Remember Your First Fish?

[Maria]

Well, as there's been a few threads running lately gathering info on members, I thought why not bring it back toward fishing related stuff (hahahaha Jeff) and ask those who remember their very first fish, what was it and the particulars involved (age, location, date etc). Just out of interest.

Ben

[blaze]

remember catching small aust salmon when i was about upto me dads knee (probable make me about 2 foot) used to go down the duck bay eustary in a 12 foot klinger build dingy with an old set of oars and a 2hp? seagull outboard, used to troll with green cord handlines with a bit of clear plastic tube on the end, can remember old shacks (no longer there, just memories)
yep that was close to 40 years ago
bugger
blaze

[jewies]

mine was a small catfish caught it in the brisbane river at the jindalee boat ramp

[Maria]

Good story Blaze...interesting how the times change eh?

My first was a stingray that went about 54cm across the flaps. Got her when I was about 9 years old, down at Point Talburpin, near my joint on a little spinning combo and a whiting rig, with beach worms for bait. She pulled like all hell when I hooked her.

Ben

[basserman]

i think i was so young when i got my first fish that i need to say i can't remeber my first all that i can remeber is always fishing!

[sominc]

My first fish was a bream pulled from the noosa river when i was 4 or five, fishing out if a put put boat with my old man and his mate ;D

Good memories

[el_carpo]

Same with me Basserman. My dad started my brothers and me fishing so early, none of us can remember our first fish. I'm guessing it was either a bluegill (a small sunfish) or a bullhead (small catfish relative, dark brown in color). I think taking your kids fishing is one of the greatest things a parent can do for their children. It teaches responsibility and respect for nature. I've never met a kid that hasn't wanted to go fishing. One of my favorite things to do is whenever I find a broken rod and reel in the trash, I take it home, fix it up and give it to a kid in the neighborhood for free. You should see their faces light up. It's like Christmas morning. I teach their parents what to do and where to go and they're off. Sometimes, the parents get "hooked" on our sport as well. I figure if they're going to be addicted to something, I want it to be fishing. I can't imagine life without fishing really.

Thanks dad! :)

[bidkev]

I was aged about 5 or 6 and used to run away from the orphanage as I was fascinated by anything to do with the beach or sea. It was in Blackpool UK which boasted 3 piers about a kilometre long which on any day could have as many as 500 anglers on each.

I was walking along the low water mark near one of these jetties when I saw something flapping in the water. I waded out and grabbed a cod that I remember hung from my shoulder to the ground. It was attached to a rod!

From then on in, I was hooked :-)

The practice in that part of the UK is to cast away from the pier with leads weighing upwards of 4 oz minimum. When folk got over-runs their lines used to snap and the terminal tackle would fly off into the distance. I learned to "harvest" these terminal rigs by going down at low water. Often they would be buried in the sand and only a hook would remain above the water. There *was* competition for this gear but I could always spot the gear that was still below the waterline by looking for small eddies or a "full flap" of those which had fish on them. The other "harvesters" never seemed to relish wading in before the tackle was uncovered, particularly in winter. Spring tides used to produce a bonanza 'cause this revealed tackle that had never been uncovered for months.

Most of my early "catches" were from this type of "fishing" and I also used to climb down the girders to retrieve tackle that others wouldn't risk for (the jetty had a drop of about 30 feet).

My first "rod caught" was a 7lb cod from another jetty there (I was afraid to use the found rod on the jetty where it had been lost). The rod was a snooker cue with eyes taped to it and an old walnut centre pin reel.

The cod are lost to that area now through overfishing :-(

kev

[firetruck]

I remember mine and i still have the pic. It was a whiting caught in the gold coast broadwater. We were on a picnic with some family friends.

Actually i think this family got me hooked on fishing because every time we went over there he would show me pictures and home movies of their fishing trips out from Rainbow Beach.

[nonibbles]

I was 6. It was a red rock cod caught off the headland near Lake Tabourie NSW. Used cunje for bait. I think I was the only one in the family to catch anything that day. It was bloody huge at about 15cm. ;D Saw a bloke catch a tuna from the cliff face on the other side but I was too little to fish on that side. If the fall wouldn't kill me my dad would've.

[Heath]

Bream, Georges river Sysdney. Aged about 3 ;D With my Dad. Now 31 still fishing with my Dad. ;)

[freefish]

Can"t remember starting but do remember I must have been no more than 7 (nearly 60 years ago) when fishing with my first rod & reel (cheap bamboo, centrpin reel & cord line) getting tangled with a not so gentlemanly type who proceeded to loudly tell all & sundry that kids should be kept away from serious fisherman & women (my widowed mum who taught me to fish) who could not contoll their kids should stay at home where they belong. When the lines were untangled guess whose line had the fish (a good whiting). Mum & I had that stretch of the creek to ourselves for the rest of the day.

[Barrymundi]

I cannot really remember my first fish.

I do remember my first Barra and my first legal Barra

Al

[Brenno]

when i was about 4 or 5 i was fishing with my parents on a step bank behind my grandparents house on the Namoi River in Northern NSW.

i had this cheap light green rod and threadline reel. when i fish grabbed my bait and was trying to make off with it. i was so small that i was sliding down the bank (it was that big that it was pulling me in) and my parents were telling me to wind it in, i was telling them that i was but i was only sliding down the bank. so my father took the rod off me and pulled in this huge eel tailed catfish. must have been about 30cm long.

even thougth i didnt' wind it in, i still claim it as my first fish. and i still fight with my father for taking the rod off me, when i still had a few meters to go before i went into the water.:)

[northsboy]

Mine was a 32 pound spanish mackeral beleive it or not when i was 6,of course needed some help with it from my bro he did most of it but i hooked it and helped out! It was out in his boat fishing the mackeral patch's in bowen!!! Never forget that! Couldnt imagine not being able to fish!!!
Cheers
Liam

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Can't really remember the first fish, but I'm guessing it was a little swallow tail or bream out of a surf gutter on a hand line that was thrown out for me at around 6 or 7 years old.
I do remember calling out to dad every time a wave landed on the line and telling him I think I got a fish biting, and him trying his hardest to encourage me not to reel it in every time, coz he'd have to throw it out for me for the 10th time with the same bait.
Think the "handline" was a 20m length of 15lb line tied and wrapped around a coke bottle. Old piece of cork jammed in the mouth to push the hook into when not in use.
We used to do the usual kid style of retrieve; start backing up the beach and only manage to get about 3 or 4 wraps of line actually spooled. Then as soon as the fish was flapping in the waters edge, we'd stop and point at it 15m away and start sceaming I got a fish. Dad would then start waving his arms around and tell us to get the thing out of the water before we lose it, so there was another 10m up the beach we'd run.
Saw the whole thing repeated about 25 years later except it was my nephew, a little cheap rod and eggbeater, and his Dad and Uncle Jeff waving their arms around. :D
Nothing better.
Cheers
Jeff

[NeilD]

I've been told that my first fish was a Whiting from Botany Bay when I was three but I can't recall it. My first clear recollection is of a Trout caught on a worm in Scotland near Ballach where we lived for a couple of years. I was four or five and my grandfather (a dedicated fly fisherman) dug up a worm and put it on a fly, cast it out and told me to hold on while he and my father took a refreshment break. I then caught the only fish of the day. My grandfather passed away over thirty years ago but I still fish with my father.

Cheers Neil

[Reefmaster]

well i dont know when my first fish was but i do remember my first offshore fish which was when i was about 10 years old and i hate to admit it but it was a bloody happy moment caught at DI Point >:( ;D
Cheers Greg

[propdinger]

i cant remember my first fish but my first memory was a big bream (aparentlly 35cm) from port stevens when i was 4 caught on a old cork hand line i remember i couldnt get it in and dad said if i cant get it in the boat he would cut the line so i made sure i could get it in the boat. now i out fish him every week when we go fishing now whos laughing (still cant drink him under the table though)

jeff

[Maria]

Some pretty interesting stories and laughs comming out here. Most enjoyable.

Ben

[Fisherman02]

good thread ben!
i remember when i caught my first fish at cleveland marina (cant remember the name its near the train station) it was a 25 cm bream, and i wasn't able to even unhook it! I spose it was unfamiliar to me, and now i am able to unhook dolphin fish, spotties etc thanks to mackmauler (rob) so i reckon i have come a long way!
cheers jack
p.s that was 2 years ago

[Captian_Zero]

I am not certain, but I think it would be a whiting at Bribie Island on one of our annual holidays. My first rod was a cheap kids 5 foot (it was red - with 4 brothers we each had to have different colours so we didn't fight and red was always my colour for everything) rod with an egg beater reel. I remember usually being the last one fishing with Dad after my brothers got bored and decided to swim/build sand castles etc.

I am still fishing with Dad and am still the only son that does it. (although I am the one helping him with his knots, bait, unsnagging etc. now rather than the other way round).

Cheers

Chris

[SeaSaw]

I can't really remember my first fish as my dad started me fishing by about 3 years old. My first real memory of serious fishing (for a kid anyway) was when we spent school holidays every year at Telebudgerra caravan park. First thing I would do every day is grab the rod and head down to the water and catch half a dozen whiting for breakfast (before any one else was even awake). I must have been about 5 or 6 at that stage.

32 years later and nothing has changed, I still get up at silly hours like 1am to go fishing [smiley=hammer.gif]. I just have to travel further and spend more money to catch fish these days. ???

Mark

[Maria]

Aint your final comment the truth Mark... :-/

[Graham_N_Roberts]

Caught my first fish ..an eel tail cat on the Dawson from the Moura weir in about 1960, and plenty of yellas and silvers since. :)

Strange in those days, the water was the colour of very weak black tea. :-/ They didn't know dirty water would be a problem in the future, so they cleared the land of vegetation. >:(

No ruddy wonder it's near impossible to catch a decent fish on the Dawson (and many other waterways) today. :-[ :-[

[Big_Kev]

30 something years ago we lived near the beach, and I can remember being given an old white rod fitted with a small bakelite Alvey, stored in the roof of the shed that no one wanted.
Dad and Pop were taking me fishing and I thought I was the cats arse.
Dad baited it up (pipi)and cast it. I can remember the bite and dad telling me to wind it in but I couldn't get handle the Alvey yet, so I turned and ran up the beach dragging a small dart from the surf.
I caught three that day and mum cooked them up for me.
I think I was the biggest thing hooked that day and I haven't looked back.
Cheers Kev ;D

[ishing]

my first fish was a small toadfish i caught when i was four i think.......? i climbed a tree with a handline that had branches that went over some water(about 20cm deep) and watch it eat my bait.... i cought it at hastings point...

[eggbeater]

I remember when we were kids(25-28 years ago) going down to the Broadwater and under the Sundale bridge with Mum and Dad.you would always come home with a good feed of bream,whiting,garfish and flatties and all in a short period of time.Ah how times have changed.

[BlitzBaga]

I can't remember my first fish apparently it was a flathead at twin towns lagoon, I was with grandparents and they say I was 3yrs old. But I do remember my first fish on my own adventure, it was a spangled perch caught in a crystal clear water hole near Rosewood, I could see the fish swimming around and hiding, I remember dangling a worm on a hook right in front of these fish and it toook hrs to get one to take it. I was in year 2 at school at the time so I would have been around 6.

Cheers
Murray