What hooked you on Bass fishing?

[Doufish2]

So what is the one thing that hooked you on bass fishing? Me, 12 year old kid fishing a private lake near Alexandria. Fishing with a group from Nebraska who where fishing for the almighty bullhead. I threw on a Hula Popper, second cast to the pads and boom, a huge bass hit it. I seemed like every cast was a strike and I have been hooked for 43 yrs.

[panolo]

I got to spend time with Paul Elias after he won the classic. Down to earth great guy who had more than enough time to talk shop with a 10 year old kid when the likes of Babe wouldn't even say hi. Spent hours just talking fishing and ball with him. Had no idea until later how big the Classic was and what he had accomplished.

Also my uncle was pretty successful locally and took me fishing many times. He also made me use some of his sponsor products and I didn't seem to catch anything other than bass on Gambler worms.

[gritsnham]

I always fished sunnys as a kid at the little local lake and had caught a couple smaller bass. I still remember a guy catching a 4-5lb fish on a purple power worm and from that day on I only fished bass.

I still went through some phases of different fishing types but after bass fishing hard the last 3 years and starting tournaments I sometimes get depressed walleye fishing with the old man now...tournaments are definitely my "adult" hooked on bass cause!

[skocsuhs]

i'll put it this way, why bassin is my #1 is the sheer variety of techniques, presentations, baits, cover & structure you can fish for them...

[RuddyDuck]

When I was 10, I caught my first Bass in the old bass bay of the lake on a spinnerbait fishing with my Dad. It sure made the old hand me down zebco 33 sing and the old pole bend! Watching that fish jump out of the water was sure exciting and ever since then I was hooked on Bass. I still got the picture of that first one.

For me it has always been about the fish and how much they fight and jump! They don’t nibble at the bait or just take the tail of a crawler off, they usually hit it and you know what you got. Fishing for them is also fun cause you can cast a variety of baits for them and it just provides more action, as you are always moving around and casting to new spots. None of this boring trolling around and waiting to give the fish a little line so it can maybe take the bait! I would always complain when we had to troll for eyes and was always excited when we could get back to Bass fishing again.

34 years later and I still get as excited as the time I got my first Largemouth. Now the only difference is I just have more gear in the boat with me and the fish go back in the water after their hard fight!

[eyeguy 54]

always was a northern and eye guy but when I moved to SR I started fishing the sippi. Crossed over to the dark side and love it. Still like chasing the others also tho....

[Jeff13]

I would say for about 10 years I was die hard muskie and that's basically all I did. Fished tournaments for muskies here in MN and did really well. Loved the challenge and loved the tournaments. I still love muskie fishing but I've mainly been bass fishing for that last 2 years and love it. I had a job loss and a couple kids in the mix and had to dump the boat for a few years. I was left with my Dad's 14 footer with a trolling motor on our little lake we have a cabin on. The lake is an insane bass fishery and I love it. Also my best friend married into a bass fishing family and they do tournaments. I love competition and those bass tourneys are every where and fun! I cannot wait to the a boat back next summer and chase bass all over the state and hit some tournaments. My wife isn't so sure about a family bass boat though!

[EBass]

My dad got my into fishing (bobber fishing with a bobber bigger than the pequot lakes water tower and a huge sucker minnow)which was cool and all, but nothing like the bass fishin shows. When I starting watching the Orlando Wilson Fishin Show, Roland Martin's show, Bill Dance and the Linder's is when I got into bass fishin. We (buddy and I) ordered a Bass Pro catalog and the rest is history casting off a dock on Twin Lake in Brooklyn Center. We sure had the shore spots figured out.

[smalliehunter]

This year will only be my 4th season bass fishing. I've fished my whole life but never targeted a certain species. My friend taught me how to skip a senko and its been a passion ever since. I got my first boat ever in 2010. A 14 ft lund with a 9.9 johnson. The very first time I took my boat out by myself I caught a 5 pound 12oz bass on a frog. Since that morning I have been hopelessly addicted. 3 boats and 4 years later I have a 19 ft ranger with a 200 horse and have been fishing a league for 2 years. This year will be my 3rd league season. I got 2nd my first year and 3rd last year. Every year I find a new technique to try and figure out and that's the main reason I'm still so addicted to bass fishinI'm always learning and always trying new things. I just want to thank hester for inviting me along and teaching me such a simple yet effective technique fir catching bass

[thatoneguy]

One blow-up on a topwater and I was hooked.

[nitro640]

black and silver floating rapala

[Juan Grande]

Topwater fishing hooked me as well.

[Duffman]

Yep, topwater.

Which I don't fish as much these days.

Topwater got me hooked, better results with other methods keeps me chasing.

[Hester]

As a kid I would bike to the lake with my waders , bass were just what I went after. Now today 20 years later my biggest fish of the year usually come from that same lake.

[Search Function]

At family cabin on Twin Lake, now known as West Sylvia, in Wright County getting up just before dawn to go out fishing in the old Alumacraft with frogs with my Dad in the mid seventies. The pick up is the same that you get with a plastic worm. Maybe a year or two before I was 10 years old in 1980 I started watching In-Fish, Roland, and Dance and learned the Texas Rig plastic worm. Still fished frogs when we could get them, but we couldn't get them all the time and the worm made a good substitute. Then I learned spinnerbaits and my tackle addiction was set. Crankbaits, buzzbaits, Rapala's, Jitterbugs, Hula Poppers, silver spoons and on and on it went. I always wanted to try some new lure or technique.

[HellaBass]

My Dad

[Deitz Dittrich]

My parents had a pontoon boat as I was growing up.. mom designed and dad built a roof that covered all the railing area and then used roll down canvas to enclose it at night to sleep on. We went out to Minnetonka every weekend and fished friday night all day saturday and would come back home sunday around lunch. We had a laminated map that everytime someone caught a bass over 2 lbs we put a red dot, and then marked every shoreline we fished.. it took us 2.5 years, but we fished every inch of shoreline on tonka.

[blakjack23]

[perry p]

Great question with great responses!

I can only second what everyone else has said, but also keeping in mind, while bass fishing you end up catching other species as well. My wife caught a 20" walleye while wacky worming for bass. I live to bass fish and am looking to get in some nice smallie fishing this summer as well!

[Basschaser]

When I was a little kid, I made my dad drive me all over the twin cities to find Slinky Worms like the ones used by Virgil Ward on "Championship Fishing".

We literally drove around all day and came up empty. Most of the places we went to had never even heard of a Slinky Worm. My dad told me to write a letter to Virgil Ward and send it to the address that was shown at the end of the show. So I did. Fast forward about a year - a package shows up at our door with my name on it. I had no idea what it was and sure enough, it was a package full of Slinky Worms, Beetle Spins and other Bass Buster lures. With it was a short note from Virgil Ward thanking me for watching his show.

Sadly, I don't think stories like that happen to often these days.

[RawHog]

I was 5 years old standing on my dock with my brothers and their friend Nick. We could see a giant bass underneath the dock and we were all amazed at its size ( 4-6 lbs). I grabbed my Snoopy spincast setup and dropped my leech down under the pontoon with 6 lb line. The big bass sucked it right in, I set the hook and the fight was on. I was trying to play the fish to land it, but the bass was more so playing me, so my brother's genius friend, Nick grabbed my line and tried to pull the fish up, and the line instantly snapped. I hold a grudge against Nick to this day even tho I havent seen have for at least 8 years.

I would say that the loss of that fish sparked my competitive spirit for bass, and I've been bassin' ever since.

THANKS NICK!

[riverrat63]

Growing up on green lake watching the guys fish tournaments out there every summer then I joined a bass club in wisconsin after I graduated and never fished for any thing else since

[Meat-Run]

About 37 years ago dad would load up me and my two other brothers in our Sears 12' boat, drop it into Eagle Lake in Maple grove. Cast #9 and #7 Rapalas along the edge of lilly pads, twitch once or twice and watch the bass slam the Rapalas. From that moment on I was hooked. Then it was plastic worms on plain hooks along the bulrushes and learning to fish weed edges like I was walleye fishing. My father was and still is my fishing mentor and give him all the credit to my fishing obsession.

I love fishing tournaments, been doing so since early 90's on Tonka completing with the likes of the Ravelings and Capras in a 16' sea hawk. We couldn't out run them but we figured out how to find fish in over-looked locations because of our slower and smaller vessel.

Bass fishing especially tournemets force you to fish in places you'd never think to fish. This past fall I was prefishing on Leech and found fish in two locations I've boated/fished by for over 40 years never knowing it held fish, that's the cool thing about competitive fishing.

MR

[bucketmouth64]

My dad took me fishing growing up. I loved the bite of a bass on a plastic worm. I used the black 6" crème worm. Then I would watch all the fishing shows, Virgil Ward, Roland Martin and so on and I would buy bass magazines. Then I used the blue/silver floating rapala as a top water on calm waters. The anticipation of a strike was exhilarating. When I caught my first 2 lb smallie on the river on a lazy ike I thought it was a huge fish. My first spinner I bought was by lunker lure.

[Presco]

Similar to Rawhog, my obsession started after a lost fish. I've fished my whole life, used to go to Canada with my dad as a kid to fish walleye. I've always loved it, but fishing bass wasn't an obsession until about 8-9 years ago. I was working for a company that did a little corporate fishing outing on the St Croix. Don't remember our guides name (Mike I think), but we decided that fishing for walleye was boring so we started working the shoreline to catch smallies. We probably had 4-5 little ones in the boat. It was fun, but nothing to brag about and then something sinister grabbed my black spinnerbait and my world changed. I had never felt any fish pull that hard before and I've caught some big northern and salmon in my life. With every run, I felt like the rod was about to get pulled from my hand. I finally got it up near the boat and in a rush due to my excitement, I pulled the hook right out of its mouth and it was gone. The guide just laughed and said "welcome to smallmouth fishing, I think you're now a oonvert". He said it was the biggest smallie he'd seen on the St Croix in the last few years, even called a few of his guide buddies to let them know we'd just lost a hawg at the boat. I was, and still am, crushed. Honestly still think about it constantly. He was right though, I haven't thought about catching anything else since.