Great thread! Here is my story. I grew up cat fishing and catching white bass every now and then on spoons. I would always watch the bass boats coming in and out the creek my great grandparents lake house is on. I never understood why they fish around the docks and shore line. Because I would always cast out away from shore as far as Possible. One Saturday morning I saw an episode of the bassmaster elite series on espn2 after that I was obsessed. I went into my grandads old tackle box and found some blue fox tail spinners and old spinnerbaits. I started walking around people's docks with my zebeco and learned to pitch and cast under them. First day doing this caught 3 bass including a 3lber which was my first keeper. I still remember standing on that dock in the middle of summer second that bait landed near the sea wall she hit. My grandad ran over to the dock and netted her for me. After that he would take me out in our deck boat and we would drift fish around the docks. After that we got a center console and would spend every summer morning fishing for hybrids on cedar creek then go bass fishing. When I was 15 I caught my first 5lb bass in March. That may pre fishing for my first club tournament I landed a 10lb bass from O.H. Ivie with my dad, grandad and my brother probably my favorite fishing memory , she hit a 5/8oz rattle trap 8ft or so from boat. I watched her follow it in and inhale her. I was freaking out fight lasted maybe 20 seconds she dove under boat and when she came up my grandad netted her we all were shocked I was shaking so bad I couldn't hold her. Ever since then I knew what I wanted to spend my life doing. We caught a good sack in that first tournament and after that it's been up hill, down hill, and sideways. Wouldn't want to have any other addiction.

I really don't remember, have pics of me and my dad when I was 2 and I was holding a fish, but for Tournament fishing I started when I was 28 and its been all down hill since then - lol

I was seven years old fishing with my Dad on some farm ponds we had access to. I tied on a Hula Popper and the first bass I ever caught was around five lbs. We use to wade around shallow water using a top water most of the time. Years later and many fish later, we were still fishing together again when Toledo Bend opened up. I swear, those trips added years to his life.
I bought a Top Tenner with a fifty hp Johnson, and the fun was on for the next fifty years. There is nothing better than fishing with your dad and your son. Nothing better. I placed high in some tournaments but don't fish them anymore.
Now, I have three grandsons, and the fishing trips continue.
I hope I can do this for a long time-
I do miss my Dad, though

Good Luck

Memorial Day 1998 - still think about it every day....crazy!

I raced motorcycles for years and made fun of my buddy CW for chasing fish. Then I decided to hang out for a nice Memorial Day get together...caught a 6 pound fish on a spinnerbait --- bought my spot on Lake Fork that night over too many margaritas! Best alcohol influenced purchase I have ever made!

My dad bought me my first combo, a Shimano Fast Cast ultra light with a G Loomis ultra light / medium rod. I was about 8yrs old. Back in '76. He was a die hard bank fishing guy for channel cats. We used to go to the Lewisville fishing barge every Saturday and Sunday for crappie. One morning I saw a guy dragging a worm and thought, "damn. He ain't never gonna catch a fish with fake bait!" Lol. He caught a 5+lb bucket mouth. I think that was the day I was converted to bass.

The next year, I begged my dad to enter he and I in a bass tourney. I won 3rd in that tourney at 9yrs old. It was my first taste of tourney fishing and I won another rod and reel and a bicycle seat for a bass boat. We didn't have one. We fished our tourneys from a '76 Taylorcraft SS jet boat. Sucked to fish from but the holes shot was ALWAYS ours! Since then, I've been fishing at least 4-5 days a week. I fish around 20-30 hours a week now. And love every cast I make. I send out every lure with the intention of catching a DD bass, still to this very day. I love catching anything. But I want to catch the biggest every body of water has to offer. Doesn't happen. But I try.

Been fishing all my life
Not sure when this pic was taken but it was probably around 1982

Never knew you had hair!!!
I've been fishing for as long as I can remember! Really got serious about tournament bass fishing about 2004

I can't remember a specific event that caused it, I have been addicted as far back as I can remember and before

My dad started it when I was a kid by taking me fishing. Then mom fed the fire with church/fishing camp as a kid. I only took a break for 2 years or so during college.

The first time I saw Chigger Brumbalow fish a tournament. I was hooked.


































On a serious note I really don't remember. Looking back there are so many pictures of me when I was 3yrs old and older fishing with my Dad and Grandpa in TN that I assumed all kids fished. Its just what we did when they were not working or farming. Its in my DNA I guess cause I have to fish. No way around it. I don't know why I just know I have to cause it makes sense to me. If I can't get on the water I get pretty grumpy. Always have been that way.
A cousin here in Texas got me hooked on tournaments and now I love fun fishing and tournament fishing equally. Most of all I just love being on the water anywhere in East Texas preferably Fork. Its all I want to do when not handling another responsibility or commitment. Hope that never changes.

Nice Wu-Tang shirt.

1958. 11 years old. My buddy Dan and I rode our bicycles several miles to a small lake with a "Posted - no fishing" sign. Fished the lake for 2-3 years from the bank. Homeowners saw us but didn't care. Caught a lot of mostly small bass with a few good ones and was hooked for life. Used mostly H&H spinner baits, Heddon chuggers, and Cr�me worms. Side note: We had to pull our bikes over a large dirt embankment that is now called I-30 East.

1974

I've been fishing for as long as I can remember but I remember my dad letting me reel in a fish as a little kid and just thinking it was the best thing in the world! I've been hooked since then.

To add to my above post.

My dad died when I was 17yrs old. He was a little younger than I am now. One of the most vivid memories I have of my dad was the smell of his company car. Lol. He'd get a brand new company car every two years. And he always carried his fishing poles in the trunk of the company car. He would take customers out "to lunch" and they would fish. Nobody could ever understand how he was able to put out business "fires" with pissed off clients so easily. Lol. He'd take 'em fishing. It's amazing what fishing can do to ease a stressful situation.

Oh. The smell? Bills Bait!!!! OMG that stuff stunk!!

He carried a jar of that nasty [censored] everywhere he went. Lol. It was something like brains and cheese! Nasty, nasty smelling stuff. But, channel cats liked it I guess. Hah. Why he never really like bass fishing, I don't know. Maybe it wasn't as easy to bass fish and talk to customers while bass fishing. Bank "tight lining" was easier and meant they could set a line and talk and LAUGH! And ease tensions.

On my dad's tombstone it say," Gone Fishing". He's buried next to a lake.

Great memories. Thanks for starting this thread!

Happy TG guys and gals!