[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.