What I Remember About Bass Fishing

[Captain Phil]

I came across this photo on the web recently. It was suppose to have been taken in 1923.  It brought back so many memories for me, I thought about posting it here.  This is the way I started bass fishing.  Back then, bass fishing was a poor man's sport.  We weren't fishing for our dinner, but we fished without many things we take for granted today.  Most bass boats were small back then.   A 25 hp motor was huge.  There were no pedestal seats, you sat on planks.  Trolling motors did not exist, so we took turns at the paddle.  Reels were like fishing with a boat winch with  the handles turning on every cast. Lures were heavy chunks of wood or spoons made of metal.  Lines were thick and black. Despite all this, some things were similar to today.  A few people caught more bass than others.  There were more fish back then and they were bigger.  Boat ramps were dirt and never crowded like today.  Like today, bass fishermen were an enthusiastic bunch.  We bragged about our catch and competition among anglers was high.  No one painted their name or sponsors on their boat.    We knew who the real fishermen were.  You will notice that there are no other boats in this photo.  That's the way it was.   Enjoy!

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Some of us still fish that way 😂 

[HookInMouth]

Maybe that's why I like my kayak and shallow river so much. 

[Swamp Girl]

I love that photo and your post, Captain Phil. Like @TnRiver46, I still fish simply, I.e. from a hull with a paddle and launch from dirt, sitting on a plank of sorts, but I do take two to five rods, which no one carried back then.

[Bird]

Hate to admit this 😁

I lost 3 good fish in a row yesterday morning on a Bass assassin and as soon as I got home, ordered another rod...... make that 16 now on the boat. 

Oh no, it definitely wasn't my fault.....the rods 😁.

Great photo thanks for sharing.

[Functional]

thats how I started with my father until I was in my teens.

 

row boat or on foot with 1 rod and a hand full or lures. Then one year in my teens my Dad bought a 11.5' bass tender with an 8 or 9hp motor and electric TM  and we thought we were royalty. Didn't fish out of a bass boat until I bought my tracker when I was making adult money at my first real job in my mid 20s. 

 

Really good memories doing it the old way.

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, Bird said:

16 now on the boat. 

 

I'm jealous. I would LOVE to take 16 rods, but my canoe isn't big enough to keep them from tangling. 

[N Florida Mike]

I think that picture was from the Withlacoochee River. 
I actually catch more fish from my small water craft than when I had a bass boat. We ate what we caught back then. My dad was a big influence in that!

I remember when Zebco 33s were popular for bass fishing.  The retrieve was slowwww ! Don’t know how we got many fish to the boat !Then, everyone had to have an ambassador bait caster…I now take around 5-6 rods each trip.

I have never cared one bit how I catch bass, as long as it’s legal.

I loved it when you could fish anywhere in Florida and not have crowds ( or sometimes anyone) fishing the same water you were on.

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I think that picture was from the Withlacoochee River. 
I actually catch more fish from my small water craft than when I had a bass boat. We ate what we caught back then. My dad was a big influence in that!

I have never cared one bit how I catch bass, as long as it’s legal.

I loved it when you could fish anywhere in Florida and not have crowds ( or sometimes anyone) fishing the same water you were on.

 

Mike, those waters still exist in Florida. Watch Old Lady Angler's videos on YouTube. You generally don't see other boats in her videos. And @Zcoker doesn't meet many other night anglers in the Everglades, I'm guessing.

 

I'm generally alone on a pond or bog, but if I were to fish the popular water, like nearby China Lake, there'd be other anglers. 

[Mobasser]

This is a cool photo. I sometimes wish things were still this way.

[Swamp Girl]

11 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I remember when Zebco 33s were popular for bass fishing.

 

I had a Zebco 404. It was junk!!!

 

2 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

This is a cool photo. I sometimes wish things were still this way.

 

I still fish that way, but I no longer have a junky Zebco 404 and thank goodness for that, as I couldn't land the bass I do if I did.

[A-Jay]

I started like this ~ (circa 1965)

Graduated to this ~ (circa 1975)

More recently it's been mostly this. (Circa present day)

 

Can't say the fishing was better or worse at any one time along the way.

Certainly was different.

#timeschange

Presently, I still avoid crowds best I can and the fish catches seem to feel the same

as they did way back when.

Almost like magic.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[Swamp Girl]

Love those three pics, @A-Jay. Somewhere, I have some old photos. I hope I can find them. 

[Mobasser]

In some ways, I started like this. Fishing with my older brother in a row boat on farm ponds on our grandfather's farm in Chillicothe Mo. My brother was older and  a much better fisherman than I was. He taught me a lot. It was mid to latter 1960s. Good memories of those days.

[DaubsNU1]

Thanks @Captain Phil! Love the old pictures and memories!

[Zcoker]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Mike, those waters still exist in Florida. Watch Old Lady Angler's videos on YouTube. You generally don't see other boats in her videos. And @Zcoker doesn't meet many other night anglers in the Everglades, I'm guessing.

 

I'm generally alone on a pond or bog, but if I were to fish the popular water, like nearby China Lake, there'd be other anglers. 

 

Florida is still about as wild as it gets. For me out in the glades it's all solo. I've never encountered much anyone out there at night. We still have winding rivers filled with life. The pic below is ironic because it was taken directly off of busy I-75 interstate. Goes to show that even in close proximity to the concrete jungle, it can still be very wild out there. 

 

[Captain Phil]

I started fishing when I was 12 in about 1959.  Living in Miami, I fished mostly canals and rock pits.  My best friend and I would ride our bikes 10-30 miles or more to fish a new spot.  From our homes in North Dade, the Everglades was to the west and the Atlantic to the east.   We caught bass in fresh water and snook in the bays and brackish water.  Land Locked tarpon were always a possibility.  In the summer, my father would drive us to the pier on the ocean where we would spend the night fishing and sleeping on the pier.  South Florida was a different place back then. 

 

I built my first boat in my parent's garage out of an 8' by 4' piece of plywood and some planks for the sides.  My first real boat was a 15' aluminum car topper.  My first bass boat was a 15' Terry bass with stick steering and a 50 Johnson.  I later upgraded to a 16' Terry with a 75.  I fished my first B.A.S.S. State Federation Tournament in that boat.  When I got home, I bolted on a 135 Johnson. It wasn't much faster, but it looked like it.   A Terry dealer sponsored me and I bought a red white and blue Terry American Bass Fisherman.  Later, there were Hydrosports, Rangers, Skeeters, a Gambler and a 22' Storm I had custom built.   As I went along, I owned a bunch of offshore and flats boats too.  When I got older, I struggled with launching and loading a big boat, so I went with aluminum boats.  My current Ranger RT 178 is my last boat and after that I will be back on the bank where I started.   I get a ton of emails from people who ask about bank fishing.  Luckily, there are still places here where you can fish from the bank and do reasonably well.

 

Thanks for indulging my reminiscing on these pages.  If you are just starting out, keep fishing and you will too some day.   

[Swamp Girl]

27 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

South Florida was a different place back then. 

 

All of Florida was a different place back then. The Florida of my youth was sea shell shacks and alligator wrestling. 

 

27 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

My current Ranger RT 178 is my last boat and after that I will be back on the bank where I started. 

 

I'm expecting to end up back on the bank where I started too. 

 

50 minutes ago, Zcoker said:

 

Florida is still about as wild as it gets.

 

I've disagreed with you in the past on this point. Miami borders the Everglades. A freeway crosses it, as do other roads. There are far wilder places on Earth. It's like Maine. Maine can present the illusion of wilderness as long as you don't walk or paddle five or ten miles this way or that and encounter roads and people. 

 

27 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 

Thanks for indulging my reminiscing on these pages.

 

No, thank you.

[Bankc]

1923!  A lot has changed in the last 100 years, that's for sure.  A lot has changed in just my lifetime of 45 years!  It seems like with each passing year, we spend more money and time catching fewer and smaller bass. 

[Butch R]

3 hours ago, Bird said:

Hate to admit this 😁

I lost 3 good fish in a row yesterday morning on a Bass assassin and as soon as I got home, ordered another rod...... make that 16 now on the boat. 

Oh no, it definitely wasn't my fault.....the rods 😁.

Great photo thanks for sharing.

Glad I'm not the only one who rage buys tackle.

 

[TnRiver46]

22 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

All of Florida was a different place back then. The Florida of my youth was sea shell shacks and alligator wrestling. 

 

 

I'm expecting to end up back on the bank where I started too. 

 

 

I've disagreed with you in the past on this point. Miami borders the Everglades. A freeway crosses it, as do other roads. There are far wilder places on Earth. It's like Maine. Maine can present the illusion of wilderness as long as you don't walk or paddle five or ten miles this way or that and encounter roads and people. 

 

 

No, thank you.

Outside of 4-5 cities in TN, there are some pretty large expanses of backwoods nothingness. Some small towns are even completely abandoned with old service stations that have large trees growing on the concrete . 
 

the same can be said for parts of GA, AL, KY, etc. Some people are moving into the nothingness but not that many, most folks want to be within an hour of a function gas pump and grocery store 😂 

 

I actually like living in or near the city where I can walk to places if needed. We had 9 consecutive days this winter where normal vehicle travel was impossible 

[Zcoker]

23 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

 

 

 

I've disagreed with you in the past on this point. Miami borders the Everglades. A freeway crosses it, as do other roads. There are far wilder places on Earth. It's like Maine. Maine can present the illusion of wilderness as long as you don't walk or paddle five or ten miles this way or that and encounter roads and people. 

 

 

 

 

There are only a few roads that cross the Florida everglades, Tamiami Trail and Alligator Alley. Everglades National Park covers about 2,357 square miles, third largest park in the lower 48 states. That's no illusion. If you ever get a chance to get out there, you'll encounter some of the wildest wilderness imaginable. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Zcoker said:

 

There are only a few roads that cross the Florida everglades, Tamiami Trail and Alligator Alley. Everglades National Park covers about 2,357 square miles, third largest park in the lower 48 states. That's no illusion. If you ever get a chance to get out there, you'll encounter some of the wildest wilderness imaginable. 

 

Ungava is 97,000 square miles. No roads. I interviewed the couple that explores it. They told me that another couple wanted to do an expedition with them, but only lasted four hours before calling for a plane because they didn't want to die. So, I can think of wilder places because there are wilder places. 

[gim]

I'm way too young to be a part of this conversation, but just from the original photo, I can tell pretty easily that its a giant bass.

 

 

[Zcoker]

26 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

 So, I can think of wilder places because there are wilder places. 

 

Yeah, I can too. Lotta vastness out there. Not trying to compare the glades to anything. I've been all over this country, camping and hiking and fishing, many years on the road with a tent, so I know very well just how vast it is. Even dabbled a bit in Canada. I also know how special each area is. Each area has it's own unique and special places. Just like Florida, we have our own unique and special places, our coastal beaches along with the wide open everglades! Our weather pretty decent as well...aside from a few hurricanes from time to time!