If you bass fished as a kid, what was it like?

[LrgmouthShad]

@BrianMDTX I completely agree! 

[Pumpkin Lizard]

15 hours ago, Pumpkinseed Lizard said:

Had a five acre pond in my backyard stacked with stunted bluegill and bullhead in CT.  Some neighbors offered to transplant a bunch of bass from another pond. A few seasons later we were catching 3-5lbrs. Neither of my parents knew anything about fishing so for the most part I was self taught. I read Bassmaster, Outdoor Life and In Fisherman religiously and would go out and put almost everything I read into practice. 

 

In the summer I would fish every night. Literally every night. I had a dalmatian who insisted on going with me.

 

Had another public lake a mile down the street and we belonged to a private club with a beach and canoes. I used to get up early in the mornings and ride a 10 speed with three rods and a huge tackle box. I had a cinder block with a rope tied through it staged in the woods for an anchor. I used to try to catch a limit by lunchtime and I kept a journal of everything I caught.

 

One of my Dad's business buddies lived in Atlanta and he had Bomber Bass Boat. One year he had me down for a week of fishing on Lake Oconee. He fished some tournaments and taught me quite a bit that week. Honestly I consider that one of the greatest things anyone ever did for me.

 

I was extremely lucky.

 

Here is my son catching fatties on the same rock I used to stand on. Pond is a little more grown in now but now that they never see lures and he was getting them on almost every cast. Tough to beat a silver Phoebe.

[Swamp Girl]

@Pumpkinseed Lizard: I love that you and your boy caught them from the same rock.

[crypt]

it started when I was 6......I still think I'm still 6 whenever I go. Went to the Eau Gallie river,Harbor City golf course and all the local ponds that are all over in the area. I still live a mile from where I grew up so I still fish all the spots except the pond where I caught my first bass. It's now a parking lot for a condo complex.This is still why I live where I do.All about the fishing. I'm 5 minutes to the St. Johns river and the Indian river for saltwater. I am a lucky man. That's what my wife tells me.

[Jar11591]

During the summer, I would ride my bike to the park with my fishing gear and throw a Texas rigged ribbon tail in the nasty pond. Caught a lot of bass there. 
 

When my dad would get him from work, I would ask him if he wanted to go fishing at the river which was a lot more fun than the nasty park pond. I don’t recall my dad ever saying “no” to taking me fishing as a kid. Even after he worked a long day, if I asked him to go fishing, we would be at the river in under an hour. Sometimes he’d initially say “not tonight”, but 5 minutes later he was loading the tackle in the car, telling me to grab the bait bucket from basement. 

[Susky River Rat]

I would wade the susky with my dad and brother. Him carrying a bucket full of live minnows. 

[MassBass]

My grandparents had a camp on an island, on Winnipesaukee, the biggest lake in New Hampshire. My Grandfather wasn't a fisherman but I had been introduced to fishing from my dad. The shore of the island was rugged with boulders and the water was crystal clear. You could gaze into the water and see sunfish and baby bass. I think it was my older cousin who exposed me to the smallmouth. I believe it was the moment, when through goggles, I saw a big smallmouth take a live crayfish that he dropped down to it. 

 

I never went to summer camp as a kid. I wanted to go to the Island, and fish. Through various small craft, the old standby was the aluminum canoe. Powered by paddles. By noon the lake would be rolled over and white capping with either boat wakes or North West winds, so I would get up very early before the wind and waves and head out in the canoe. Fish top water for smallmouths. I was still a young kid at 11 or 12, but I had poppers and walk baits with hardly any paint left on them. A lot of time was also spent trolling crankbaits. Lures like the fat rap, shad rap, and wally diver. I remember one time my dad and I were trolling 'down the line' and he wanted to keep a nice smallmouth to eat. The wind was blowing and they were being aggressive. He clipped it onto one of those metal chain stringers and we resumed trolling. Then the smallie started thrashing on the stringer, and broke the chain and disappeared. So anyways my bass fishing as a kid was smallmouth first.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

During the summer, I would ride my bike to the park with my fishing gear and throw a Texas rigged ribbon tail in the nasty pond. Caught a lot of bass there. 
 

When my dad would get him from work, I would ask him if he wanted to go fishing at the river which was a lot more fun than the nasty park pond. I don’t recall my dad ever saying “no” to taking me fishing as a kid. Even after he worked a long day, if I asked him to go fishing, we would be at the river in under an hour. Sometimes he’d initially say “not tonight”, but 5 minutes later he was loading the tackle in the car, telling me to grab the bait bucket from basement. 

 

I love your dad.

[Bankbeater]

Growing up in the city I had three options, the Missouri, the Mississippi, or the conservation area around 30 miles away.  It wasn't a good idea to even go near the water in those rivers back then, so my dad and I would go out to the conservation site on the weekends. Back then the fishing season out there was from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  I was too little to cast a reel, so my dad gave me a sectional cane pole to fish with. I caught a lot of sunfish with that pole.  I get out to that conservation site about 3 or 4 times a year now. I can't really say anything bad about it.  I learned how to fish vegetation, pressured water, and how to adapt out there.

[papajoe222]

My dad was a die hard walleye fisherman and bought a cabin on a young flowage in central Wisconsin when I was 12. My first bass was caught fishing a rip rap bank that had produced on trips prior to buying the cabin.  I don't remember what lure I was using, likely a Rapala imitation, , but that bass jumped two or three times and hooked me, literally, in the hand after I landed it. It continued to shake around while both he and I were firmly hooked.  A trip to the hospital to remove the hook (from my hand) and a ruined new lure and you'd think I'd have sworn off bass forever.  Not. 60+years later, I'm still chasing them and still get that rush when one jumps.