Fishing in "the old days"

[RemyL]

I grew up spending summers near (easy walk) a lake in western NY. From shore you basically were catching pan fish, but sometimes you'd luck into a walleye. Very rarely a family friend would take me out on their boat for walleye and when I was a teen a friend had a small trimaran we'd take out but our luck was horrid. Not the fishing, the boat. We limped home more often than not, or raced a storm.

I have pictures from the early 80's of me holding a Zebco rod and reel with a blue gill or sunfish the size of my head. They always seemed so much bigger back then. I graduated to a small set of cane rods with Mitchell spinning reels once I was old enough to not drop them all the time. My grandfather basically cleared out his panfish stuff to me and it was all old even back then. I never did have much luck with anything but the panfish. Walleye now and then, and one trip out on the boat with live worms we hit the mother load. Every couple minutes we'd be reeling in another one. He'd found a few good grass spots the day before apparently and even though no one had GPS he marked the spot and the sonar was good enough to verify we were in the right spot.

[Armtx77]

Sunset Marina, in Rock Island Illinois.

 

It was an old sand pit that hooked into the Mississippi River, that the county turned into a park, with several  boat ramps and marina facilities.

 

My mom would buy me a carton of worms at a little tackle shop on the corner of 14th st and 18th ave.

She would drop me off at about 7am and I would use those worms on a #8 gold hook and small bobber. I would fish all the docks and catch panfish. Mom would bring me lunch around noon than pick me up about 4pm.

 

Been hooked on it ever since. That has to be be over 30 years ago. I learned to bass fish on the Hennepin Canal and strip mines of Bureau County Illinois.

[basser27]

Man I miss the old days. Weightless power worms and floating rapalas was all I needed

[plawren53202]

My grandparents lived just down the road from a small clear stream.  Very wadable, and lots of sunfish (rock bass, longear, green sunfish) as well as a few smallmouth.  A light action spinning rod and a small box with some Rebel Wee R crawfish and a few Beetle Spins were all I needed.  Man I miss those days. 

[Mobasser]

Like many of us, I learned on farm ponds, at my grandparents farm. My brother came home from Vietnam in 1969, and we stayed on the farm , and helped with chores there. I was 12 yrs old then. He taught me how to cast, how to read the water, and everything else he knew about bass fishing. He was a good teacher for me. Now, when I look back, I realize that the simple, laid back farm pond fishing was a way for him to unwind and forget about the things he had seen, or done, while overseas. Fishing was his therapy, and even though he never said so, I think it always was. I miss those days 

[Pond fisher]

My most memorable day fishing.  My dad dropped me (11 years old), my brother (7 years old) and my cousin (8 years old) off at a lake on his way to work. It was about 5:30 a.m. and about 70 degrees, in March, I believe. About 7 a.m. the wind began blowing and about 10 a.m., it began to snow.  Around 1 p.m., we had 1 inch of snow on the ground and our redworms had frozen.  Didn't get a bite all day. We'd never been so glad to see dad at 3:30. We were all wearing short sleeves..

 

Ken