As long as I can remember, I have loved to catch fish.  I get so into it I have had several instances where I fished until I physically couldn't open my hand to let go of the rod and had to use the other hand to pry my fingers open.  That might sound crazy, but when fishing is good, I don't really feel fatigue;  I just get lost in it.  I'm sure some of the people reading this know what I mean.

    Growing up, no one in my family liked to fish but for reasons I can't explain I have always loved it.  The first time I went fishing I was four years old.  My dad took me to a kids tilapia fishing tournament in Hawaii where we lived.  My dad knew nothing about fishing and I don't remember even seeing a fish, let alone catching one.  On my first cast I hooked my dad's shirt and that was pretty much it.  However, from that point on I couldn't get enough of fishing.  I subscribed to Field and Stream magazine when I was nine.  I used to save up my allowance to buy lures and then I would just look at them and imagine the fish I would someday catch with them. Once in a while I was able to talk my friends into trying to catch bullheads and perch from the local dock in Washington state where we moved when I was 8.  Unfortunately they usually preferred to ride bikes or play baseball.  That's pretty much how it went for my whole childhood, and I didn't get to go fishing much until college. 

    In college I got a car and using my newfound mobility and independence I was able to fish about three to four times a week.  Many times I would get up at 5am, fish at a local lake until 8am, and then go back for a 9am class.  If fishing was good and I didn't have too much school work I would sometimes go back in the afternoon.  Money was tight back then and I would sometimes park a long way from the lake and walk in to save the $1 parking fee.  I figured if I saved that dollar on parking I could buy one more lure or some more line or whatever.  Since I didn't know anyone who fished, I pretty much had to teach myself both by going a lot and also by looking up advice on the newly-created Internet.  I found a lot of that advice very helpful and that was what eventually inspired me to create this website.  I fished nearly every body of water within a couple hours drive of my college.  In most of these places fishing was allowed, but in some of them it wasn't so I launched a few "ninja" missions and got chased out a couple of times.  That's about as wild as I got in my youth.

    After college I took jobs that involved travel, so I would often tack on some fishing at the tail end of a work trip.  I also took a number of fishing-only trips all over the world.  I have lived in a number of places including Canada, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington State,  Costa Rica, and Venezuela.  I also travel a lot for work and take as many fishing trips as I can.  As a result, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to fish a number of great spots in about 25 US states (California, Washington, Louisiana, Montana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, the Keys, Arizona, Michigan, Alaska, Hawaii, etc), as well as a number of foreign countries including Australia, Bolivia, Bahamas, Canada, Cook Islands, Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Bonaire, Aruba, New Caledonia, Dominican Republic, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.  Almost as much as the fishing, I enjoy being immersed in new parts of God's creation.  As I get the chance to fish more spots I will keep expanding this website.  If you have a tip or photo to share please shoot me an email through the contact form below.

    Tight Lines,
    Dan Smith

    You can go to Half Past First Cast, an excellent fishing site, to see an interview with me:      https://www.halfpastfirstcast.com/blog-people/dan-smith-how-to-catch-any-fish