In the beggining!

[fishingRED]

I know we all did not start with a boat and laguna rods, or maybe even without lures.

Here is how I began my fishing Addiction:

I fished when I was small but never really passion about it, till when older I got to fish in the galveston pier. I caught my first bull red there, and from there on started to like fishing. I satarted with a shakespear combo special from walmart, rod was heavy, and casting dead shrimp, and mullet. I was a catfish, croker, and drum type of guy, oh yeah and lizard fish. One day saw a couple of guys come out of texas city (i was bank fishing) from wading and had a stinger of trout and flounder, nice size, they showed me the lures they were using (TTF) and boy did I get excited, so I started throwing lures (on my heavy rod), and never got a bite. Switch to a longer 2 piece yellow rod (with out knowing the rod actually had some more action than my ugly stick), since I wanted more distance, but just caught one thing here and there...LOL I met sand tarpon14 when I had my yellow rod boy that sucker was huge...then later met Tum Tum and convinced me to show me how to use lures, and he helped me with buying a castaway medium action rod, and shimano reel. Finally build up my confidence under the causeway reaching spec limit once, This december I have a year of fishing experience with lures...still not a pro, still really a beginner, but I catch fish....one or two, but its better than none! I own my own kayak, and have met great fisherman (hooters was a cool experience), also have cool fishing friends, that are always down to go wet a line!
Share your story! will be interesting to read....Oh yeah when I was amaller I did not have a rod so I fished with line wrapped around a bottle or can, talk about sensitivity....holding the line straight u wont get more sensitive than that!

[coachlaw]

Cool story Bro. My story starts in 1898 with my great grandmother's birth in a fishing camp on Bayou LaChute in Louisiana. Too long to post all that again. I might try to dig up the link later.

[fishingRED]

I think I heard some of that story....at hooters after everyome was gone, that story and a couple of more. Coach law we need to get a trip arranged, to go help out and do some fishing.

[Tum Tum]

I remember that yellow rod. Man that thing was like a broom stick. You have come along way now Walter.

[Milkjug]

Oh man,

When I was a youngster, I remember my grandpa taking me out trolling for trout (those yankee freshwater ones) on the Twin Lakes up in Washington St. I also remember my dad taking me to catfish fishing farms a few times, as well as a few attempt by him to troll up some perch on TX lakes. My grandpa was pretty hardcore about fishing, my dad wasn't so much, but he took me enough to "sew the seed" for later.

When my folks bought a cabin up on Inks Lake, that's all I would do. First thing as soon as the truck parked would be to run around in the grass catching grasshoppers as bait to lower down into the dock pilings for instant perch gratification. Got good at meathauling those sunfish and fished out our dock and the neighbors docks really quick. Later in my years, I learned to be more conserviative, and that if you only took 2 or 3 from each dock, there would still be a healthy school there for the future.

Around this time I learned how to fish for bass with plastic worms. Had a good time doing that and even caugh a few good ones over the years. I also learned how to stay up late into the night and catch a few catfish.

Late high school I didn't fish as much, and the first few years of college up in Dallas I hardly fished any, and was too involved with school and various forms of debauchery. I did go bass fishing in a drainage ditch near campus several times, and even got my 2 pb largemouth out of there.

Last few years of undergrad saw a huge increase in my intrest in fishing. A buddy and I started hitting up rainbow trout stockings up there during the winter, with good results (not too hard to achieve with pet fish, hehe). After my buddy finished before me and moved away, I learned to pattern catfish really well in the warmer months. Local lake had a huge stretch of rip-rap, and I would post up, toss out range cubes, and fish chicken liver on a glowstick-slipcork rigged so the bait would just hang above the rocks. To this day, I have never gotten skunked fishing that way, and I started fishing hard. My buddies called me the "Friday night fisherman" cause I would rather be yanking catfish than partying and chasing girls.

Ended up doing a summer program at UTMB and liked it a lot. Didn't really fish all that much during that summer (even though proximity to the coast played a big part in choosing UTMB, haha), but I knew I would be back.

Moved here for grad school 3 years ago. Like fishingRED, I had no idea how to fish the salt, even with my new fishing kayak at my disposal. Ran into a fellow UTMB student one day at the end of Sportsman's. He showed me a limit of reds and I swallowed my pride and asked for help. Really good buddy who I still fish with on occasion. He showed me how to fish with dead shrimp on oyster reef in the winter, and subsequently how to catch specks in the calm summer surf on live shrimp.

After I had a good feel about how to use bait to catch fish, I eventually used artificials enough to get confidence in them, and here I am today.

[coachlaw]

I think I heard some of that story....at hooters after everyome was gone, that story and a couple of more. Coach law we need to get a trip arranged, to go help out and do some fishing.

We're wide open for this weekend bro. Don't be skeered. I've got 2 heaters and 2 Coleman lanterns. You won't freeze.

[fishingRED]

good story milkjug, I think many saltwater fisherman start with dead or live shrimp, and many still stick to it, but now that I use artis I tend to catch better quality fish, fewer bites, but better fish.....

[fishingRED]

We're wide open for this weekend bro. Don't be skeered. I've got 2 heaters and 2 Coleman lanterns. You won't freeze.

LOL, trust me I am not skeered, I ve done many fishing trips were people look at me like his crazy...get skunked and still come out with a smile...PM me you #, so we can get in touch.

[caz]

my dad got me started as far back as i can remember fishing westbay..we had a little blue boat called the blue tub because it looked like a bath tub with maybe a 20hp motor on it.. my dad, me, my two brothers, my sister and sometimes my mom would all cram into this thing and fish all over westbay in the that tub.. much props to my dad for takin the patience to rebait all our lines, dodging hooks, telling us where to cast and helping us land the fish..and from what i can remember we caught alot of fish out of that boat..i think i still have my reel somewhere, one of the old zebco push button ones..

[bountyhunter]

Great read!

Some of my earliest and fondest memories are sitting on the banks of the Shenandoah River with my dad or at my grandpa's pond with the family.

[2112]

Good thread FishingRed.

My earliest memories are with my grandfather and with the rest of my imediate family
as a little boy.
Gramps would take me freshwater fishing for cats and bluegill at Duessen and Eisenhower parks and the places along the trails to behind the dam at Lake houston
I fished with cane poles and Yo-Yo's.

Once I was deemed big enough by my Dad, I cut my teeth learning to fish the salt on the second sandbar at San Luis Pass at a very early age.

Once I got a car, no body of water was safe from me. This was about the time I learned to catch anything at will using a fly rod. I also even went to jail for tresspassing on the private lakes behind Hooks Airport.

As I've grown older I've dabbled in everything but saltwater fly fishing and catching pelagic species.
I have found I like hunting fish more than fishing but thats just me and thats my current path in life.
It's the thrill of the hunt, using a specialized machine, the solitude and cool tempatures of a calm summer night that makes me the Gigger I am.

[coachlaw]

Dang Bert, That was poetic.

[fishingRED]

awsome.hopefully next summer we can do a gig trip....dont forget we are up for surf fishing, we do the paddle

[Robalo]

Started at about 3-4 y.o fishing for sunfish in the lakes at Sandalwood (when it was cheap to buy a house there and that was pretty much the far west side of Houston-we'd catch red-eared sliders and sell them to the Lantern Lane Pet Shop for a penny each and catch crawfish outta the lakes and mom would boil em up for us) in about 1960. Didn't fish much saltwater until mid 70's and spent most of that fishing Dollar Point, Ferry landing on Bolivar and surf. Then got small boat and concentrated on Moses and Dickinson Bay-prolly wadefished almost all of Dickinson Bay between Moses Tide gate to April Fool Pt. Fished Swan Lake, causeway, Mosquito Island and Pelican spit, then got bigger boat and worked Dollar, Dickinson and all of East bay. Since late 80's early 90's been pretty much solely West bay and offshore.

[shallowist]

here it is, short and sweet. 6 years old in Florida Bay, Flamingo. On the casting deck of a 16 foot poling skiff with my dad and uncle trying to sight cast redfish in clear water less than a foot. got yelled at a lot because I couldn't always see them. I learned. It grew from there, Hit Houston in the early 90's and started plugging away. had to forget most of what I knew to learn this bay system. Captains license in 99 and crazy from there. I live to fish, It's a sickness I think. There are two main focusses for me in fishing the Texas coast, find huge trout and feed them artificials, sight cast redfish on conventional and fly. If I need to do something more exciting I have to go back to Florida for a tarpon or snook on light tackle or fly. If I really feel like being abused when I'm down there I have some walk in spots in the upper keys that have produced bonefish over ten pounds for me in the past.

Yeah there's more to it than just that, but that's the cliff notes....