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I can't say I haven't learned things from others. Sure I have. However, few of the "elders" in my family were avid anglers. Still I was born with the "angling gene" and grew up at a time and place where "free-range" parenting was the norm. Want lunch? Show up at noon - or not. With a modicum of cheap gear, myself and few like-minded friends assaulted the ponds, creeks and rivers and cut our angling teeth on stunted bluegils, bullheads and the occasional crappie. Experimentation, self-innovation and endless opportunity to make our own success or failure.  

Mike my story is a little different. I cut my teeth so to say on fishng at a very early age in Villas Ccounty Wisconsin. My dad was a muskie fishermen. He fish alot of the different muskie waters in his time in that area. Dad had a bad heart attack and was laid up for some time. My mom wouldn't let him go fish by himself as he got better. So I din't understand then why my chores got added on to and chopping wood was now one of the items I had to preform. Later I found out that it was to get me stronger so I could pull the starting cord on our 1958 johnson 5 1/2 hp. outboard. As soon as I was able to do that, dad convinced mom that I could go with him and if anything happened to my dad I could run the boat and get him to safety. So that how it started. I learned that trip to use the stars to help navigate at night to get back to our cabin. During the day I learned to us 3 different land marks to mark certain areas of the lake that we fished. I learned alot from dad over time and caught a few nice muskies of my own. As time grew so did our thought on how Canada fishing would be. I was 13 when we made the first trip up. No paved roads just gravel.
So when I met my wife I found out she aslo like to fish. As we had our kids we fished as a family thru Minnisota and back to Canada where we started doing flyins. I had a blast teaching my boys as dad had taught me.So fishing for me has been part of me since I was very young. Now with one foot out the door I still love to fish. The big lake has changed very dramatically but it still fun to go out daily and figure out the bite. Feel blessd that we have the lake right in our back yard.