Doghouse) for a few months. But this particular day I was by myself. They had just opened Charlie Elliot WMA/Public fishing area and the lakes were beautiful. I was in a little bass buggy on Lake Bennett and I was fishing a white spinnerbait over some floating timber that had been anchored in this little cover by the Department of Natural Resources. I was bringing it over a log and it fell into a hole about 6 inches square when about a four pound bass came out of that hole with my spinnerbait in its mouth. He jumped the log and landed back in the water. I set the hook and landed him shortly after that.

There are several others that I can think of but I am pretty sure that is the earliest time.

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