How Did You Get Into Fishing?

[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!