Who made fishing so great for you?

[Doublerunner]

My Dad started me on fishing. We did not have many chances to go but when I was real young my parents had a place in Buzzards Bay on a pond. My Dad would usually take me jetty fishing for blues. We'd look for the schools of mackerel and try to snag them and if we'd see the water boiling we'd throw towards the blitzing blues. Never had much luck. But the pond we lived at held some nice large mouth bass and I'd stroll the shoreline almost every night at dusk just walking and casting and had a lot of success. Always catch and release....just how I always was.

Then life got busy. High school and dating and other interests. Then married and started a family ( 4 kids ) and a business and just stopped fishing. ( By the way I am going to be a grandfather for the first time....boy do I feel old ). I just started having some time to myself now and I decided to get into striper fishing. Never, ever did fish for stripers before. Met a couple guys who taught me how to catch and I am absolutely hooked. I fish from the surf...love the reefs and rocks. I've always loved storms and the night and so when I show up at 2 am to a spot in the dark of the night and get out of my truck and hear the surf pounding the shore...well to me that is invigorating and exciting. These guys taught me about using plugs and I just love it. It's a great game to try to get a striper to hit your fake food with hooks.

Anyways, I asked my Dad why he took me for blues and not stripers. He confided in me that he used to fish for stripers all the time. Last one he caught he was 12 years old. After a few years of getting skunked he started going for blues instead. So now my goal is to put him on to a striper. We had no luck this year although he was only physically able to go a few times. But next year I'll get him hooked up.

[freebie]

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

[quick decision]

Originally Posted by freebie

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

I am sorry to hear of the passing of your dad.

[Slingah]

Originally Posted by freebie

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

sorry for your loss Ryan...

[saltfly]

Originally Posted by freebie

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

Yeeow...So sorry for your loss of your Dad.May he rest in Peace.

[MAKAI]

Originally Posted by saltfly

AHHHH the memories,,,Going to the fire academy at low tide and finding the flounder rigs wrapped on the rocks off the wall.Getting a fishing pass so we could go out to the pier on the n/e side of long i.

It's a real shame we can't get those bums off Long Island.
Real good fishing right up against the beach at night out there.

[Swimmer]

So sorry for your loss Ryan. I am sure he'll guide you into the cows though, even moreso now.

[Doublerunner]

Originally Posted by freebie

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

I am very sorry to hear of your Dad's passing. May he rip and find all the fish he wants in heaven

[MAKAI]

Originally Posted by freebie

Dad got me started fishing when I was little then I kind of took the rest into my own hands, the last few years I have really been into it and we have tried to get out together, for some reason or other it never worked out for us to fish, he died of congestive heart failure last Fri. morning, now I guess he will be watching over me whenever I fish.....rip dad(Stephen Fontaine)

Sorry for your loss.
I am 100% sure there is more to our existence than what we see around us.
We will be with those we love again.
Trust this.

[mosholu]

We had a cottage in Breezy Point in the Rockaways and I would watch my dad and uncles fish the ocean down by the jetty. After awhile we (the little kids) were taken to fish on the bay side for snappers. When I was almost a teenager I would wait for the day when I would get the okay to fish with my cousins at the jetty at dusk or dawn. The first time I fished the end of the jetty with my dad he tied a rope to my pants and attached it to one of the steel posts of the beacon. Probably not the best safety tip but it gave him a little comfort. After a few years all we could think about was Montauk. Went with my best friend on a late September weekend, thick fog, no korkers, only one fish but we were hooked and in it for the long haul.

[Fish On]

It was defiantely my dad. He loved to fish on the lake where we still have a cottage in southern New Hampshire. I don;t remember the first time that he showed me how to fish but I remember many days fishing with him when I was very young. These are some of my favorite memmories with my Dad (lost him in 2006). He loved to tell peole how I would sit on our dock for hours at only 4 years old waiting for a fish to bite. Here is a picture he took of my first trophy at that very same age (yellow perch, 1972). Quite the lunker hey?!?!?!

[Jimbo]

I guess there were several people who were responsible for making fishing what it has become for me. Though I lived on the water on Long Island and spent my entire summer on Cape Cod, as a kid my father never took a great interest in it so my first fishing rod was basically a bamboo pole with a nut for a weight and whatever hooks I could scrounge up. He was content to dig clams and had a nack for getting fiddler crabs and removing the claws for bait. I used birthday money to buy my own first little rod and reel from Sears. Then one year an uncle presented me with a bigger setup and a tacklebox with a few plugs and jigs and I was off. In any direction from West Dennis I could get to salt water on my (no speed, balloon tire) bike I would. I caught my first striper when I was about 10 on a small Atom, that's probably when I was truly hooked. All the while, my grandfather was an avid fisherman, mostly after myself and the summer crowds had left the Cape, but he would write me long letters telling me about fish he'd caught at places like Bass Hole or Hemenway Landing, even just down by the Fingers, behind the WDYC. I could only imagine the scenes and long to get back. Then as a teenager I think my father finally did realize how I loved to fish and while he still had little desire to fish himself, when he wasn't working his summer job, he'd take me anywhere on the Cape I wanted to go, and showed me a number of "fishy" places I didn't know existed. It wasn't surf fishing to begin with, but that's sort of what set me on my way.

[allchumdup]

My dad gave me the love of fishing and even on a skunk day I enjoy it! The most important thing he taught me was PATIENCE and it is true. I passed this to my three daughters and as they got older they found out how important it is with other things besides fishing. Thanks for your patience dad, miss ya!---LOUIE

[FishermanTim]

My dad opened the door, but I walked into the world of fishing.
He taught me one of the most important lessons in fishing: that the lessons never end. If they did, then you'd have given up long ago.
He taught me, without really knowing it, how to enjoy even days when you don't catch a thing, to "live in the moment" as it were.

I learned (fine tuned my tactics) more on my own, but he gets credit for the introduction to the sport, and fostering the desire to keep learning.

I can only hope that the people I have introduced to fishing will carry on in their own ways.