Who made fishing so great for you?

[saltfly]

I was born in Dorchester and at about 6 yrs old[1956] I'd sneak down the street[adams st.} to the Cedar Grove Cemetery and play in the big trees.Then crossed the train tracks[Bakers Chocolate} to the Neponset River and played along the shore with the horseshoe crabs and minnows.Then found the Granite Av. bridge and watched the men fishing from the bridge and I was hooked.I did errands for my mom and aunt&uncle[lived upstairs] to the "courner store" and they'd give me change.I saved up enough to buy a drop line at the bait shop in Codman Sq[by Ashmont T station].The man at the bait shop gave me afew seaworms and off i went back to the river.As i walked,the box opened and me smelling the seaweed and worms as i walked.Getting to the bridge I did'nt understand why everyone was on one side of the bridge so I went to the other side.After a few fruitless trips[I'd hide the dropline next to the house in the hedges]I was on the other side of the bridge doing the same thing.An oldtimer had been watching me the times i went there and finally had me come over to his side and let me put my line down with him.He showed me to let line line to the bottom and bounce it off and on.After about 10mins and BOOM!! fish-on...Up came a cod about 25-28" It was HUGE!!!.Everyone on the bridge was clapping.I rolled up my dropline and headed home down Granite av. and up Gallivan blvd. to home.I was soooooo proud.Well,I got home and my mother was horrified.I wanted the fish for supper.After being yelled at for being at the river and told to go to my room for a possible'licking'.my mom told me never to go near that river again.In the meantime[i found out many years later]my uncle went down to the fishmarket and bought some haddock and that was MY fish for supper.The real fish was given to a neighbor and kept the secret from me.To this day nobody in my family fishes at all and think it's nuts to be out doing what we love.OH!!! I did get a few 'lickins' in the next few years because i just could'nt stay away from that river.

[Slipknot]

My father got me into fishing at an early age. He used to take my older brother, my younger brother and myself fishing different places like Whitman pond in Weymouth where we grew up fishing from shore and in the winter from the ice. I also remember fishing in his wooden Hiliner boat for flounder one after another someplace in Quincy or Boston Harbor. Around 1969 I was 8 and we lived near the Weymouth resevoir and my older brother and I and friends would get our rods and some worms and spend all day fishing the pond and having a blast. Those days it was endless summers.
He also took us to a place we called pickeral pond, it's all we caught.

Later in life my older brother got me back into fishing and we'd trout fish all the time, then he began salt water fishing so I got interested in that since I had a chance to get something much larger than a trout.
Once I started buying plugs instead of bait, it was all over for me, I was hooked on striper fishing and still love it to this day.

Thanks Dad

[Grapenuts]

The grass was taller then I was when I struck off to fish...worms dug from the yard,pine cone for a bobber,round tin of mixed hooks an some line..headed up the road to the closest pond...when I cleaned out the all the ponds close to home I headed down the other road from the house that led to the salt, armed with a used 4' old boat rod,sinker an hook..dug some hogs for bait an caught sand sharks on the incoming.that turned into catching schoolies and it was all up hill from there....52 years ago.thats alot of under ones belt.

[BigFish]

I fished fresh water from a young age. My folks gave me a black and white Zebco 202 for my birthday one year....I was maybe 8? My Dad worked at a private swimming pond on the Weston/Lincoln line for 25 summers I was growing up so I spent alot of time there with him fishing for bass, pickeral perch and blue gills while he worked. Great summers!

After I separated from my first wife I had zero money......so with what little I did have I would take my 2 young sons, get a bucket of shiners and go fishing in the local ponds! Then with my last couple dollars I would buy them each a Happy Meal afterwards. We made the very best of a bad situation.

One day my sons and I spent an afternoon at Nantasket Beach in Hull. As they jumped around in the surf they saw a bunch of fish swimming around them......they were schoolie stripers chasing peanuts. The boys asked if we could try fishing for them some day? I had never fished stripers before......fished for tommy cod and flounder with my Zebco as a boy but that was all my saltwater experience. So per my boys request we took a couple of my Dad's very dated and dusty fishing rod and reel combos from the basement and headed to the local bait and tackle shop where we bumped into a buddy of mine who was headed to Hull Gut to soak some bait for stripers.....so he invited us along. My boys each caught their first ever striper that day. That was a great day for this Dad with his 2 boys. So beautiful were the stripers to me I was bitten by the bug! So I started to educate myself on striper fishing and started to go quite a bit. Long story short that was 1 beach buggy, 1 kayak, 1 wet suit, 1 canal bike, 8 pairs of waders, 3 years as MSBA Vice President, untold thousands of dollars in fishing and plug building equipment, 17,000+ posts on S-B and over 10 years ago.......I was not bitten by the bug I was devoured by it!!! I am a richer man for all of it.......there is nothing I would rather do!

My kids made fishing great for me! They were great times with them when they were young and I was broke!

[quick decision]

When I was a kid, my Dad took me fishing every weekend for as long as I can remember. My first fishing memory as a kid was with my Moms dad, and my father, and myself on a canoe somewhere on Wini. I casted my zebco into the weeds, and can remember my dad cussing. All of a sudden my bobber disappeared and my rod bent over. After a good struggle a nice 16 inch large mouth was being pulled over the side of that green canoe. I don't know who was more proud, my dad or me. My dad bought a canoe sometime after that. It was a nice setup. A green Colman with a transom on the back. I think It was called a scanoe. We had an electric engine on the back and we would fish all over New Hampshire ponds in search of trout and bass.
My dads parents had a house in the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. My summer vacations were spent fishing for spot and croak-er. Lots of fun.They had a an aluminum john boat. I would catch minnows on the dock, then row the boat out to the creek and fish ebb and flo. I had to be careful on the way in because if the fishing was to good there would be no water around the dock when I got back. i would be tits deep in mud, with a big smile on my face because the boat was usually filled with fish. When I was in fifth grade My Grandfather and his friend took me tuna fishing. We went out of Virginia Beach. I caught a White Marlin a bunch of tuna. Did not know how fortunate I was. I still have a plack somewhere from the Governor of Virgina for releasing the marlin.

[Mr. Sandman]

Dad got me into fishing and boating, as well as surf casting. The time spent alone with him seemed trivial at the time but is priceless today.

[MAC]

My grandfather got me into fishing 40+ years ago. Started out catching sunnies and an occaisional bass or pickeral during the summers. During the winters he would bring me ice fishing.

It was probably 1970 or so when he first took me fishing the salt. We used sea worms for bait, catching scup and bass.

He is 90 years old now and lives with my wife and I, as he will until his final day. It is the least I can do for him, given the love for the outdoors he gave me.

[BigFish]

How is your Grandfather doing Dave? I hope he is well. You are a very good Grandson!