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.
