I.  The Beginning

My dad was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, in an area called Gerritsen Beach.  Gerritsen Beach is located right on the water, and growing up, fishing was part of his way of life.  He went fishing often with my grandmother - who also took me fishing as a child. 

I can still remember the smell of the fishing tackle in the trunk of her 60's vintage white Ford Fairlane.  She would keep her spin-casting rods rigged up - hooks and all, but she used to put a piece of Styrofoam on them to keep them from snagging an errant finger.  She had a small, blue tackle box, in which she kept all kinds of rusty odds and ends.  I specifically remember she had a pair of really rusty pliers that she used to use to extract half-eaten hooks from the mouths of the catfish and bluegills ("sunnies" we used to call them) we often caught.  She always had a rod in the trunk for me, and I recall how excited I used to get when she took me fishing.

Grandma's technique was pretty basic:  she would rig a hook and a one ounce teardrop-shaped sinker on some stiff, heavy line, and  toss a big 'ol night crawler out as far as her spin caster would allow.  Then, she would have a seat in her lawn chair, her legs crossed, and basically wait for a fish to hook itself.  She never used an artificial lure as far as I could tell, and, frankly, I never recall seeing her set the hook!  We had a ball, going fishing quite often through the years, but mostly we fished from the time I was about eight years old, up until my early teens.

Sometimes we caught a lot of fish, sometimes just a few.  Often, we caught nothing.  When we did catch fish, we occasionally took them home for the cats to eat.  I never ate any of the fish (...and I still don't today).

I am so grateful my grandma helped me learn to love fishing.  I wish she was still around so I could take her out on my Triton and show her how I catch bass. For in all the years my grandma took me fishing, we never really ever caught a "game fish".  She would have loved the fight of a largemouth on her old spin caster!

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II.  Deep Sea

I did some freshwater fishing with my friends growing up.  My technique varied  from that taught to me by my grandma - I learned to fish with a bobber or "float", but I still mostly fished with worms and caught bluegills.  It wasn't until my dad took me deep-sea fishing that I experienced larger, more challenging fish.

My first experience was with my dad.  We lived in New England at the time, and dad took me to a fishing harbor somewhere near Glouster and rented a small, 17 foot boat with an outboard motor.  I remember how nervous I was as we took the boat so far out that I couldn't see the shore line any more, and particularly as we crossed from the bay into the open Atlantic.  The area where the two bodies of water met created huge waves and swells due to the conflicting tides, and the waves would be about 5 to 7 feet for a good ten minutes of the ride to our fishing spots.  I recall that my dad gave me Oreo cookies just before we got to the "rip", in an effort to distract and soothe me, for sure.

Out in the open Atlantic, we fished for cod, haddock, mackerel, and flounder.  the cod and haddock were memorable as they were so heavy that I could not keep the rod up properly as I wound them in.  So, I would put the rod on the side of the boat like a winch, and reel the fish up.  I recall we used raw clams as bait for the cod.  Mackerel were fun!  We used "spaghetti" lures - long lines of colored, plastic strips, each with a hook protruding from the thin, colored bait.  The cool thing about mackerel, was that if you managed to get into a school of them, you could catch several at once on the same line!  You'd have 3 or 4 one to five pound fish to fight at once - all going in different directions!  Flounder, and later fluke, were pretty basic, I recall.  We used blood worms as bait on a hook, with a 3 ounce teardrop-shaped sinker to get the bait down hundreds of feet.  Then, we'd just jig the bait up and down until something bit.  I never really enjoyed fishing for flounder or fluke, and I think my dad's focusing on them was due to the fact that he liked to eat them.  I was just looking for a good fight, and a chance to spent more time with my dad.

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III.  Back to Freshwater

I returned to freshwater fishing in earnest in my late teens and early twenties, when my dad had decided to take it up with his friend Mike Rachel.  He introduced me to ultra-light fishing with a spinning rod, and the use of artificial lures.  We would go to northwestern New Jersey, and fish the backwaters and tailraces of the Delaware river, and often in the Delaware itself.  I distinctly recall fishing for smallmouth bass in dad's red, fiberglass canoe with an electric trolling motor attached to the side of the stern.  We didn't catch a lot of fish, and I know now why, but we did manage to get some on black Creme pre-rigged worms.  MY dad's friend, Mike Rachel, was more of a bass fisherman, and he regularly caught fish on his fly rod using poppers, as well as bass on Rapala jointed minnows in creeks and streams. 

One of the coolest places we fished was on Ghost Lake, located on "Shades of Death" road in Warren County, NJ.  This is a beautiful, isolated lake just filled with bass, and I recall the special feeling I got when we launched our small, aluminum boat on the dark water surrounded by a canopy of large old trees around the lake.  It was so exciting!

We would also fish on Farrington Lake in central New Jersey where we lived, but we never had much luck.  That lake always looked more exciting than the fishing turned out to be.  It was probably just our ignorance that prevented our success in those waters, as well as our lack of a real bass boat to try different locations and fishing spots with ease.

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IV. Canada and Rice Lake

My father passed away in March of 1987, and my losing him created a huge dislocation in my life.  However, before his sudden death at age forty eight, he had planned to take my youngest brother, Dan, on a fly-in fishing trip to Canada's Rice Lake, located in Ontario.  The trip was planned as a father-son fishing trip with one of my father's friends and business associates Tom Taunt, his father Nort, Tom's son, and a friend of theirs, and his son.  After my dad died, Tom invited me to go in my Dad's place to fish for northern pike and walleye in Canada.

Rice lake was beautiful, and we got there in mid-July when we were able to see the northern lights in the evening.  We caught some good fish - some as long as 42 inches or more.  The other folks we were with ate the pike for dinner a number of times.  I tried it, but could not develop an affinity for the bony, white meat.  I also tried some walleye, and did not like it either.

As far as catching fish, I managed to catch a few, including one pike that measured about 30 inches.  Not huge by northern standards, but clearly my largest freshwater fish ever!  We trolled the entire time using our gas motors to move us along the deep channels, and we dragged red and white Daredevle spoons all over the lake.  Some guys also caught some big fish on Red Eyes.   I did not care for the trolling technique very much, because when I'm outdoors, I like to hear the wind through the trees, the sound of the water, birds and animals.  I also found it very boring to just drive around a lake with a noisy motor going all the time.  However, I did learn that large fish DO bite on artificial lures - something I had always been skeptical about for most of my fishing life.   After all, I had only caught big fish on live bait, or other natural forage.

Sadly enough, the beauty of Canada and the "sometimes fun" fishing was not able to clear my mind of the sadness and depression that had gotten hold of me since my father's death only four months earlier.   Ironically, and equally as sad, I heard that Tom Taunt died of brain cancer only a few years later.

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V.  Early Bass Fishing

While my dad had been getting into freshwater fishing in earnest with our trips to Warren County, NJ., true to my nature, I started reading and watching videos about fishing in an attempt to learn more.  I've always been a bit of a bookworm, and a "sponge" when I want to learn how to do something.  So, I bought a Jimmy Houston video and started learning about bass fishing more specifically.  I bought a "real" bass fishing rod from Bass Pro Shops (BPS - who I really like, by the way), and started learning how to throw baits using a bait casting reel.  I don't know if Jimmy influenced me, but my first "confidence" bait later became a spinnerbait!

I remember that first rod well.  It was a combo purchase from BPS - an Abu Garcia reel, paired with a mid-quality BPS rod.  I loved it.  Getting used to using a bait casting reel was really worth the effort.  I found that it is possible to to accurately place lures near cover.  I also found that it was actually possible to use a bait casting reel without backlashes, if you adjust it properly.  To this day, I really can't stand using a spinning rod and reel, even though I own three of them...

I fished mostly at Yankee Lake, in Sullivan County in New York State.  My girlfriend at the time's family had a really nice home of the lake, and I broke in my early tactics and techniques on that lake.  I never caught much, however, and to this day, I think I could have had more success if I had immersed myself in the type of learning required to really catch bass consistently - like I am now!

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VI.  Today and The Future

...so, now that you know how I got here, you can understand all the things that went through my mind when my friend and I had that conversation in his kitchen last July.  We sat around and talked about our fishing experiences.  Of course, lots of my memories of my dad came to the fore, and I began to get excited about the prospect of re-engaging with my memories of fishing, and reattaching myself to the great experiences I had with my father, grandmother, and friends throughout my life.  I decided I really WANTED fishing back in my life, and that I was prepared to do what was necessary to make the sport an important facet of my life.

But what was necessary?  Well, I needed a boat.  So, I found and purchased a 1999 Bass Tracker with a 9.9 horsepower motor, and started all over again.  I bought rods, reels, tackle, tackle, and more tackle.  Then more rods, more reels, and then finally, within 6 month, a 2001 Triton TR-19 PDC tournament quality boat.  I still have both, given the number of great lakes in Ohio that have HP restrictions.  Frankly, I don't mind HP restrictions...keeps the water skiers and PWC folks away!

But more than the gear and the books, the most important thing that I did was find a fishing buddy who really knew what he was doing.  Nearly at the very beginning of my reengagement with fishing, I started surfing the 'net to find what resources I could could find to get me started, when I came across the Bass Fishing Home Page.  I was looking for advice on how to fish Hoover Reservoir near Columbus, OH, and came across a number of postings by a guy who really seemed passionate and motivated in his fishing.  I sent him an e-mail, and it turned out that he lived ten minutes away from me!  He gave me some really valuable, extensive advice in his first communication with me, and then invited me to fish with him once on the lake. 

Well, the rest is history, and since that day in August last year, Arty has taught me so much, and has been so generous with his knowledge that I can't thank him enough.  I enjoy every hour I spend on the water with him, and am constantly reminded of how much our friendship and partnership has accelerated my fishing skills, abilities, and instincts.

To Be Continued...

I. The  Beginning

II.  Deep Sea

III. Back to Freshwater

IV. Canada and Rice Lake

V.  Early Bass Fishing

VI.  Today and the Future