Before Electronics?

[Bankbeater]

We use to hit the button on the reel and drop a jig, or a t-rig, straight down.  After it would hit the bottom we would take up the slack until the rod tip was touching the surface of the water.  Then raise the rod up and see if we could see the bait on the end.

[Neil McCauley]

I grew up using those "hot spots" maps and other paper contour maps. Man, what a joke compared to what we have now from compiling everyone's sonar data. There was structure in places I didn't even know about and actual reasons some is better than others. I wouldn't see how much the geology and the entire ecosystem matters without electronics. Same thing with sonar. So when I go and learn about those things now and do better because of it, you see how electronics do a lot more than give immediate info.

[3dees]

the truth is that before electronics, most fishermen didn't know squat about structure and cover and how fish relate to it. Buck Perry wasn't only about "spoonplugging". he was the father of structure fishing. the problem is you can't fish structure without electronics. yes. fish were caught before graphs but I would say most were caught shallow where electronics are less important. 

[scaleface]

I just guessed . Look at the topography of the land and imagine it under water . I only fished a couple of years without sonar .

[WRB]

The first recreational sonar units were just coming on the market as I graduated from high school, the Lowrance Red box followed by the Green portable Lo K Tor.

Where I grew up my home lake was very low do to the drought of the 50's and most other SoCal lakes were under construction and filling, so I knew first hand what the lake bottoms structure looked like. This was a big advantage when the lakes filled and studying contours with a flasher unit in the early 60's.

What is common knowledge today wasn't known to the general bass anglers before Ray Scott started B.A.S.S. Information was learned by reading Jason Lucas in Sports Afield or Robert Linclon in Outdoor life magazines. I never heard of Buck Perry until the late 60's when he was promoting his Spoon Plugs so he had no impact on my structure learning curve.

Tom

 

[Catt]

To me two of the game changers was the electric trolling motor & the depth finder.

 

I remember quite vividly remember sitting on the front of a Jon boat with 2' paddle "sculling" along the bank. The trolling motor increased the amount of water I could cover in a day.

 

The depth finder connected all the "dots" of what I perceived to be true concerning structure.

[RPreeb]

Just fished.  We mostly fished the same lake all the time, so we covered a lot of it, and when we found a spot away from shore, we triangulated it with shore landmarks.  We had a good crappie hole and another bluegill spot when food fishing.  We had a bunch of spots on our part of the lake that were tried and proven for finding bass.  Now and then one of us would hook up with a walleye or northern when fishing for something else, but there was never a real sweet spot that we found for them.

 

I still don't have any electronics, but then I don't have a boat or even a canoe at this point, so it's pretty much irrelevant.

[N Florida Mike]

2 ways I defined depth when I was a teen at the home lake.

• I wade fished. When you came to a drop off, you knew it!

• When I found the drop off ,I went back with a long cane pole with each foot marked and measured it. Maximum depth was only 9 feet but I wanted to be specific.

After I found the deeper holes I just went there and anchored and fished a giant Mann's jelly worm.Big fish hung out there esp. In summer. You can/ could always find fish because the lake is under 30 acres.

On a larger lakes and rivers we fished docks,cypress trees and pockets in weeds and weed edges. Nobody I knew fished " offshore" back then.

 

 

[the reel ess]

Well, we fished for crappie before sonar was really popular. We either put out the fish attractor or we know who did. Most were near shore so landmarks helped relocate them. The state also put out some and marked them with buoys. But ours were almost always better.

 

As for bass, we would pound the banks in the spring when they would bite until early summer. You could blindly fish general areas where you saw others fish and narrow down the good spots that way.

 

Now I fish smaller bodies of water that you can pretty much mentally graph with your lure. A C-rig is a good depth finder and fish locator and will tell you the composition of the bottom.

[GrumpyOlPhartte]

My early fishing was with a Zebco 202 on a no-name pole (purchased at Western Auto of all places)in French Creek and the Allegheny River. Only "knew" two things.

 

First, it seemed the fish all swam upstream when I disturbed them ... or ...

 

Second, they bolted for deeper water.

 

So I would walk up to the North end of town and wade down toward my house, a distance of around a mile.

 

I'd fan cast starting out deeper and work my way into shore. Then I'd wade down a few yards and repeat as necessary.

 

My philosophy was that if they spooked, they'd be headed into water I had already fished. And I did catch enough bass to keep my interest, but back then a good day resulted in maybe a half dozen. I always let them go because I wasn't sure how to clean them.