Why do you fish?
Ever really think about it?
If it was just to catch fish, some of us would of quit long ago.

What drives you on to go out again and again even after getting skunked?

I believe our reasons for going changes as we get older.
So just for fun, put roughly your age and why you fish.

I'm early 40's and for me it's very relaxing just being on the water. It's like a Vicoden to me!

me too - I'm in my late 20's and needed some relaxation...

dont have to catch a fish to have a good time - just the thought of catching that fish that keeps laughing at me is enough.

25 and I fish to get away from the hussle and bussle of what we call work, stress, and just everyday business. It is a relaxing change of pace and a chance to be out in nature. Time alone with family and friends without all the distractions.

I like a challenge.. nobody really taught me how to fish, just learned as i went, there is always something to learn or different river to fish, plus i aint going to stop til i get my 20lb steelie.. ive hooked em , battled em and netted em, but never put my hands on my own to get a picture, the spot on my wall is ready for the cast of one all my fishing partners got like 4 or 5 of em

fished very little growing up, played baseball, basketball, football, wrestling, golf,etc...went on to play college and semi-pro baseball and when i finally realized i wasn't going to make any money playing ball i had to give it up...so i decided to take up fishing and like anything else i've ever done i wanted to be the best i could be..i've strained my relationships being gone so much, spent countless hours reading and researching the subject, had hours upon hours of conversation with highly experienced anglers....and now in the past few years when i've been able to catch a lot of fish under a multitude of conditons, i can finally relax and enjoy fishing for what it is...time away from LIFE and fooling one of those silly finned things into biting what i have to offer...i've been able to get past the point where i need to catch more fish than everyone else, i like to experiment with different techniques and have even become disciplined enough to leave the drift gear at home when i decide today is float and jig time or time to work the bent metal(spoons, which can be VERY productive with some practice)..i enjoy everyday i have on the water whether i catch fish or not (although i prefer to catch a lot)..take a kid fishing, seeing the look on my little cousins' faces when a chum takes their little green ball of yarn is worth more than a hundred fish i hook myself

Can't get it out of my blood. I do it because it is relaxing, fun , challenging and at times just makes my blood boil, but all worth it. I grew up fishing with my dad and never got bored with it. Love to be on the water.

great post G-Man,
I'm 36 years old and I'm a fishaholic
I didn't start fishing untill my mid 20's. At first it was just the challenge of learning the thing and competing with my friends. Hosting the bar-b-que with a fresh fish has always been really fun. Lately Ive noticed that the competition has become meaningless and the payoff of bringing home some chrome has become secondary to just getting out there. I live in the city with a fairly stressful existence. When I go, its usually a two or three day trip full of sleep deprivation, drinking, comradery and lots of casting, I find that i return able to sleep better, work harder and better equipped to handle life's stress. After a month of not fishing I start to lose it. Feels like an addiction. Who knows maybe it is. Sure ain't all about the meat

I'm 27 and been fishing since I can remember. I enjoy it all. The prep work,shopping,camping,boating,catching,learning,teaching ect. I couldn't be happier then when I'm doing something fishing releated. The people you meet and fish with are a great group. See ya on the water!

I fish to try and solve the age-old question

Which hook is best?

They say I came out of the womb casting. It's the relaxation, the outdoors and the hunt. Fishing is a form of hunting really. Trying to find them and entice them.

Grew up on a boat and on rivers, so basically it's "what I do." I've got to give credit to my dad, it was him that showed me the ins and outs of fishing, he's awesome!!

For all my friends that don't understand my passion for fishing, whether it's steelies, salmon, largemouth, or walleye, I just simply say, "It beats working." But really, there's not much more of a rush to watch and feel that rod tip go off

I am 42, and have fished since I was able to walk. The biggest reason for us is the fun with friends and family. A little competition between fishing buddies, is always enough to get a guy to try a little harder too. Kind of like the show Survivor, you have to Outwit, Outplay, Outlast the fish and your fishing buddy. The fun of fishing new water and meeting new people always make for memorable times too.

37 going on 21 for the 17th time...

I really don't have an answer.. I grew up fishing. Held summer jobs on the boats in Westport and Alaska. I have spent the last 18 years of my life on the ocean. There is something about it I can't explain... Something that draws you back for more. My wife wants to know how I can go fishing all the time and not get sick of it; even when I spend a minimum of 180 days floating around every year... Part of me loves the challenge, the other part enjoys the relaxation... Since I mostly fish by myself, my mind generally wanders all over... The feel of a nice Blackmouth on the end of the rod helps a lot too!

Downriggin'

Hmmm, I fish for fun, I go fishing for work ... all my spare time is related to fishing somehow.

Why, got me!! There's got to be a screw loose somehwere ... ahha, I hear it!

Im 21... Been fishing since i was 4. As long as there's cold rivers and bright steelhead, i'll be fishin. The challange of taking on the greatest fish in the world in his environment is what its all about...

The grey ghost will haunt me forever

When I fish with some of my friends from our PSA chapter, we often talk about some of our fellow fishing members.....we refer to some of them as fishermen, but then there are some of us "real" fisherman that have the addiction...a disease that they just don't understand.
When it is time for the monthly fishing reports at our meetings during the winter months, it is funny how only a few of us die-hard addicts have actually gone fishing. It's always the same idiots that sit in the cold and rain and have stories to tell, but then again sometimes I don't even realize its raining....oh yeah I'm one of those idiots!
I always tell my wife that I am going to my monthly PSA "AA" meeting, that would be Anglers anonymous.
BTW.......I am an addict.......and you are not going to cure me!

Ng

I have been obsessed with fishing since the first time my dad took me trout fishing.I was probably five.He used to fly fish the wenatcheee and icicle rivers for steel head and would leave me at home.I would cry and cry.

Dad moved us to bremerton when I was six and I was obssesed from day one.Unlike wenatchee there was water all atround.We lived a block away from a park on the sound and I flunked the third grade because all i would do is get out of school and go straight to the beach.I was obsessed.When I got old enough for a bike it was even worse as I peddalled all over the county.Thanks to a fourth grade teacher I discovered that the little streams had fish in them!!He also helped me discover the searun cutty.Boy scouts got me into the Olympic mountains and I still remember the oldboy and his perrywinkles.I fell in love with the olympics in a bad way.Would cry if a trip got cancelled due to the rain.

I got out of high school and got offered a job comercial fish up north and jumped on it.That Gorden fish stick dude had convinced me that it was my destiny.I would spend three months covered in fish cum and love every minute of it.While I was there I would dream of getting home and fishing the olympics while every body else was thinking of a trip to mexico or Hawaii.

I have been thinking about the reel question here and have decided that My obbsession is kind of like gambling.Every cast is like pulling the handle of slot machine.I add to this thrill by exploring ereas that may not even have any fish.When i do find that hidden little run of fish I get great satisfaction.Common ground I do not know.I have wrestled with this and cannot come up with it.Fishermen tend to look at there fishing beliefs like they would there politics and religions.We have a rule on thanksgiving at the splett home.no politics!!!

As I think about why I fish, I am reminded of the movie Shrek when Shrek said, "we have layers." I know that I haven't figured out what all those layers are yet, but the older I get the more I'm drawn to it. I'm 38 and I find myself getting more fishing magazines like "Hunting & Fishing news" and "Sport Fishing," watching fishing shows on tv, reading more websites for reports, buying books and trying to expand my fishing to different species. Some of these reasons for fishing include: the surpise and adrenalin from the strike, the suspense until the fish is landed, the opportunity to experience the outdoors, making it a family activity with my kids, the satisfaction of improving your skills and knowledge.

Whether or not it is an "addiction" doesn't trouble me... there are far worse things that we could be addicted to.

I would have to say it is a combination of things.

The voices in my head play a large role.

Another would have to be that they ( ) are all laughing at me. Whether it be a poorly placed cast or slipping on a rock, oh you can trust me on this one, they are all laughing it up.

Lastly, for the chicks.

Fish Me!

You'd have to be one of use to truly understand one of us. Get togethers for me are only fun if there is a fisherman there. Family trips require fishable water, otherwise day trips with the family only. My daughter is four and after our first trout trip together told her mother, "mama, I'm a fishing machine!" Almost brought tears to my eyes. I know now at four that she is heading down the right road.

~steelymann~

Steelyman and Fish4Fun hit on another good reason, friendships and just getting together.
I suppose that's why me and my boy Shane would drive from Bellingham to go to Floattillas. We have meet some pretty cool people on this board
Unlike some of you, my dad never took me on any fishing trips. That's why when my boat leaves, Shane has 1st spot in it, always. At 7 he landed his 1st 15lb King
Sometimes I'll take people in my boat and I wont fish at all. I just love to watch them catch fish!

I'm 18 and have been fishing for as long as I can remember. (which isn't nearly as long as everyone else in here) I do to forget about everything else that there is. I used to do it to spend time with my fishin buddy, but he went off to Marine Corp boot camp 3 weeks after graduation. Since then it has been just time for me and the fish. But they manage to avoid me pretty well. And yet i still find myself going everyday that i can.

I am 57 and been fishing since the 50's when my dad first took me out on the sound for salmon. I have fished salt, lakes, rivers ,creeks,ponds, and puddles. I cast flys, steel, bait, and kitchen sink. When I was young it was catching numbers of fish. In middle age the fishing took a back seat to family responsibilities. Now it is just being out on the water with family,friends, or by myself. Catching is great but if I'm skunked great also because fishing is s great get-away from our every day activities and we all need distractions. I expect many more great fishing days ahead.

I am 37 and am as excited about fishing as I was thirty years ago. I started fishing on American Lake and remember lying on my belly for hours hand-lining rock bass and perch. My parents used to have to yell at me to come in for meals. Of course that attitude progressed to salt water piers, salt water boats, fly fishing creeks and rivers, lake fishing, guiding in Cambell River, etc ad nauseum.

The desire to fish for steelhead came from an issue of Salmon Trout Steelheader that I had come accross. The stories relayed the difficulty and that fueled my compulsion to prove to my dad that I had suprassed his ability ( he was a great fisherman and had travelled the world, but had never tried river fishing) Consequently when I was 14 my mom started dropping me off on the Nisqually at 6:00am and picking me up at dark. I would walk the river all day trying to catch my first steelhead- a compulsion that still drives the "just one more last cast syndrome." It took three years for me to catch that first fish and I will never forget it. I had snagged up on the previous cast and forgot to loosen my drag. After I set the hook I had my hands full and made a lucky recovery.
I got my first driftboat at 15, an old wood handbuilt and have had a complete flotilla since. For me, river fishing is the most rewarding because it is a dynamic changing enviroment. the drift is never completely the same twice and every year, after the winter storms, that first drift is an unsolved mystery. The playing field has been leveled and the score board wiped clean.

Today I get just as much satisfaction watching some one else catch a fish as handleling the rod myself. Now it is about finding the fish rather than catching them. The drift is like an Easter egg hunt. I want to figure out where they are and see that take down or feel the strike in the rod. I am additcted to the sensation of knowing a fish is there... right before you set the hook... that surge of electricity traveling down down your arm- your brain telling your arm to rear back and drive that hook home. After that it is all downhill. I am just as excited about a missed strike as a landed fish. It is all about finding them.

So I am slowly working to start guiding. Not full time, I don't want to make my passion my work, just once a week or so to share what I have learned over the course of my "carreer" so to speak.

It seems odd that in this thread we are willing to confess the reasons for our insanity to an anonomous audience and the only justification I have is nobody else would understand except an equally corrupted soul. Even if we fight for first water during the day, that is the common bond that brings us together at the end of the day at the launch, the diner bar or whatever.

So I to try answer the question again, I am still trying to figure that out for myself.