1962. Out from our cabin on Lake Murvaul. Me in our 14 foot Polar Craft boat with a skulling paddle and 12 HP Elgin motor. I was 10 years old, using a 5 foot rod with a Zebco 33 reel and 12 pound mono. Caught my first "keeper" bass, 6 1/2 pounds, in ten foot of water using a blue Creme Scoundrel worm (the kind that came rigged with a spinner and beads up front and weedless hooks). Been a bass fishing fanatic ever since.

My first bass came on a Suick Muskie lure by accident while Muskie fishing.

I was perch fishing on the fishing pier at Brownwood State Park (not that POS they have now....the old metal one)....I dropped my worm down to the bottom......bam.....it took off....my Zebco 33 barely reeled it in.....I didn't take it off the hook.....I hiked up the trail to the campground on top of the hill.....and proudly showed my Mom and Dad.....it quickly took a Crisco bath......

Mid 60's. My dad had us camping at Texoma. He went to the Gibson's store in Sherman and picked up a couple of Ted Williams rod and reel combos. Put me on a Herbs Dilly lure he had and showed me how to cast in a small cover we were at. Late in the afternoon just before dark I was getting the hang of casting and retrieving and wasn't thinking too much about actually catching a fish when all of a sudden my setup was almost pulled out of my hands. I fought that fish in and it was probably only about a 1 1/2 to 2 lb bass but at the time you would have thought it was a lake record.
A few years later my parents bought a place down at Lake Whitney and my dad bought a little old stick steering boat and I learned that he had actually done a lot of fishing back in his younger days and I would get in that boat with him and he would be running banks throwing a spinnerbait and there wasn't many anglers back in those days who were better, not even Jimmy Houston. I will always have those memories of him helping me catch my first bass and paving the way for me to fall in love with fishing and how really awesome of a fisherman he was.

on a worm in a creek in about 46

First bass I remember catching was caught out of about a 35 acre community lake in Overton. I was about 6 and was visiting my dad for the summer. I was using a $10 Zebco combo rigged with a T-rig red 6" worm. Standing on the bank I made a cast out in front of a willow tree and basically was swimming it back because I had no idea how to fish a worm at the time when I hooked into about a 2 pounder. He had my little 5ft rod bowed over and pulling drag off that reel which was more then likely a 202. I was cranking as fast as I could but there wasn't any line coming in so I dropped the rod and pulled him in by hand. He was pulling hard and jumping all over the place! Probably still to this day the most exciting catch I have had.

I was about 6 and one day after school, my dad and my cousin took me down to the pond close to our house. Dad had bought me a new rod/reel combo ZEBCO 202 with about a 2ft rod. I didn't know how to cast in all those bushes, but I tried my best. I finally got it out there and was swimming that purple MISTER TWISTER worm back in. I was about to take it out of the water, when a bass came from under a log, right at our feet and nailed it. I missed him that time. Next cast, same thing. This time I got hooks in him. My little rod was bowed up and the reel was screaming, but I got that little pound and a half bass in. Dad said my eyes were big as saucers when that fish hit. I cried all the way home, when he made me throw it back. I wanted to show it to my mom, so she could cook it. I used that same rod, but wore out all the cheap reels until I was about 10. We ate a LOT of fish with that 2ft rod.

75 or 76, Sam Rayburn, in a small creek across the Attoyac from Jackson Hill area. In my Dad's old 16 foot VIP stick steer with a 35 Johnson. Don't remember what kind of worm but it was on a zebco reel. Threw on top of some vegetation and the bass busted through and hit that worm and took me for a ride. Fish was probably 14-15 inches at best. That single fish ruined me!!

First one that I specifically remember, I was probably 7. I caught a bunch of fish before that but this is the first one that I remember specifically. We always camped at Wright Patman at the Kelly Creek campground, and I would wake up before daylight by myself to go walk the banks. Caught a 4 lber on a spinnerbait at about daylight, and went screaming waking up my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to show them my fish.

Cork and grasshopper

I don't remember my first bass but I remember my first big bass. Dad, sister and I were in the boat fishing along the bank. He was using a jig and sister and I were using spinnerbaits. I threw into some weeds and thought that I had hung a bunch of weeds at first. Then I noticed that my line was moving toward the front of the boat. I reared back and yelled, "I've got a fish." Dad looked down and said, "No, you're just hung in the trolling motor." As he leaned down to pull the trolling motor up, the line started moving away again. Ended up being a 5 lber.

I was probably 9 or 10 at my uncle's farm pond near Van Alstyne. There was a cane pole with a bobber and a gold crappie hook on it. I couldn't find any minnows or anything else to use for bait.

I remember like yesterday dropping the hook & bobber into a hole in the moss and seeing it go under as soon as it hit the water. A bass of about a pound & a half grabbed that gold hook and took off. He was hooked and so was I!!

My uncle took me to an 11-acre lake that he manages at his shooting club. He fishes for bass and crappie there a few times a week and has for over twenty years. I was 14 or 15 I think. He was teaching me how to fish a slider worm, since it's pretty easy and it works. We were in his Jon boat and he told me to throw across a lay down, drag it over and let it fall. A five pounder bit and gave me a great fight. When he lipped it, the hook fell out.

I was hooked after that.

I caught my first one on a jitterbug my dad was using at a pond in our hunting lease at the time. I begged to "fling it" until he finally gave in. My first cast hit the base of a cypress tree about 10 feet from us. As soon as it hit the water one smashed it. My mother caught stills of it that I wish I could see again.

TX rig. 1/4oz weight and 7" red shad power worm. Neighborhood pond.