Was it really as good as some of the older guys have told me?

yep

My club used to fish it as our January tournament each year and me and a tournament partner used to fish Honey Hole and other trails there early in the year also. It was just a different lake back in the day with a lot of hydrilla which made is such a fun lake to fish. In fact during that time period 20 years or so ago there were tons of lakes that had hydrilla and vegetation and you fished a lot of the same patterns on all of those lakes. For me personally I like fishing that way. Now days so many of the lakes that had the vegetation are pretty barren of it for different reasons. I miss fishing edges of the hydrilla with a Carolina rig or flipping jigs through the grass or throwing frogs on top of the matted hydrilla during hot Summer or RatLTraps ripped through the grass in spring. Like I said there are tons of reasons why fishing isn't as good these days on Martin Creek as the past. Number of anglers these days, droughts or whatever but it seems like there was always a limit to catch back in the day and earlier in February of this year we had our club tournament and I actually only caught a few fish in two days of fishing. Maybe it is just me not being able to change techniques now that the hydrilla is gone but I sure would like the lake like it was back then.

Hydrilla is starting to come back in places and there are a few pads growing here and there. Still a lot of good fish to catch but you have to search structure and not rely on grass lines.

Man that guy that told you how good it was back in the day must be really old.