What was the first fish that you ever caught?

[zcoker]

We all have those stories, that one time that started it all: the quest to catch fish...Good times on a family outing, maybe by accident while just fooling around with a Zebco rod, or maybe even that goldfish in the family fish tank lol  

 

Whatever it be, I’m sure a memorable and special moment for all. 

 

So let’s hear them stories!

 

Here’s mine:

 

 

First fish that I ever caught was up in northern Mass. I had just moved there and met an old timer who invited me out to a lake to go fishing but said, “first, we have to get up very early to get the bait—the crawlers.” Wasn’t sure what he meant but next morning very early we were out combing the wet grass lawns for worms lol. We sooner trekked up to this mountain lake, laid out like a dream amid a backdrop of sleepy mountains. There was a silent fog hovering over the water. We baited our hooks and before I cast out, the old timer said, “wait, you need to do this...” He then tipped my hook with a single kernel of corn. Said “it gets the bites.” I casted out with a “whatever” attitude and within a few moments my rod bent over and I sooner reeled in one of the biggest rainbow trouts that I’d ever seen. But, wait, something odd—the fish had a strange looking tag on it. I informed my fishing companion and he went crazy, kept on saying, “can’t believe it! can’t believe it...”

 

Turned out to be a big deal, indeed! 

 

Apparently, they’d tagged a single trout years prior as a contest and whoever caught it would receive all kinds of prizes. I was amazed at all the rods, reels, fishing tackle....even made the local paper! The whole town literally went nuts. The news traveled like wildfire, to all the churches, stores, and the barber shops...It was one of the craziest adventures I’d ever been through over a single fish! 

 

My first fish. 

[chris L]

Cant top that one .Awesome story !

Edited December 23, 2020 by chris L

[MEF]

My first fish, 4 years old. Was down at the surf line at dead low tide at 8 am casting a 5 inch fin s on a jighead on 8 pound mono with a mitchell 300 reel and an old fiberglass rod my grandpa made in the 50s. Suddenly my rod doubled over and line started peeling from the reel. About 10 minutes later (i was told by my grandpa) I pulled a 25 inch striper onto the beach. The story ended up making the Asbury Park Press back in 1998 and I’ve been hooked ever since!

[mikeadams]

rainbow trout

[gellfex]

Snapper blue. Grandpa was the fisherman, and the overlap between him being healthy enough to fish and me being alive was slim. He would take us to a bulkhead in Freeport (I think) and set my older siblings and I up with spearing, long snapper hooks, and bobbers. I guess I was 4 or 5. We also fished at Captree for flounder and blowfish. I could never understand why he would catch the big blowfish and I could only catch the little ones. A few years later I was a sunfish master at camp. Older kids would come to me to unhook theirs.

[Jim DE]

Pumkinseed sunfish on a small fly rod popper

[Ben Lippen]

Can't top that first one for sure, and @MEF I remember that in the APP back then.

My first was a white perch. Yeah  

I was five and had garbage picked a Zebco setup form the neighborhood. Bugged my brother enough so that he took me down to the bulkhead on the river where all of the old guys sat every spring fishing for perch and eels. I had bought a package of frozen shrimp with my allowance from the little tackle shop in my town, and tried them. Well mostly I chummed the river with the pieces of shrimp flying off the hook on each cast. My brother, and was really only my "chaperone",  was twelve so he was chatting up the girls under the pavilion, and I was watching the old guys catch fish. So I went over to see what they were using and doing, trying to learn. Well, of course they noticed me snooping around behind them, had watched my futility at actually fishing, and took great pity on me. They told me that shrimp are good bait for perch, but not frozen ones.  Showed me their bloodworms, and how to handle them. Then gave me two, one cut up already for me.  I put a piece on my hook and made another futile cast. One of the guys got up from his chair, walked over and clipped on a couple of split shot weights and adjusted my bobber length, then told me to cast.

 Now, my brother is having ice cream with the girls in the pavilion. 

Well I cast that sucker out 4 times further than my prior best cast. I was all smiles and excited. Of course, my cast was but a quarter of the way to where the old guys were. Anyway, I did manage to get into my own little bite and caught three. I  gave them to the old guys who helped me.

 

  Ben Hooked ever since  

[MEF]

7 mins ago, Ben Lippen said:

Can't top that first one for sure, and @MEF I remember that in the APP back then.

My first was a white perch. Yeah  

I was five and had garbage picked a Zebco setup form the neighborhood. Bugged my brother enough so that he took me down to the bulkhead on the river where all of the old guys sat every spring fishing for perch and eels. I had bought a package of frozen shrimp with my allowance from the little tackle shop in my town, and tried them. Well mostly I chummed the river with the pieces of shrimp flying off the hook on each cast. My brother, and was really only my "chaperone",  was twelve so he was chatting up the girls under the pavilion, and I was watching the old guys catch fish. So I went over to see what they were using and doing, trying to learn. Well, of course they noticed me snooping around behind them, had watched my futility at actually fishing, and took great pity on me. They told me that shrimp are good bait for perch, but not frozen ones.  Showed me their bloodworms, and how to handle them. Then gave me two, one cut up already for me.  I put a piece on my hook and made another futile cast. One of the guys got up from his chair, walked over and clipped on a couple of split shot weights and adjusted my bobber length, then told me to cast.

 Now, my brother is having ice cream with the girls in the pavilion. 

Well I cast that sucker out 4 times further than my prior best cast. I was all smiles and excited. Of course, my cast was but a quarter of the way to where the old guys were. Anyway, I did manage to get into my own little bite and caught three. I  gave them to the old guys who helped me.

 

  Ben Hooked ever since  

@Ben Lippen do you really? small world that’s too funny. that year for Christmas my family suprised me with a replica mount of the bass since the fish was obviously too short to keep. That mount sits right next to my bed.

[Ben Lippen]

3 mins ago, MEF said:

@Ben Lippen do you really? small world that’s too funny. that year for Christmas my family suprised me with a replica mount of the bass since the fish was obviously too short to keep. That mount sits right next to my bed.

Way cool. Ya don't see mounts that small very often.

[Beastly Backlash]

Good question, I don't recall my first fish. I believe I was around 3yrs of age, maybe younger.

 

More then likely it was a bluegill.

[Beastly Backlash]

I doubt my oldest son will remember catching his first fish by himself. It was this past summer on a cane pole while fishing a creek. It was just a bluegill, but not bad for a 2 1/2yr old.

[Ben Lippen]

11 mins ago, Beastly Backlash said:

I doubt my oldest son will remember catching his first fish by himself. It was this past summer on a cane pole while fishing a creek. It was just a bluegill, but not bad for a 2 1/2yr old.

Betcha have pictures though, right?

Saved, those provide strange remembrances at times.

Something rarely available for most of us old timers.

 

[Beastly Backlash]

3 mins ago, Ben Lippen said:

Betcha have pictures though, right?

Saved, those provide strange remembrances at times.

Something rarely available for most of us old timers.

 

 

Definitely have pictures.

[ermghoti]

I was maybe five? Yellow perch, my father had rowed us out on some body of water with I can't remember what tackle, but earthworms for bait. We couldn't see over the gunwhales, but he was entertained to no end by an absolute mob of the perch that were inspecting and ignoring the baits. Finally, one committed, and the competitive spirit seized the whole community, to the point my sister caught one on a bare hook hanging over the side when she was waiting to get re-baited. Anyway, first fish, a yellow perch, probably all of four inches. We got back to my paternal grandfather's house, where, lacking any decent tools, he sawed the heads off our imprudent quarry, shoveled the viscera out with a spoon, scraped off the scales, and pan-fried them.

 

Oddly, my father never had any interest in fishing, whereas I was clearly deeply bitten.

[worldsworstangler]

All great stories!

 

Caught my first sunfish at 12 yo with my brother’s help, it spined me really good. Didn’t pick up a rod again until I was about 29 yo when my neighbor put his in the trash at the end of the driveway. Self taught from that point on, and since then have sworn that if I have kids they will all learn to fish when they can sit up.