Down in south Texas they have resacas, oxbow lakes, scattered thru Harlingen, San Benito and Brownsville that used to be socked full of bass, catfish and perch including Rio Grande perch. I fished from our family�s row boat, a heavy wooden hunk of ... that I had to row. I am reasonably sure I was one of a very few who regularly fished and caught fish. My best LMB was probably five pounds caught Arbogast popper. I also remember using a cast net to catch shad and minnows but mostly I used artificials. I also used a silver Johnson spoon pretty often but with all the sunken logs, branches and tires I more spoons than I ever have since.

I remember an old game warden coming by just to see if I ever caught anything. We got to be friendly and he gave me some tips on other resacas to fish. Those I had to bank fish which brought me in contact with other shoreliners and learned a few things about which artificials worked, where to buy them and how to avoid screaming like a girl every time I came across a water moccasin.

When I got my first Garcia Mitchell combo (circa 1964) the sky was the limit and since I was still just 14 I didn�t think about a fishing license. In the end I ended up fishing every fishable resaca in the Valley. Now, I�d carry a 9-mm every where and not because of snakes.

The late 60's through the 80's were amazing to me.... this is an old post but it's applicable about how I feel, then and now.

Thinking about dad....and fishing.

I learned from my dad early on.....age 5-14 and he took me all over Texas/Arkansas/Oklahoma ........we fished some tournaments together, we fished with DFD friends, we fished with guides.....when I turned 14 dad bought a 15' Flat/wide aluminum boat with a Merc 40 and a console. We built treated plywood decks, carpeted them with gold and brown AstroTurf, put on a 36 lb. Minnkota trolling motor, and I even had a Lowrance flasher on the bow......Ranger power pedestal seats a fireman buddy of his gave me and she was done. Dad put my boat at the fish hawk marina on Lake Hawkins for me. I fished every day that it wasn't to cold or I had athletics. All the way through high school I fished.....when I got my regular drivers license dad let me pull her to Winnsboro or Holbrook......That old pull start Merc was finicky as hell! If I got to my spot I fished....no running up and down the lake.....I learned the art of the texas rig those years.....slow, methodical, thoroughly covering my spots.....Winter time I learned the jig and pig .......it was a gift my dad gave me.....he went with me when he could but he told me when I was a senior that fishing all those times alone taught me more than he could have thought possible, about fishing, and about life. I took that boat to college and she took me all over Rayburn, Toledo, Lake Nac, Pinkston.......I came home in the late 80's and fished all over Fork with her.....she looked like hell by then.....but I caught fish.....slow, methodical, thoroughly covering every spot.......

I gave her to a 15 year old boy that was the son of one of our fishing buddies (Bobby Russell) in 1990.....I had been a Policeman for 3 years at that time and was able to buy a fiberglass bass boat. I know that boy today...he tells me all the time that boat saved his life, kept him out of trouble.

It was never work......it was a gift......my dad gave me this gift.....this passion ......I can't imagine my life without it.

I'm trying to imagine my life without dad but I'm not able...... I guess it will get easier... just one more trip....

Most everything with the exception of equipment was better from the mid 60s- mid 80s than today. People knew things like respect and courtesy. Today that is a rare quality.Today , If you went out in the middle of nowhere on Rayburn or T Bend, and just sat in 1 spot for 1 hr. At least 1 boat would idle up to you asking directions to somewhere, all the while marking waypoints on their gps, to return later and see what your fishing. That I have proven to friends on several occasions when just fun fishing. as good of innovation as it is, I wish it had never been put into the fishing world. I do believe that if we had the lines, hooks, rods, reels,and trolling motors back then that we have today, you would have to have a good day to catch a limit on any east Tx.lake.

My wife hasn't proven her memory was better than mine since tonight at dinner!!

Well thanks Doug from sunny San Diego CA. The CA I grew up in in the 60's and 70's was a dead red Republican state that had Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian for a Governor and both Senators and more Representatives were also of the conservative bent. Those San Francisco liberals didn't venture south of Santa Barbara. CA started turning about the time I came to TX in the late 90's. The fishing there in the 70's was pretty great. I had the silver Garcia 5500C baitcaster on a 5'5" Ugly Stick. We wandered through Mission Valley and fished the San Diego River and used mostly Red, Black or Motor Oil Manns Jelly Worms and caught bass everywhere. They were natives so they didn't grow to the size of the Florida's they had stocked in the lakes but they were plentiful and fought hard. We started out on the SD City lakes renting 12" aluminum boats and would tie off or anchor. Caught em good on the original Strike King spinnerbaits. Not sure if it was better back then, but it was a lot of fun. Luckily I'm still having fun trying to catch em. I've been told I've been here long enough to have "almost" all the weird out of me...

Back then I fished out of Circle Drive or the park north of there. I had a wooden Skeeter with a 9.8 HP Wizard. I had a Shakespeare hand trolling motor mounted on the front with a piece of hose and a broom stick on the handle so I could set back in the set to operate it. Had a lot of fun in that old boat and caught a ton of fish. Reels were a 5500C and a 2500C. Both bought from Gibson's. Rod were Speed Sticks. If you could go back in time you would see that you don't need all the fancy stuff to catch fish.

Mid 70's, a friend told me about a new lake on the Texas/La border. Until then, All I had ever fished was farm ponds. So we loaded up a 13' V bottom boat with a 5 hp Evinrude and headed to Toledo Bend. The worst part was driving there at night using a map to go through all of the little towns and farm roads in order to get to Fin and Feather Marina. Well, we finally made it around sun up on Saturday morning. I had heard the Bass were biting spinner baits so I bought my first Virgil Ward's black Tarantula spinner. That left me with $50.00 in my wallet. We got on the lake, I think it was a lake, or just flooded timber. We started fishing and the bass started schooling. After one hour the both of us had a limit and headed in when a guy at the dock told us we should be throwing a Red Fin. So I bought that one and a Hot Spot. Now, I'm down to about $43.00. We went back out fishing and something big hit my 8' spinning rod and 10 lb test line. After loosing about 50 yards of line, it was back to the marina again for more line. Now I'm at $40.00. and getting hungry again. So now its still Saturday morning, I'm full but down to $35.00. Saturday afternoon at least didn't cost us anything while we fished, until I lost the Hot Spot and the Red Fin. It was time to stop for the day. We planned to sleep in a tent, we had plenty of Beenie Weenies, Vienna Sausages and crackers, but no tent pegs. It started to rain around 8:00PM so we just threw the tent over the back of the truck bed, and got some sleep.
I'll cut to the chase, we got back to Mineral Wells Sunday night with $5.00 between us and an empty gas tank, but had a blast.
I started making plans to buy my first boat. It was a Top Tenner with a fifty HP Johnson. What a great boat. Still don't need anything bigger.
Quieter times, less fishermen on the lake,and feeding bass, can't get any better!

There is a bunch of old guys on here, and I am one of them. Grew up watching WOod county lakes being built Fished Quitman the day it opened out of our Texas Made ski type boat. Drove my dads 51 ford pickup from our house in Coke to Quitman after school bus had dropped me off at age of 11. Once David Saxon and I slipped over to a creek(coffee) near Yantis, caught some Catfish.
I fished with Dad at Johnny Morgans stock pond and caught some big bass ( Morgans pond is near Coffee creek on fork) We waded this pond, fished the reeds with H&H.
Then dad bought a flat bottom boat in 62 I think He built a paddle that I would stick my arm into and scull the boat. This boat went to school with me when it was not Football season. After school I would drop it in the water of Winnsboro from the road to Coke.
I caught some big fish at times from Winnsboro One caught one about 6# I weighted it at Taylors Little Horn. Mr Taylor was a local legend. He took a interest in me, as I was always Fishing from his place. He showed me how to use a Heddon Spook.
The 60's were awesome for me as I could fish all day maybe see one boat. I learned about drop offs from Buck Perrys book, Watched Jim Roberson drift over a drop off on lake Quitman all day AND have a great "stringer" of fish. Raplh Muller (?) was a local that walked the banks of Winnsboro to pick up arrowheads He was the one that told me about Points and how to fish a Lucky 13 to pick up a few bass.
Times were slower, fish were everywhere , People allowed me to fish their ponds since most knew I would catch and clean the fish , and give to them.
I got to fish many of the local ponds. Dad was a barber so he knew everyone. Lake Franklin was a local private only lake, but I got to fish it many times cause My granddad owned a lumber yard and supplied many home owners with lumber for their piers or boathouses.
Slower times and people would teach you. I came to spend a week with my granddad in TYler who had a cabin on Grove club lake. MY eyes got opened during that week. Some old guy was using A rubber worm on the dock next to granddads. I watched in amazement as he would thrown in to the brush piles. Took me couple of days to figure out how to ask him WHAT IS THAT ? Sure enough he showed me some of them worms I caught several bass from Granddads dock. One the way home Dad stopped at Joes tackle in Tyler and bought some of them worms.
Dad an I wore the fish out for a long time with them rubber worms Old whippy rods and Zebco 33 reels worm fishing Ha that was fun
Been chasing bass for well since I was about 10-11 now I am 71 and still chaseing them. and still in a Flat bottom boat. So proud to have grown up during the time that bass fishing was growing up.

wild bill

Zebco 33, Mister Twister, and Trilene!

love reading all the old stories, i wasnt born until 89 so the earliest fishing i can think of was in the mid 90s. Its neat to hear how it was back early on

Still enjoy it just as much, but definitely more crowded on the water and quality of catch has decreased.

Prayers my friend, you have some great memories....

Skeeter, good read. I miss my Dad as well. Wish I could turn that clock back. Good memories remain, but they are just not the same as having him here.
Good luck

I grew up fishing. Dad was working at the Grayson County Jr. College and moved us up between Sherman and Dennison for a summer during my junior high days and we fished Texoma on weekends. Then as I entered high school he got us a place on Whitney close to Uncle Gus Lodge. We spent a lot of time for a couple of years there fishing with my dad and jumping off of those cliffs swimming. I graduated in 71 and fished off and on for a lot of years but it took a back seat to playing fast pitch softball until 89. Luckily a buddy of mine who I played ball with moved to Winnsboro and me and some other buddies would run down there any weekend we weren't playing a tournament which was about 16 weekends a year. He had a lot of ponds all over he had access to and we I would take those H & H spinners and wear those bass out. I will never forget the first time I went across the bridge on 515 heading to his place and he told me all about the new lake that was there called Fork. Little did I know when I quit playing softball in 89 I would immediately start fishing every spare minute and ended up on Fork all of the 90's. My first tournament partner was Kenny who was Val Poe's son so we were either at a tournament or at Val's for the weekend for years and years. It was great fishing Fork in those days and all of the Texas lakes in tournaments. Back then you could sometimes go to some lakes and two things stick out in my mind. Seems like every lake had some sort of vegetation and flooded structure. Even lakes like Cedar Creek was full of mesquite bushes, coon tail moss, some hydrilla. I just grew up fishing vegetation and bushes and you had that everywhere especially the prime 90's at Fork. The other thing I remember was a lot of times I could go to a lake like Cedar Creek and fish around for hours and only see a couple of boats a lot of times. Even when Fork finally got so busy I could go to Winnsboro, Quitman, Bob Sandlin, Cypress Springs and summertime to Monticello and stay away from most crowded conditions. So even though I still love to bass fish as much today as back then I do miss the vegetation and flooded stuff in a lot of the lakes and there is definitely a ton more people fishing these days.

I believe that most guys on here that started back in the late 60s early70s started with some form of Zebco (mostly 404 or 33) or Johnson ( century or Saber )reels, and as for myself especially saved up and bought some model Garcia . The Abu Garcias then were made in Sweeden, I don't know what they made the pawls out of back then but I never heard of anybody changing one. Also they all came with a leather case with a bottle of oil and a container of spare parts containing different size brakes, extra, shims, screws, etc.In the early 70s Fenwick wes considered the best production rod.But if you could afford one you were really big time to have somebody wrap you a custom rod. Believe me when I say there were guys that could put designs in those rods that you cannot picture in your mind without having seen them. As I recall Lews Speed Stick came along and were considered as good as Fenwick in the early mid 70s about a year or so before Graphite rods hit the market. As I recall the first graphites were well above $100.And not many could afford them, but it was not long til they started easing down the price til they found the middle ground around $70. I think. Within 2 years there were enough mfgs. of graphite rods the prices came down to about $50.All things considered with the sensitivity of lines and rods today, and how lite some bites are we probably had 10-15 bites for every1 that we felt when worm or jig fishing with glass rods in the early 70s.Another good memory that comes to mind is after every big storm you could walk the bank @ Rayburn or T Bend and pick up a handful of Hellbenders,Lucky13s, Pico Pops, Devils Horses and Red Fins. those types I didn't have to buy. Other memories later.