How Did You Get Into Fishing?

[Gerry Zagorski]

All these sweet water reports got me thinking of how I got into fishing.... Thought it would make an interesting topic for the board. Brought back some great memories and am hoping it will do the same for others....

Please share your story....Here is mine:

I got the fishing bug from my Uncle Al in PA.... He was an outdoorsmen and loved to fish and hunt. Whenever he'd come out and visit our family he always found time to take me and my brother Joe fishing or crabbing. He was also a very colorful guy and like most hunters and fisherman, he could weave a tale a mile long. It was a gift he had. He could make a story about going to go to the grocery store a NY Times best seller and he also had a heart for kids. I could sit around listening to him for hours, hanging on every word as he'd reaccount his " adventures in the bush". He was quite a guy and one of those people you meet as a kid that has a profound effect on your life.

I also have some great memories of opening day of trout season in my youth..... It was like the days leading up to Christmas.... We'd sleep over my cousin's house in Clark and fish the Rahway River. During the summer we'd ride our Stingray bikes to Roosevelt Park and fish for sunnies and catfish with worms we dug up in Mom's garden. I remember the days leading up to opening day. I'd find myself in places like Herman's Sporting Goods for hours eyeing up all the stuff I needed and would buy with the money I earned doing chores or got for a birthday... I still find myself in tackle stores for hours checking everything out. Some things never change.

Like most everyone else, life got very busy for me in my late teens and early twenties and I only got to fish occationally. Work, school and a new family were the priorities then. However, every Spring I'd set up a fishing trip with the guys, usually up to the Thousand Islands. Been doing it for 20 years now and we've traveled to a number of different places. I'm always greatful to have this opportunity since many of us only manage to get together this one time a year. Always a good time and more materials for fishing stories.

I got into salt water fishing a bit later in life.... I was invited to go out on a night Bluefish trip and was instanly hooked..... A few years later I got a nice tax refund and came home and announced to my wife Ruth that we bought a boat. $4000 with a slip in Morgan Marina paid for the season. I had a lot of fun but dumped more money into that old tub (the boat that is ) then I care to recount. Turned out that Ruth gets sea sick so I thought it only fitting to name the boat Ruthless .

I've been fishing and boating in the Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook areas since the late 80s, when a Striper was big news at the dock. My brother Joe and I still fish together often. It's a great chance for us to get away from the daily grind and spend time quality time together with our friends and family. It's also a great opportunity to follow along in Uncle Al's foot steps and pass along the love and enjoyment of this great sport to others.

Up until ten years ago, Uncle Al would still come to visit and I'd gladly clear my calendar for the chance to spend more time with him and to take him out fishing. The last time we fished together was with his son in law and grandson Timmy. We went out on our boat and he and I just sat back and beamed from ear to ear watching his grandson Tim catch his first ever salt water fish. It was only fitting that we slammed the Weakfish that day and all the while he was sharing his stories. I'd heard them all a thousand times but they never got old. Unlce Al has since passed on. I think about him often and still miss him very much. If there is a stream or field in heaven he's all over it, or telling stories about it.

Make it a priority to take kid fishing this season, yours or someone elses.... Leave the Gameboy at the dock and give them your undivided attention. You never know, you might just change a kids life. It certainly changed mine.

[msgold]

I am one of three girls, but I was the only one that wanted to hang with dad every chance I got. So at five years old he stated waking me up in the wee hours of the morning and we would go fishing. I miss those days with my dad he was one in a million. We went out to Montauk and did allot of fishing on the very first Miss Belmar, but do not remember the name. It was Alan Shins great grandfather's boat. That went on for many years. Then dad got involved with Alvin Shin and they built the first new SS Miss Belmar with heated guard rails and that was in the l974. The rest is really history, I guess my dad made a monster out of me. In those days we caught allot of whiting, and ling, Went threw a divorce and took up fishing again but then I was fishing for blues. Each time I went fishing I ending up throwing away my cloths after each trip since the smell was so bad. Caught my biggest fluke on the SS Miss Belmar. Thought I was stuck on the bottom and they told me to keep on reeling that I had a fish on. That fluke weighed 13.8lbs. That was the start of my love of the sport. My dad then purchased the Ranger Five out of Sheepshead Bay and took it to Madeira Beach Florida where he did long off shore trips. As most people that know me will agree, I love and live to fish. I rather fish then play my slots in Atlantic City. Forgot one little story, when I was twenty my dad had a 310 Cessna and we flew to Bimini where Adam Clayton Powell was spending all his time. I caught my first Trigger fish and had it mounted. Will always remember all those good times I spent with my dad.

[fishingmortgageman]

My first memories of fishing were at Stokes State Forest. My Dad was an avid fisherman and our family as well as my Dad's brothers family and his cousin's family rented cabins on a lake in Stokes. As kids we were always swimming and playing around the lake edge as well as exploring the flatbrook. I was a little different from my other cousins though because they split the day into ball games, hide and seek, and other activities while I was always drawn to the water. When I was old enough I always had a rod in my hand and I remember with pride the day I graduated from the sunnies and bullheads to a BASS. I carried that thing all around showing everyone but my father made sure that I did not injure the fish and it was released unharmed. As I got older I started to wade the flatbrook catching native brookies and browns in the little feeder streams. I then graduated up to the Delaware where my Dad introduced me to my favorite fish, the smallmouth. Those first acrobatic jumpers that almost pulled the rod out of my hands started the love affair that hasn't ended yet. By this time I was diversifying. I lived in Cranford and the Rahway river wound its way through the town. After schools were spent fishing,trapping, hunting and exploring the woods and river. That continued until I graduated from high school. I still have buddies that I fished with then that I still fish with now. Every year we would have a "King of the River" contest and keep a running total of the number of trout caught in a season. I l remember winning one year with a total of 274 trout from the Rahway. We stopped going to Stokes about the time I was 8 and started spending two weeks in Cape May. That started a whole new obsession. Everyone else was swimming and I was out on the Jetty. I had a long cane pole that I would use to drag taug right of the rocks in the jetty. On a really good day schools of blues would surround the jetty and I would have a blast. On the days that my Dad would fish he would take me to the Delaware bay and we would catch weakies and kingfish off the beach. In those days there were alot of weakies. Once a summer he would give me a real treat and take me out fluke fishing on a party boat. I fished constantly until I got married and had kids. Then the demands of working 70 hours and going to the games and activities of three kids pretty much put an end to fishing except for a couple of times a year that I would keep my Dad company. Now that the kids are big and there is not much work for me to do I am back fishing hard. I thank my Dad for giving me a passion that has brought me such joy and so many great memories.

[Chris_JC]

I am not sure the first time I went fishing but I definitely remember when my father took my brother and I to the town pier in Bar Harbor, Maine when we were 4 years old (1982). It was August but cool and rainy. We got a paper bag full of spoons from a hardware store in town. Over the next few hours we enjoyed periods of intense jubilation of mackerel catching, periods of inactivity, a broken rod tip, and many tangles. It was pretty much symbolic of a lifetime of fishing.

My grandfather also took us fishing many times when we were very young. I remember climbing through prickers at the Rockaway Creek and waiting for bites at Best Lake in Watchung.

My older cousins in Pt. Pleasant Beach also took my brother and I on night blues trips on party boats. My mother even took us on a cod party boat in California when we were 8 and we reeled in countless cod for dinner and probably filled the freezer of the family we were staying with.

When were about 11 or 12 my brother and I took our bikes and went fishing all over Tewksbury and Lebanon, PA where our other grandparents lived. Trips to Vermont were also fishathons from shore and on a 16” boat from the 50s that we saved our allowances/etc for 2 years to get for $850.

From about 17 – 26 somehow I went fishing a handful of times. There were several occasions when I almost started again. At 19, I filled in for my uncle on a great fluke trip from Brielle. At 21 I almost went to Exchange Place to fish for stripers but it never happened. At 22 I out of the blue bought an inexpensive rod/reel at the old Laneco in Whitehouse only to misplace the top half. At 25 I almost went on a day fishing trip in Ecuador but the guide was not available.

Finally, Christmas 2004 my brother bought me a rod/reel and starting opening day 2005 we were back at it!

[Tin Squid]

I got my start in fishing at age 5. I asked my dad for a fishing pole becuase I'd seen people catch fish and my uncle Jack was always talking about fishing as he had a boat berthed at Sheepshead bay. My dad bought me an inexpensive rod with black linen or dacron line with three bobbers a box of split shot a two packs of hooks. I dug some worms and proceeded to go out onto the dock where we vacationed every year in upstate NY. I looked down at about 6 or so sunfish finning around lazily. I lowered the worm down. One sunny grabbed the worm and ate it and when I set the hook, I was more hooked than the fish was.

By age 7, I was taught by my uncle how to fish a rebel/rapala on top for largemouth. I got a copy of McClanes Standard Fishing Encyclopedia the next Xmas and I inhaled that monstrous book. By age ten I was bucktailing schoolie stripers in the shadows of the Throgs Neck Bridge.

I took up fly tying and fishing at age 14 and can say that the first trout I ever caught on a fly was a fly I tied myself. I had taken 4 two-hour sessions on fly tying at Len Codela's Anglers Den in Linden (Thanks Len). My friends could not understand why I'd rather go fishing than play baseball but, "to each his own".

Catching an 18 inch brown trout followed by a 16 inch brown at Cairns pool on the Beaverkill when nobody else could get a touch at age 16 was probably my crowning achievement as a youth.

There's nothing like the feel of a big strike when fishing and I will hang my hat on that from now until the day I wade away.

[Flukinator]

I wish I had a great story, but my very earliest memories are of fishing on Lake Hopatcong when I was like 2 or 3 years old. I've literally been doing it as long as I can remember, and don't ever plan on stopping. My dad took me as a kid, and his dad did the same for him. It's been an obsession from birth.

[jmurr711]

my dad took me down to a local pond in philly when i was 3 to catch a bluegill that was my first fish. my first saltwater fish was a snapper blue off the bow of the mary m 3 when i was 4 while my dad was down in bl working as a mate on the boat. then later on when i was 5 i went out to sea for the first time. I've loved fishing ever since i was that age and am 23 now and have so many memories and have witnessed things at sea very few people can say they saw.

[AviD]

It's funny, I was just responding to my trout thread telling Doug to check out Spring Lake. As far back as I can remember...that is where my fishing started with my dad and grandfather...maybe when I was around 4 years old or so...I wasn't in school yet for anything, so it had to be before kindergarden. Vague and distant memories of my grandfather teasing me saying I never sit still and constantly feed the fish!

I did A LOT of fishing growing up...but that is where it started. From there it was on to lake and reservoir fishing in central NJ...riding my bike to local farm and company ponds for sunfish, bass, and catfish. Then by probably 9 or 10, I was fishing with my dad pretty regularly on the Manasquan for trout...and I think around 12 or 13 I got my first pair of hipboots...and eventually waders...then I was fishing with my dad pretty much 7 days a week through grade and highschool. When we weren't fishing, we were hunting or hiking/scouting. Occassional bluefishing trips to the shore, but not much saltwater until I started working on the boats in college. Now I try to get out as much as I can...just to ease the pain of working for a living!

Wow, just looking back on life, how fast time goes by, how much has changed over the years...how much hasn't...kind of a sweet sorrow...wish I could go back and do it all over again!

[technologist]

I grew up in Newark and no one in my family was a fisherman. We had a summer home in Staten Island where we would spend the summers.This was before the Varanzano Bridge was built and Staten Island was mostly wooded, except along the bayshore. The local kids taught me to fish! I used to go to the local library to read all the outdoor magazines.My uncle was a designer for Airex reels and since he knew I was interested fishing he would not only take me fishing at Echo Lake , but gave me all the reels I needed. Myself and a few friends would walk down to Penn Station in Newark and take the subway to Orange Street and walk down to Branch Brook Park to trout fish. So it was a combination of fresh and salt water fishing Been doing it ever since. Over 50 years!!!!!! Been almost everywhere,tie flies,build plugs you name it I do it!

Hi Ms Gold, Rich's brother

[Sharkyispy]

My fishing passion started when I was about 5. In fact I still have the reel from the combo my grandfather bought me when I went on my first trip with him. I grew up near Buffalo NY. We fished many creeks, streams and rivers and would eventually move up to lake fishing on Lake Ontario or Lake Erie as I grew up and became more experienced. My grandfather gave me a valuable gift, the gift of appreciation of spending that precious time together and enjoying the outdoors( catching fish was really a bonus then) one I grew away from for a while when I moved to PA and found fishing just wasn't what it was like when I was growing up. My grandfather came for a visit before he passed and I was able to go fishing with him one more time. That trip to a small lake helped to rekindle the fishing fever. I remember when I went to Cape Cod when I was 12 and had a great ocean trip that always stuck with me. I caught my first shark there and a nice size cod that I was proud of for a 12 year old without a clue to what he was doing. When I finally went back to the ocean a few years later to fish here in NJ, I was hooked again. Starting on a blue fish trip that I took my younger brother out on where we caught a bag full of fish. Several years later and many $$$ more spent on the latest and greatest equipment, lures, two boats later, etc, etc it's a form of "therapy" just to get out on the water and spend the day dropping the lines in the water, my wife calls it an addiction - I guess it really is now. I'm looking to retire and run a charter business when it's my time(if not sooner). My true hope is that I can pass along the passion I have for fishing to my two young daughters. We're off to a good start, I hope that I can keep them interested the same way my grandfather did for me.