My first fishing memory is of being a child under the age of 10 and going to a neighbor’s pond with my uncle “Unk” to fish for sunfish/blue gills. His real name is Uncle Dave, but we had three Uncle Dave’s, so we used other variations to tell them apart. We would dig up some worms on the farm and throw them in a coffee can for bait. The sunfish/blue gills were pretty quick to take the worms and we would usually catch several a trip or at least the same fish several times. We threw back the sunfish/blue gills we caught, but it was fun.
As a teenager, my oldest brother and I decided to fish for the Carp that lived in the creek running through the farm. The carp would grow up to 2-3 feet in length. We somehow decided to use canned corn and hotdogs for bait. I think that might have been my grandmother’s (Grammy) suggestion. There was also a mulberry tree that hung over the creek, which we realized the carp were eating and also used for bait. We did successfully catch several. Carp are bottom feeders and aren’t the best eating. We had a trough that fresh spring water flowed through constantly. We would put the carp in there for a period of time (about a week) and then Grammy would cook them and they weren’t to bad. We had an old Zebco rod with a spincast reel. After my brother got a bow, we tried our hand at bow-fishing for awhile, but while my brother became quite competent, I never really mastered it.
I didn’t fish much during my college years or the first years of my career, probably because there was never extra time for fishing. I picked up fishing again when I was about 27 years old. Over the next 8 years I fished a lot, both freshwater and saltwater. I fished for lake, rainbow and brown trout and steelhead in the Salmon River near Pulaski, New York. I usually used a spinning reel with flies or salmon egg sacs. I did try a fly rod/reel, but unless I am in the middle of a river, I am very good at getting my line caught in trees and other brush behind me. I like saltwater fly rod fishing better because you don’t have to contend with trees from the beach, sand bar or boat. I have taken a drift boat fishing trip on the Salmon River.
Karla with a Brown Trout caught from a drift boat
Karla in chest-waders with a Steelhead
A Steelhead from the Salmon River, New York
The bulk of my fishing experience has been saltwater fishing off the New Jersey coast in the vicinity of Avalon, New Jersey. I fished for flounder, weakfish, bluefish, and stripers (aka striped bass, rockfish) from boats: bottom fishing, casting, and trolling; and surf fishing. For boat Striper fishing we used live eels for bait. We used squid strips and minnows for flounder/weakfish and caught mullet with a throw net to use for live bait. We used many types of artificial lures including spoons, jigs, and poppers. We used short boat rods & boat reels for bottom fishing and longer poles and spinning reels for surf fishing and using artificial lures on the boat. We also caught a lot of dogsharks, skates (a type of ray), sea robins, and sea bass. And yes, I bait my own hooks, remove fish from hooks, tie knots, set up leaders, fillet fish etc.
My first Striper (Striped Bass) was caught 10/31/98: 42″ long and 32.5 pounds.
Nice size flounder caught near Avalon, New Jersey
I’ve been charter boat fishing out of the Outer Banks of North Carolina where I have caught tuna, mahi mahi, wahoo, king mackerel, and spanish mackerel.
Karla with a Mahi mahi (aka dolphin fish) caught from the Outer Banks
I’ve been on a 24 hour charter tuna trip from New Jersey (8 hour boat ride out to Gulf Stream, 8 hours of fishing and 8 hour ride back to shore). We caught longfin tuna and yellowfin tuna on this trip.
Karla with a Longfin Tuna caught off New Jersey
I’ve also been on two trips for sail fish, one from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and the other out of Cozumel, Mexico. Unfortunately, I did not get one either trip. On the Cabo trip, there was some excitement when a large (10-12 foot) hammerhead shark briefly hooked up, but he quickly broke off the line.
I took a break from fishing after my health issues started in 2008, but have recently started to pursue fishing again. In December 2015, Mike and I took our first fishing trip together out of Sanibel, Florida with Captain Phil Evans of A Fishin’ Mission charter. We caught Sea Trout, Ladyfish, a pufferfish, needlefish, and bluefish all on light tackle. We viewed sea turtles, sting ray, dolphins, manatees, a mako shark and bull shark. It was a great trip and we would go out with him again. Here are pics from that trip:
The sand bar where Captain Phil picked us up
Karla with a Sea Trout
Mike with a sea trout
Captain Phil of A Fishin’ Mission’s boat
Note: We did not receive any compensation from Captain Phil for inclusion in this post or on our website.
