I was obssesed with fly fishing as a teenager and went to a shop in Perth opposite the train station in 1978 and goggled at the array of fly gear.The shop guy even took me to a side alley and showed me how to do it.So I buy all the gear and head straight to waroona dam and start fly casting.I snapped all the hooks hitting the ground and ended up a tangled mess.Years later I was instructing fly casting in Hampshire England.

 First memories of fishing were pelican point, prawning jetty and rubbish tip in Carnarvon. Also some great memories catch bags of tailor off asi groin with my grandfather. 

 I used to get dropped at nana and pops house in madora bay every school holidays and as a 7 year old watched pop catch tailor and gummies from the beach but wasn't allowed to touch the rods as I was to small. Finally wore my nana down and she let me use hers and that was it. Now 51, owned 6 boats , diving instructor ans taught my own 4 to fish , 2 of which have their own boats. Oldest grandie is only 2 but he is in my sights. Its a life style that has bought countless amazing memories. 

First experience was up Moore river when I was 3, used to fish out of my pop's 10ft dingy and he and my old man would hook a fish and pass the rod onto me to 'hold until a fish was on the end'. Fell for it every time. I do remember hooking a big bream once which started pulling me towards the river, had to walk back to land it.

Progressed to 2x pvc rod holders on my bike and riding around the river chasing bream and flatties and begging the folks to take me to cott for herring and tailor. Throw in the annual coral bay trip too.

Then got a 4wd and started hunting bigger things further away (bremer and wagoe) with a dinghy which followed me everywhere. Plus a few Kalbarri easter's on a family friends boat.

Now have a 20ft c'console and am opening myself up the everything offshore. Not going to stop anytime soon.

We lived in Kalamunda ... So it was down to the swan river to catch bream , no happy with the tiddlers me and my mates would ride to Busselton on the Friday fish all night on the jetties and then it was back to work Saturday morning manage to catch many fish from blue fin tuna to kingies and lots of squid ...... Rode a yammie 350 lc .......  Finished my trade and went and worked on a trawler for 4 years fished from Darwin to Weipa caught every thing from sails to coral trout.... Lived in Mandurah for many years with a 6 m plate ally now find it fun to fish off a Jetski ...... Can catch me around GI  

First fishing experience was down at the mouth of the Donnelly river during school holidays, using big handlines off the beach while father and Uncle George were putting up the shack [was about the 6-7th one then]. Managed to get a 4/0 through a finger that had to be filed in half because the pliers couldn't cut the hook. Caught a few herring, silver bream and a few blackies in the river but the bug had set in.

Spent many weekends out on shark boats, beach seining or up the estuary with pros while attending Bunbury High School. Later rod fished just about every spot from Parrys Inlet through to Mandurah and first trip to Quobba was in the late sixties where catches made your arms long and eyes boggle.

Later years were working as a pro crayfishing, salmon shark etc. Did 20 years in mineral sands industry before returning to pro sharkfishing up north and again down south.
Now retired in Denham after moving from Carnarvon recently

 Always loved me fishing aparenly I watched fishing shows as a real young bloke but when the olds split and I stayed with me grandparents we fished all the time starting at hillaries coupple month stint in guilderton busso grenough and kalbarri (caravaners), I used to fish for livies for poppa to chase bigger fish and pulled in my first mulla 5.5kg before i could even hold a beach rod i was on the reel poppa on the rod

Now I love all types of fishing but my passion is landbased fishing and about 4 months after poppa passed i was lucky enogh to be offerd a job out the back of a tackle shop with my trade under me belt i jumped at the chance and finally understand the saying, if you love you job youll never work a day in your life

My very first memory is fishing with the old man but my Pop was the one that really gave me a love of fishing. Pop had a holiday house in Coodanup during the late 50's and then moved there in the late 60's and then build in Silver Sands. There is not once square inch of the estuary that he didn't know like the back of his hand.

It started out chasing yellowfin whiting in the estuary from the kid friendly areas but as I got older, I'd go down on the school holidays and we'd breed our own wogs and head down to Dolphin Pool to pump for blood worms with our home made pump (PVC, thong and a dunny brush handle) and we'd head down to the 'New Bridge' and catch a feed of KGW with the worms. We'd use the wogs to head down to Blue Bay with our 13 footers and catch out the back of the waves and catch a bucket full of massive bull herring and then spend the arvo droppin for crabs out of his dinghy.

Amazing man with an amazing knowledge of the Peel system and I miss being able to call him to get the good oil. RIP Pop.

First memories are going out in the 4.3m tinny under the Garden Island causeway catching skippy, herring and bream. 20 years later Im still doing that, only Im skipper in 5m tinny, the herring are live bait and the bream are now snapper. :) thanks dad.

 i was found floating face down a few times when young. My day took me fishing on woodies jetty when I was 4ish for herring in the late 80s I Then proceeded to break his balls to take me fishing every weekend he worked a lot and and too tired to take me had to wait till I was a teenager to get dropped off at rockwalls and beaches by my mum to fish for tailor ect got my licence at 17 and I've fished at least once a week since from windy harbour to Darwin NZ Hawaii Thailand every where I go a travel rod comes along. One of my best highlights would be landing a bonefish on soft plastic at first light near Honolulu while on my honey moon haha 

My first memories of fishing was with Gramps on the north wall of Two Rocks marina. Sometimes burley and floats for herring or skippy and sometimes squid on a paternoster for whiting. Got my first boat in 2010... a 4.3m Bluefin runabout with a whopping 30HP of four stroke grunt! After gaining confidence on the water and doing well with whiting off Hillarys I turned to 3am solo missions for 3 mile snapper. My best was a 96cm model in 12m of water just out from the south cardinal off Trigg. The passion grew and I got myself a suitable offshore boat in 2013, a 5.5m Surtees with 115HP. Drove it up to Exmouth soon after purchasing and landed my first Mackie and small marlin just off Tantabiddi. Leaving the bait at home I turned to Demersal jigging. Made a great friend, Sam (Poser on Fishwrecked)from an ad he put on here. Sam became my jigging buddy... and last year groomsman at my wedding. Soon after, Saltwater Charters introduced me to the arm stretching fun that is sambo jigging. There's nothing like being on the water and catching fish. We're extremely lucky to have this at our doorstep :)

FIRST: Pilliga NSW catching cod and yellow bellys as a little kid with my pop.

NOW: Northern WA catching anything that takes my hook.

TODAY: 3 Jacks and 1 cod taken home.

TONIGHT: Cod/Jack chips and salad with my wife and 3 boys who helped me catch them.

TOMORROW: Plan my next trip.

 ohh myy

my brother taught the whole family how to fish, he is a natural left hander so that means all our gear is left handed! Dad actually taught me how to fish (he had the patience). We would usually dig up some worms in the garden then take them down to somewhere in guildford to fish for bream, mind you this was when I was about 10 (I am close to 30 now). I'd watch the small kmart rods go off as the bream would just run off with the worms, I didn't have the balls to pick them up to strike it, I'd watch my dad and brother catch the breams.

Dad slowly taught me how to fish at ammo jetty, where I'd slay the yellowtails and taylors (LOL). I'd pester dad when i thought the weather was right for Taylor (which was almost everyday cause of the freo doctor) the great thing was he would take me.  I learnt all my basic fishing skills there, and after a while dad bought me my first 'prestige' gear which was the Banax SX, all the way from Malaysia. It felt like a dream and also sounded a million bucks. It was my first real fishing reel that i treasured. 

Now that i'm close 30, i've put dad onto a mully (i've caught a few myself). I think we've improved, but now I take dad fishing instead. The tables have turned

 My family aren't fisherman at all so this might sound disgusting but the first time out we caught trumpeter and thought they were yellowtail (when I was about 8 years old) so brought them home and ate them. Not nice at all.

now I love my breaming and beach fishing but still got heaps to work out!

 Me and my siblings along with my Nan used to go down the mandurah bridge when i was about 6 go with crab nets, prawn nets and small fishing rods, i cant ever remember catching much but the experience with nan and the family is burnt into my memory. With my nan having terminal cancer these mamories will be cherished.

2 boats later and probably over 10 grand spent on tackle the family see me as the go to man for seafood... Love it

 Memories are funny things as i know i was to young to have actually done anything, but my first memories of fishing was up in Onslow in the very early 70's. I would have been 3-4yo and i was with a mob of aboriginal boys throwing a sharpened stick at the schools of small fish. I can remember holding the stick with a fish on the end and showing it to my mum super excited about the catch. We have some great slides of my dad fishing on a boat up there so i was just trying to be like him i expect.

When i wa 11 my best mates dad died suddenly of a brain tumor and he inherited some basic snorkling gear, fins mask knife and gidgee. He was keen to do what his dad did so i grabed some pool goggles and we rode to mullaloo beach and snorkled the reefs north of the beach (south of where the marina is now) and speared some fish. That started a passion for diving that ha lasted a life time.

My dad has always been a keen fisherman and has almost always owned a boat. He tried to instill this passion into me but i used to get sea sick in a bath tub so i tried a few times to go out and ended up giving up. 6 hours of throwing up every trip will do that. At 19 i brought an old landrover, 69 model i think, and a 10f roof topper with a 2 or 4hp motor and headed north. Made it to Derby before finding a job as well as my ability to go out in a boat, in very calm conditions, without getting sick.

I have never owned another boat since that one. I have always found it better, and a shit load cheaper, to have mates with boats. Go out for 4 hours with a mate and give them $50. Inexperienced mates say "no mate it only cost $20 for fuel", experienced mates take the money gratefully as everybody else only offers them $20. I see it as the $50 is only a fraction of what it cost to own and run a boat. I have boat sat a few boats for mates, some for a few years, and i'm bloody glad when they take them back.

My sea sickness is now gone and i love boat fishing the most. I have the gear for almost all fishing styles, bar big game, and will fish when ever and how ever i can. Somebody previously mentioned spending 10k on fishing gear ?? He might be under estimating..  Lol

I have enjoyed reading all the awesome stories being told. Thanks guys! 

Next time people ask why we go fishing, we can all tell them that "we're not just fishing, but bringing back priceless memories!".  Haha

When my 3 year old daughter is old enough to go fishing, I will start documenting the trips from day 1.  I'm sure she will treasure them for the rest of her life and add to them as she grows and continues the passion (I hope!).

Keep the stories coming!  

 Earliest memory I have is 25-30yrs ago going out with my Pop and Dad off Dongara in my Pop's boat chasing snapper and dhufish. Still amazes me how Pop used to find his ground, line us up west of a couple of hills on the coast and head out, stopping occasionally to drop a sinker down to test the bottom, till we were off the sand and hit the hard, reefy ground. In the baits went, and more often than not, we generally got a few. Even as sounders became more popular, he stuck to this way of finding his fish

First one I can recall is getting told off for making too much noise fishing the creeks up north. First fish I remember that gave me the bug, think I was 7 and got a legal barra on lure, trawling. Still have a vivid memory of it jumping out of the water. Was pretty spoilt growing up in NT, always something to have a look for up there.

 Graduated to a little Jarvis Walker outfit, 5ft solid glass with a centrepin reel, kids nowadays have no idea how spoilt they are with their little combos.Lived on an offshoot of the Georges River in Sydney. Mujllet and blackfish and whiting, and a bream if you were clever enough. Saved up and bought myself a Jarvis Walker Clarence solid glass 7 foot with a 4" Alvey and 10lb line. Fished all around Sydney harbour and all the Sydney rivers, and, when I left Sydney as a 22yo in 1975, it went with me. Kept me fed all around SA, fishing off the rocks, including a 71cm Pink that took a floating bait meant for a sweep. And it caught bream in the Murchison before it was retired in the 90's. In the meantime, I had the boys dream of making a living from my love of fishing and diving for a very long time. Swallowed the anchor in 2005 and swapped the uncertaintys of a crayfish  industry in the midst of massive upheavals for the certainty of long dormant electrical licence and a mining industry screaming out for people. And built myself a whole new career.

And never stopped fishing for fun the whole time.

 I've held on to talking on this mainly because I don't really remember when I started. I remember my dad bringing home still jumping herring when I was young, I remember pressing on their eyes and they'd jump, so fresh, and cork hand lines seem to go back to when I was very young too. My parents bought me and my 2 brothers rods and reels for Xmas once, must have been 68 or 69, went camping on a beach down at Augusta. Caught a few tailor and herring. Through the early 70s and into my early teenage years, we spent a lot of time at Garden Island. This was fish, crab, cray, chasing Abs and occys every day. My knowledge exploded here. Sadly, us with everyone else were kicked off in 1972-73. After that, me and my mates would walk over to Rockingham Rd from Hilton park to catch the 120 bus to Palm Beach and spend the day down there catching all manner of things. Robbs Jetty was also high on our list, all nighters and mostly peddled down there on early mornings.  Later as a teenager, South Mole was the place I spent a lot of time if my dad would take me, but we also spent a lot of time diving and spearing in the Freo Cray boat Harbour. South Beach for tailor on the warm evenings to fishing places like Dide Bay with my mates family, I got my biggest tailor there one night that went at 13lb, I was totally stoked until my mates dad got one at 15lb on the same night. Plenty on evenings on the Swan River catching prawns dragging the net, I always got the deep end. Football took over for a few years later, but I was going out with a girl for a long time who's grandparents lived down in Busselton, grandad was a jetty fisherman, one of the best. My learning continued. The 80s were spent fishing the Pilbara and the Kimberlies and I had my first boat, 21ft Voyager 150 black max on the back, plenty of everything  on that. Soon learnt that what I was catching much more than as I was as a lad was catching. I caught almost everything that swam, several times over. I ticked so much off my bucket list. Fished Rowley Shoals, I scored a trip from Broome to Wyndam by boat, fishing, caught more and different fish than I could imagine. Alas, Then went mining. 1989 came around, heard those words from my partner for the first time, I'm pregnant. Moved to Busselton and my daughter was born in January 1990. Fished a bit, mainly from the jetty. Sambos out the end and mulla's in the winter. Loved chasing the bream too. Bought a boat again in the early 2000's, great 4.2m dinghy, mid 2005 got the banana boat, Yamaha UB 5.8, terrific boat too, wish I still had it. But, had that for 5 years, probably didn't use it as much as I should have then I had to sell it when I got made redundant, not much happened for a while. Fast forward to 2014' we moved back to the city, I've kind of rekindled my passion for fishing here. Bit the bullet towards the end of last year and bought my dinghy. Yet to really christen it, but some days I'm just really happy being out there looking and learning all over again. 

The first fish I remember catching is still once of my biggest- I was around 5 years old. A monster flathead on a turning tide at the mouth of Bakers Creek out of MacKay QLD. Hooked and held it myself too, I wasn't handed the rod. Dad was rather quiet on the ride home, no doubt reduced to silence by my glory haha.
Another early memory is seeing elephant fish laid out on the beach somewhere on the Mornington Peninsula. Absolute piles and piles of them, I think there may have been a club tournament? Fascinatingly weird critters for a kid to investigate but the sheer amount of them was a real 'rape and pillage' pause for thought even as a little kid.
Spent way too many weekends bored out of my mind waiting for any signs of life on the line in the mighty Murray River- of course when you did catch something it was bloody carp. No wonder they're mad for water skiing over there, its far more interesting than the fishing.
From 10-18 I was more likely to be under the water fishing. Spent every possible day after school and weekends wrangling dad's old leaden 70s snorkelling gear. Even built my own little gidge out of a wooden broom handle and some fencing wire. My apologies to the red-lipped morwong population of the Mid West- in my defence you survived unscathed far more than I shot true.
As a tween, hosting a summer sleepover involved me begging dad to take us out on the reef for tailor and shark at first light. I earned a minor rep at school for quality sleepover value with the sheltered townie kids haha.

Now im in the industry. After days dealing with fish I'd rather go home and whip up a steak tbh. But some things never really leave you, so I'm down the river every now and then still trying to better the flathead I caught when I was 5.

First rod and reel was from Pop on christmas day down mandurah foreshore as a 6 year old...bit of sausage for bait and i was off catching grunter and gobbly guts.

Remember a few trip down woodies jetty with the old man as a little bloke...going out in cockburn sound in his wood boat and a few off his mates....bailing bucket working over time!!

Late teens started doing yearly trips with a mate...old man and his alco mate to jurien caravan park...taylor fishing from beach at sundown and then nights of the old jetty on the piss, did first charter up there also...old bloke in small center console back then.

Really took hold Mid 20s when i friended a young italian apprentice at a local work shop in bibra lake.....took me snorkling for crabs in cockburn sound early mornings...freezing, this turned to a few trips in his tinny fishing the sound, we would anchore and burley and fish for hours. We both got our dive tickets and it went on from there.

On my second boat now, have gone from the heavy boat rod to having a few jig sticks fishing lighter, loving the deep stuff with jigs and plastics, early morning anchore and burley sessions on the five, diving for crays when ever the oppurtunity arrises. Love being on the water more than anything and am trying to get the two daughters involved when ever possible.

My earliest memory is going to the creek behind our old house in Erina NSW with my grandad fishing for mullet. Grandad was the keen fisho and although he died when I was young, I always held on to the passion. Anytime we went on holidays there was always fishing involved and I bugged anyone that would listen to get them to take me.

While we never had money growing up for a boat or any special gear I always loved it and I deckied for a couple of game boats when I was in Sydney just to get out there. Now I am on my third boat in 4 years and hopefully I'll keep this one for a while now. I still don't spend big bucks on rods and reels as I'm not sure the fish can tell the difference.

My son is a keen fisho now at 8 and loves to come out whenever the conditions suit. Hopefully as he gets older we'll be able to fish more often together. 

 Herring of course, used to love annual holidays at garden island fishing off the jetties for herring and skips.diving on old clay pipes for occys.pretty well done it all over the years.love fast fish and craying and crabbing, still love to cast a leadhead jig.spent many years with local sport fishing clubs.

 How come you left carnarvon if it is not a rude question ?

First experience for me as a 3 year old kid was catching freshwater Tilapia or Barra in the swarmps using worms/prawns back in Singapore.  Sadly that awesome place is no longer around, that entire area has been reclaimed and all high rised buildings now.

Born in South Africa, it was catching yellow eye Mullet in Morgans Bay with bread under a float. Must have been bloody easy as we caught bucket loads which the oldies used to catch Kabeljou (large SA Mulla's) at night. Started aged about 5yo, but the memory truly kicked in when I was asked to paddle in a canoe the livies out (we used to keep them in those plastic transparent containers alive)to the deep channel about 200m into the estuary. Problem was I had the bucket with the livies between my legs with a large hook, and my father's reel was a overhead. Now the bloody thing got a crows nest but I didn't hear the screams to stop paddling. End story was the livie with hook flew out of the bucket, embedded in my mid thigh and dragged a laceration up the right leg to within 10cm off Mr Doodle. Was 8yrs old, and the scar is still there as a memory forever.
First big fish was a barbel (approx. a cobbler) of about 8kg, which was considered large when I was 7 yrs old. Remember this because I thought my arms was going to fall off.
First fish in Oz was when we arrived (12yo) and hooked a cobbler at Madora. Ran up to excitedly grab it behind the gills as normal. The few locals around almost lost it trying to stop me, and I quickly learned never to try that again. Luckily was stopped before the painful experience would have taught me forever.

 Started with a snared marron under the bridge at Donnelly river when I was about 6.  Too big and scary for me to take off the snare so carried it home flapping on end of snare.  Many good marron trips there until I was about 8 and moved up to Harvey.  Caught more marron and a few redfin.  Parents would take us to greenacres or to augusta in summer hols to fish off the beach with handlines.  Then hols in Mandurah in the mid 60s under the old bridge. Stayed at tops caravan park.  Heaps of chopper tailor in the morning and a few whiting after tailor went off the bite.  

mid 70s got my dive ticket and a 14ft brooker dinghy.  Took us eveywhere and got heaps of crays out near the sisters rocks in warnbro. Lots of prawning nights on the river and dragging jellies and cobbler. Bought my first decent reels.  Shakespeare blue series 2400 and 2450.  early 80s got a canadian canoe and took 4 year old son to waroona dam.  I paddled and son sat up the front trolling.  Caught some really good rainbows that way.

Sold the brooker and bought a 19ft plate ally.  Holidays with family every April at port gregory where we pigged out on coral trout and baldies.  A few trips to coral bay and exmouth but twice as far for similar results.

These days retired and live near the beach.  YF whiting in the morning, crabs and crays during summer and about to leave on a marroning trip down south.   Back to port gregory in a few months then augusta for salmon.

my father lived for his fishing back in the day , he lived and fished in the capes area in the 30s and like his father & grandfather spent a lot of time exploring and fishing all the capes coast, so by the time us kids came along in the late 50s and early 60s he knew where to take us all to catch a herring ,cray, groper or marron to feed his family .....

thus my first memories would probly be riding in his station wagon down to the capes coast somwhere , with the fishing gear and cooking pot , speargun etc in the dog box , bbq sausages and buttered bread, swimming , learning to snorkel and dive , on days he calld ''bikky flat ''low swell low offshore breeze between cap nato and cape leuwin ..we fished till lunch , or the breeze came in on the way home he would stop at caves house , he would have a beer we got a bottle of lemonade and a packet of chips and left to run around the in the gardens there , back when you parked on the hill right outside the front bar .......

my brothers and i where lucky to have cork handlines with 6-8 lb mono for fishing the high school drain in busso , usually off the railway bridge or floodgates for bream or pilch , digging worms from under the kitchen widow where the earth was dark and moist for bait , these where put on the hook alive and wriggling , .we had a hessian bag for carrying all our fishing lines in ,we tied them up with elastic bands from vacola jars to stop them unravelling and tangling up in the bag ..... no rods with reels , we only had a whip rod for herring and skippy on the reef holes down south .....we rode our bikes from the mill road down to the jetty and fishes it day and might , often dodging big and fast dogs on the bike ride back to home at night , peddlign flat out and then lifting your feet up on the handlbars until you had passed the dog well behind .. herrign and skippy , squid , we watched dad and others , old mr mancusa , and holgate being jetty fishers i recall back then , we fished off the landings , and the whalings all of which are gone now , take 20 cents for dinner and buy dim sim and chips for my brother and me from dodds fish and chip shop with its concret floor that always had some beach sand on it ,at the head of the old jetty , no one used the skelly jetty back then it was just for trains use only carrying loads of timber out to the ships tied up at the jetty out the end .....

back then we fished for food ,or bait , i never recall anyone letting fish go , or fishing for sport ?? not in our working class areas anyway ,fish was food that you did not buy , you gave it to friends and family, but we never bought it

in summer we would take the scoop nets and light a fire on the beach behind the mill [ now busso hospital ] and cook crabs there till midnight then go home ...... everything was free and easy , never saw fisheries as kids .older adults would pull us into line if we needed it , we rode our bikes out to siesta park drain to catch marron and eels ,,,, then rode the 9 mile back home again ......

i recall my first boat outing being in a small 12 foot timber dinghy dad had made or helped make, it was a good little sea boat from memory and he took it with its small open flywheel seagull motor from eagle bay around rocky point spinning for salmon across into bunkers bay , you had to hold your hand line up high when he turned it , if not you risked your line being grabbed and tangled up on the fly wheel as it crossed over the stern in the turn ... if you started to wane in your concentration while spinning for salmon dad would grab your line and pull it hard , it always felt like agood hook up and brought you back to paying attention as we puttered along

i think i am very lucky to have grown up in a world where my parents let us do such things , and we where safe to do so , fishing was always in our life, one way or another because of my dad , he loved it and he brought it in every way into our lives as each season for fishing came around .as i grew it just continued and expanded , all our family still fishes never known a heslewood who does not fish or doesnt eat fish lol ,

sad thing is a lot of kids nowdays will never get to have the same freedoms or experiences we did as people pressure shuts them out of the coast and closes places off to fishing and camping etc

nothing was fancy or new usually it was handed down , but we really valued it non the less

an offer to go fishing anywhere was like a gold pass on the weekend to adventure and fun ..lol , and still not much has changed in that way

hezzy

My old man got a custom Snyder Glass rod built for my 5th bday, we started going to Colemine Beach caravan park in Walpole every Easter holidays in the Old mans soft top G60 nissan. First memory with that rod as I walked down the old sailing jetty on the estuary was seeing a monster Blue Manna eating old prawn heads in about a metre of water... so in my great wisdom of 5 yrs i remember very clearly thinking how do i catch this thing, so looking down from above i let line off my rod and simply tangled the crab up in it and hauled it out.
I remember running back to the caravan park with the big Bluey still hanging off the rod totally stoked. My old man showed me how to cook and clean it and eat it.
The next day i landed my first Salmon beach fishing...

 Hi all

I consider myself quite lucky to have grown up as a kid and then into teenager years with a family that always had a 4x4 parked in the drive way - Dad was quite fond of the 75 series Landcruiser Troop Carriers. My earliest memory of fishing would have to be down at Long Point at Rockingham back in the early 80's lined up shoulder to shoulder fishing for tailor on a Saturday night - I would have been 7-8 years old when Dad gave me 12ft rod and an Shakespere Omega reel - " You want to come fishing with the men - then you need to know how to cast this " as we walked over to the park with a bucket of water and the rod rigged up with a Star Sinker - no hooks.

Took me about 3 weeks of practice and by then I could launch the star sinker a respectable distane and accuracy to the bucket to satisfy the old man - he was a firm but fair type of bloke. - from then on I was out most weekends chasing mulloway off Two Rocks - figjhting Tailior of Witicarra Creek at Kalbari - etc.

From there my " addiction" has grown to questionable proportions - with more rods, reels, tackle than the local BCF!!! - I also discovered the immense plessure of using high end equipment. Now I fish with braid exclusively and have owned several 4x4,s over the years - getting me into some the most remote beach fishing spots known.

I now also have 2 boys ( 7 - 9 ) and a wife that loves nothing more than chasing the good old Tailor and Herring of the beaches in the mornings. Lately bream busting has been my taste of fishing choice. Using the lightest gear possible. My eldest son has been bitten by the Bream gods aswell.

Recently bought my first boat Quintrex F390 and have racked up over 50hrs on her since begining of December 16. unbelievably stable for two people to stand and cast - love the tinny

 Like others i'm unsure of the very first but here are a couple of early ones...

I grew up on the limestone coast SA, Beachport, Robe, Southend were my stomping grounds and It would be hard to find a better place to grow uo IMO.

We lived on the beach, quite literally. The old harbourmasters house was about 80 metres from the 800mtr long jetty right on the first rise off the beach. You could jump the back fence and land on the sand, I was there until i was 11 as it was turned into a youth hostel that mum looked after, dad had a cray lisence back then...

Anyway...

The mullet used to come up an outlet into a large lake sytem, along the outlet dad and a couple of locals would dig for worms and get the delicious mullet by the bucket full when they were on there so that would have been one of my 1st's...

Another that i can remember clearly was being out in Dads boat. The cray fishing in the area ( southerns ) would have to be as good as anywhere on its day but the line fishing was/is never that good. You could get lucky but never guaranteed a feed.  Anyway we were out in dads boat wetting a line on a sunny day, not much was happening so i decided to "help" and lengthen the anchor rope...

My bowline skills weren't so flash as a 6 yr old, needless to say it wasn't long before we started to drift leaving the anchor anchored...

As my fishing addiction grew/peaked I was still living at home and spending most of my pay on the better gear back then ( 20 yrs ago ), its been looked after and most of it is still the gear i use today ( fuck i am sounding all old ) ....

The beach fishing was always pretty good, Gummys most of the year, Mullys also most of the year but the big 50lb schoolies would rock up in Autumn and you'd certainly know when you had one of them on in the surf.

Probably still the best fish i have ever caught was a the holy grail back there a 54lb - 140cm long Mulloway caught at about 11pm January 18 2000 while fishing by myself over the road from mum n dads place where we moved out of town...

Was my last bait for the night as i was working the next day, already packed up one surf rod and put the last fresh squid head on the 2nd rod for the last hoorah.....

It was a beast, I called my besty and he got out of bed and drove out of town to come and check the thing out

I live in the West now, near Margaret River and love it.

I'm a boat lover & dreamer!! BUT i still only have a dingi, it serves me well and can never seem to justify the 7mtr Haines that i'll get when lotto does its thing, in fact the dingi took another 2 good dhus yesterday....

Boon

 Loving all the stories being told! 

It seems to be that parents and grandparents have a huge impact on our fishing experiences.  To those that have kids and spending time and teaching them the great outdoors and what it has to offer, good on you!

Those that have kids but have yet to take them fishing etc,  please do them a favour and take them fishing! Lasting memories awaits! 

Maybe in a few years time, the kids will become FW members and can add to this post by starting off with;

Example:  "My awesome dad jackfrost80 introduced me to gamefishing when I was 6 years old....". Haha!

I use to live in Pelican Point in Bunbury which was near the Collie river and as a young bloke I use to spend countless early mornings, late nights, hours on end riding my bike with a trailer my Dad helped me make up and down the collie river catching bream, mulloway and crabs.... From then my obsession grew with what I could afford...

First was a 4x4 so I could go beach fishing when I got my P's.... Then it was a small tinny..... About 5 years ago it was a 25 foot trophy import from America...... Now its 3 boats (Big, meduim and small) and countless amounts of rods, reels, tackle.

I have a 5 year old nephew that I am getting into the wonderful world of fishing, crabbing and boating. He's loving coming out with me but is at the age where he gets bored quick.... He will learn haha

Cheers for reading