[Billfish715]

When my son was in the Cub Scouts, I used to take some of the boys from his den on a fishing trip to a nearby panfish pond. One of the prerequisites for them was to go out at night and pick their own bait........night crawlers. It was a great entertainment and a real (pardon the pun) hands on activity. Those (now) men, still talk about it.

In reminiscing about this topic, it made me remember the bait shops that so many towns used to have. Just about every sportshop sold bait and tackle as well as baseball, football, and other sports and recreational equipment. If you lived in Union County there was Ruddy's in Clark, the Cranford Sport Shop, Coles in Scotch Plains, Red's in Elizabeth, Ross's in Rahway, Drier's in Plainfield. There are very few of those type stores around anymore so all of the fishing knowledge that was gleaned from their patrons and owners is now offered by a stock clerk or cashier at Dick's or Walmart.

I could go on and on about how sad it is for most newbies to get their fishing knowledge from the Internet and not from a store owner with local and professional knowledge, but that's the way it is. So, keep the stories and advice coming because, while it's not the same as a personal tutorial, it is what many fishermen use to improve their skills.