Question for some of the guys that fished in the late 60's-70's

You guy's enjoy it more then, or now ?
Speaking for myself, and really thinking about it.
It was better then... Less traffic, stupid fish, only 1 maybe 2 rods 1 Plano 747 tackle box...
It's changed, a lot, some good, some bad.imo...

folks had more common sense back then if they felt like something was wrong they wouldn't stew about it on their way home an get on the net an ask folks what they thought about it .

Lot better back then

A lot less people back then and whole lot less people from up north and out west in our state.

Whole lots better back then Red when fast bass boats would run maybe 35, all you needed was a black/blue worm and every bit of shore line wasn't covered in houses and boat docks. Sometimes my memories of yesteryear are detrimental to the realities of today so it's best to not dwell on them. I have Sirius XM on my truck radio and when the realities of today get too much I move to the 50's-60's channel long enough to remember the "good 'ol days" and it helps. With my dad I fished PK, Tawakoni and Rayburn the year they opened, now those were good memories.

North, east and west Doug. That's why we now have toll roads every where.

The 70's was a better time for bass fishing. It was before 300 hp, and fools that thought they were more important and had more rights because the were practising or competing in a tournament. Most boats were about 16 ft long and carried 65 to 85 horsepower. Most were couterious and gave you plenty of room and gave advise for catching fish. The launching ramps were friendly, with everyone helping each other and not complaining because some crappie fisherman took too long to load his little 14 ft. boat.

I enjoy teaching more now than I do actually catching. It was def better for numbers back then. I love me some Dumb Ole Texas Basses.....

I caught my first "biggun" 7 lbs 7 oz in a tournament on Ray Hubbard on 1-25-75. I had my red Garcia Ambassaduer 5000-B on my 5.5' Lew's Speed Stick with 14# Stren fluorescent blue line. I was throwing the only jig I owned. It was a black bucktail 3/8 oz Stan Sloan Booza Bug jig with a fiber weedguard. I had a black 6" Mr. Twister grub on the back as a trailer. I had no idea how to fish a jig but it was winter time and the books I read said to fish a jig & eel in the winter. We didn't have any Uncle Josh pork rind so I stuck the Mr. Twister grub on there.

We were fishing out of my buddy's 14' MonArk with a 35 Evinrude with no TM on front. We just idled around and either tied up or anchored. There was also no livewell on the boat. It was more of a ski boat than a bass rig but it floated and we thought we were hot stuff flying across the lake at a blistering 32 mph!

I was a sophomore at Garland High and we had organized a high-school bass club for all the Garland schools. It was the Top Six from each school that day on Hubbard. It was me and my partner Dickson Ayers in his boat. Kirk Balsley & Joe Smith in their boat. Gary Hughes and Paul Redmond rounded out our six man team. North Garland was there with their formidable team as was South Garland. Lakeview Centennial was there with a few guys. They were the rich kids from the South Side.

Coach Gary Reeves from Garland High (now the superintendant for GISD) did the shotgun start at safe light from the gas dock at Point Royal Marina off Hiway 66. We blasted off across Hubbard in search of the elusive largemouth bass.

I think Lakeview blanked but North Garland brought three or four keepers to the scales for about four pounds. Stories of the big one that broke their line circulated around at weigh in.

At the end of the day, Kirk Balsley had landed two nice 2.5-3 pound fish on a blue Fliptail worm off some old submerged RR tracks in deep water and put us in the lead. I think Paul Redmond landed one small keeper about a pound. Dickson and I show up with a 7 pound 7 ounce lunker that dropped everyone's jaws. It was the biggest bass any of us had ever seen in person! It was the only fish I landed that day but it didn't matter.

Ray Sasser wrote an article in the sports section of the Dallas Morning News about my fish and our school winning the event. We walked away with trophies for Heavy Stringer and Big Bass. The athletic director for the Garland schools paid to have it mounted for me. I was kind of a big deal back then.

Lakeview did not open until 1976

Red 5000 abu's Fenwick rods 20 lb mono that looked like kite string... Jig n eel, cream 6" purple white tail worms, Mr twister jelly flavored curly tail worms.. A couple of hedon top water chuggers, jitterbug, tiny torpedo, lowrance green box flasher..that was all you needed... I have literally thousands of dollars in gear now...
And have nowhere near the fun my brother I had back then...

I beg to differ with you. The first graduating class was May 1976.

Dang Ken, we were seniors in High school...I got out class of 76..
Your the man that talked me into buying a yellow magic for the unheard of price at $ 14.00 that's one I've never regretted and yes buddy you're still a big deal

Everything is always better through nostalgia glasses. In 40 years kiddos now will talk about how great the early 2000s were. It's all perspective and folks will always hold their memories dear.

I went to Garland High as a sophomore then my parents moved out further into the country so I transferred to North Garland as a Junior and graduated after my junior year from there in 1976. I should have been Class of 1977 but I went to summer school three summers in a row so I could graduate as a junior.

Oh Boy, I'm sure glad I gave up three full summers to do that!! NOT!!!

Nowadays I just sit around and talk about how good I used to be Billy.

It's the old saying Ken, "the older I get the better I was". We all use it especially at birthdays, lol.

I was kind of out of the box in 68 and going forward... My parents had a lake house on Winnsboro, it WAS awesome back then, I guess to get us out of their hair, we had all things outdoors... Sears & Ted Willams were the gear to have... LOL..we were very privey to fish the tri lakes in the early days.. Just nowhere like it used to be... Duck hunting was WOW in the morning, then fish the afternoons....Winnsboro used to have a population of giant shell crackers aka. 1 1/2 + lb red ear bream.. Gone now...

Priceless stories, guys....enjoyed reading them. No doubt, I enjoyed it better back in the 80's. That's when I became hardcore. Nowadays, there are way too many flat-billed perstaffers trying to show off. That gets older than we are in a hurry!

I was fishing with my Dad. Good times whether we got skunked or not.

Had a Caddo bass boat 55 Johnson 3 cylinder ,shaksphere 12 volt troller. Had several rods pistol grip 5 1/2 ft
Garcia reels and too many tackle boxes. Have some fond memories and yes it was for sure better back then.

J D

Hey guys, I rarely post but this one really brought back some memories. I graduated high school in '74 and starting about then me and a buddy would drive down to Circle Drive Marina on upper Toledo absolutely as often as we could. We were armed with big spool Zebcos, 20# gold stren, a big bag of black lizards and a handful of white H&H's. For $5.00 we rented a johnboat and bolted on our little trolling motor. It was as easy as trolling to the lines of buck brush or down a bank. You simply wouldn't believe the #s of 3 to 6# bass 6 hours of fishing would produce. We had heard about this newfangled bait that people were catching lots of fish on called a black jig and eel. Of course we bought some but would throw them for about 2 minutes and go back to the lizard! Yes, it was definitely easier to put fish in the boat back then...the pressure on Toledo is incredible these days and the easy fish are less abundant. Still a fish factory though!

^^^^^^^^

back then most definately. It was simplier, wasnt hyped up like it is now, everyone wasnt a pro wanabee fisherman, you didnt have boat/tackle companies ripping you off on the high price of their products.

The 70's were definitely a better era for Bass Fishing.Tournaments are hurting Bass Fishing nowadays!

LCHS

Back in the late 60's and 70's was better in a lot of ways. Peaceful, no cell phones. My first simple bass boat a Super Skeeter 1960's.
Things have sure changed but I'm not complaining fishing is still great!!!

I grew up in North Alabama.. Huntsville to be exact.. there were small water places to fish around but the big water was Guntersville. I graduated high school in 1970, and at that time it was pre grass on big G.. so it was mostly a stump and bank lake.. we didn't know much about structure fishing but along comes BASS and the different seminars they had about Texas Rig worms, Jig and Pig baits. The message was that if you are fishing the bank, 90% of the fish were behind you! Getting good topo maps of the lake, using a depth finder, bait casting reels vs Spinning/Spincast, tying directly to the baits vs using a swivel.. All of this stuff was crazy for a 17 year old to grasp and try and take advantage of but it sure made a big difference in catching fish. Fishing back then was fun because there was a lot of the "new factor" involved than my fishing now. Its not that I know it all.. which is definetly not true.. but I probably retained a lot more of the experience back in the day vs fishing today.. and I didn't have idiots in jet ski's and pontoon boats going between me and the point I'm trying to fish.

You kids get off my lawn!

You are correct Doug. I consulted with one of my good friends who was a teammate in 1975 and he confirmed that there was nobody from Lakeview Centennial there. It was just the three Garland high schools in that event.

I hate it when I am wrong!

HA HA HA

Agree with everyone about fewer boats, less speed, better fish numbers, etc. One thing better today though is the quality of our outboards. My old SkeeterHawk had a 55HP Evinrude. That old motor had a bullet proof powerhead, but the ignition system and the electric shift were junk. I bet if I added up all the hours I spent working on that thing, it would be more that I had it running out on the lakes (only Hubbard and Tawakoni back then).

BTW - I still have the boat sitting in the barn (different outboard though)! It is no comparison to my Triton, but it is still a great little boat.

I know you guys got more stories.....bring em!

I placed in my first bass tourney in the late 70's. I fished , at 10 yrs old, in a big tourney on Lewisville. I got 7th place. Probably around 150-175 boats. I fished from my dads Taylor Craft SS jet boat. My dad drove me everywhere I wanted to go. He didn't Bass fish, he was just a guy that loved fishing banks and fishing barges. I'll never forget it. Caught one decent bass in little elm area Then started catching crappie. My dad asked if I wanted to go weigh in the one bass I had. I said yes...of course.

I won a plaque, some fishing poles, and a "pro seat" for a bass boat. Lol


I dad bought me a bass buster so I had a place for my seat I won. I devistated local ponds with that boat.

Bass fishing is easier now.....I don't care what you guys say. You simply drive your boat till you see em on side scan....then throw at em. Kinda like window shopping.

brutha you got one hell of memory, Your poor wife!!

ONE MORE CAST
Incurable and insatiable “Bass Fever” hooked me in the early 60’s when I first began walking the banks of some of our local farm ponds and from there it wasn’t long before I had graduated to a new fangled Fish-Master Float Tube that actually put you in the water with the fish and it was off to Bass Fishing Heaven for me. I vividly recall my first time tubing on a chilly late March morning using a Mitchell 300 spinning reel while fishing a weightless plastic “Dad Nabber” along a milfoil edge and I caught my first 7 pounder along with 3 more over 4 pounds. There was no way I could ever recover from that experience, so I soon convinced my better half I just had to have a new stick steer 40 HP Bass Boat with a new secret invention painted camouflage green with a red flashing disc called a fish locator and after reading everything Buck Perry had ever written at least a dozen times that I could practically quote verbatim from memory started me on my way to my Bass Angling Odyssey of a lifetime and the thousands of mostly wonderful memories that I have had while chasing jaws…

A trip to Florida with my first double digit bass and drifting “CRÈME” worms on the humps at Lake T with Mike C. and a wild and crazy trip to Cuba in 1969 on “Red Carpet Airlines” in an old vintage DC-3, which is a book just waiting to be written in itself was the final act and I’ve been hooked ever since…

Was it better then than now? That’s really a tough question for me to answer. One thing is however an undeniable fact. The cost factor per each bass in the boat has increased to a point that has many longing for the good old days when everyone could actually afford to go fish without going to the bank for a loan before making a trip to the lake. $100,000.00 dollar bass boats and $100.00 lures and $5,000.00 dollar electronic gadgets were not even a figment of one’s overly creative imagination back in the 60’s and we just learned to keep our lures active in areas of the water column with the right cover and structure where bass should have been located based on water clarity and temperature and generally we came home with a smile and plenty of fish stories about the one that got away.

Today however, we have so many new tools and innovative methods at our disposal it almost makes it too easy compared to the old days. On the other hand, anyone that has learned the basics and then given even the slightest thought to what the major impediment to spending more time catching than fishing has come to the realization long ago that FISHING PRESSURE on any given body of water is the major cause for failure.

Since America has had a drastic decline over the past many years in constructing new lakes which tend to offer those first few years of fantastic action regardless of pressure I feel it is imperative that one learns to study the natural up and down fish population cycles of most inland lakes and spend a maximum amount of time on a body of water while it is in an up cycle as far as producing good quality angling and learning to use all the latest electronic technology to the best of one’s ability. There are still plentiful bass populations in many lakes and with the enhanced management programs that many States have adapted along with improved catch and release tournament technologies, I look for the future of bass angling to only become better, even if you have to fish a little harder on some days than when you were the only boat on the lake back in the good old days. Personally, I can’t wait for the next trip to get my old beautiful vintage Ranger back on the water to make just “one more cast.”

His wife has a better one than his, poor Ken.

I will admit, fishing during the week has been nice... I rarely go out on Fork on the weekend... Unless a friend or family want to venture out.... That is fun, not much traffic, I also have found the fish don't start biting, until I get there....LOL......

Dilly Dilly

Prior to the early 70's,every lake had boats for rent generally at several landings and you would carry your own small motor and rent a boat.....as a kid,I fished with my parents on TVA lakes in east Tenn in the 40's and 50's with an occasional trip to other parts of the country..most fishermen on the lakes in those days were fishing for crappie or bream and you might go all day and not see another bass fisherman...the older wooden boats with pointed bows didn't lend themselves to sculling well so in the area i lived,we would fish topwater early..putt-putting along the bank and casting then stopping to fish the points or creek mouths then troll throughout middle of day...the plastic worm changed all that and allowed us to cast for bass in middle of day but we didn't have trolling motors so we had to anchor the boat to fish a worm.......

Dad owned several wooden boats, couple of which he built himself and he would get somebody to take it to the lake in a truck and leave it chained (and locked) up at one of the landings..nobody trailered boats back then and few people had pickup trucks either except farmers..I recall a rite of passage is when i got old enough(early teens) that my Dad let me run the boat from the upper lake/river where he kept the boat in spring to the lower lake in mid summer by myself....a trip that took most of the day because we had a 10 hp motor.......

in the 60's,the boats available for rent changed from wood boats that leaked like hell to aluminum boats that leaked like hell but weren't as heavy...if you didn't carry your own bailing can,you looked around the landing til you found one.......these boats were generally cheap,narrow,easy to turn over and didn't have flotation in them...and every year you would have a drowning or two in area lakes..... I had owned several used small (and temperamental)motors and my first new motor was about a 68 E-rude 9 1/2 (that cost $325.00)and it may have been the best motor I ever owned......it was wonderful to have a motor that cranked easy and it would fly on a 14 ft jon boat....probaly every bit of 20 mph.....which was blazing speed compared to how fast a 3-5 hp would push one of those boats......

I lived on Miss. river in mid 60's and we would rent a boat and use sculling paddle...i got introduced to "doodle-socking" and it was unbelievable the fish you could catch with 12-14 ft. cane pole and a top water bait worked up under cypress trees and bushes.....I didn't use a rod and reel for several years until I joined a bass club and they wouldn't let us use those poles....we hadn't learned to flip yet so using that cane pole was only way to get back under stuff that you couldn't cast to....bass clubs started springing up back in late 60's/early 70's and that plus electric trolling motors changed everything....we did find that trolling motors scared fish in real shallow water so we would use sculling paddles when we were doodle socking but the fish soon got used to trolling motors...


you were liable to see most anything in early years of tournaments...those that could afford bassboats generally showed up with stick steering 14-16 ft boats with engines from 25-40 hp.......trolling motors on front and trolling motors on back(and both)..those that couldn't afford a bassboat generally modified what they had or could afford and there were weird and dangerous rigs that showed up in first few years of tourny fishing.....50 hp engines on aluminum boats with the transom full of angle iron bracing because the boat was designed for 10 hp motor....ski boats with trolling motors and everything in between....

my first bass boat was a a crosby ski sled that I installed swivel seats in with a 50 hp johnson and Otasco hand operated trolling motor and it was probaly one of the more normal looking rigs....it didn't take long for for tournys to turn into half fishing contest and half boat race with each about equal in importance...within just a few years,the engines got bigger and bigger and it was really getting dangerous......it was not unusual to see 14ft stick steering boats rated for a 25 hp with 80 hp engines on them....
Bass thankfully started limitations on horsepower and the boat manufacturers caught up with pad boats and dual steering that would handle the higher speeds......fishing boats and tackle since mid 70's have gradually evolved into what we have today but the 6-8 years from late 60's to mid-70's was the period of greatest change when we went literally from a jon boat,paddle and one rod and reel to the high horsepower boat with electric trolling motors and multiple fishing rods across the deck.......

one last remembrance.....when our bass club scheduled it's first out of town of town tournament against another club,I went out and bought my second rod and reel.....a red ambassadeur with a $4.98 True Temper 5 1/2 ft pistol grip glass casting rod....and the guy I drew commented how he liked my two matching rod/reel combos....

I don't know that things were better back then but life just went by a little slower. The fishing is just so much different nowadays. Back then we had to know how to read the land (and maps)as there was no GPS to take us through unfamiliar places. To be truthful, I never did learn to read a flasher very well. I don't fish tournaments anymore and haven't for a long time because it made me lose sight of what fishing was all about for me. I don't have to catch fish every time out and I don't have to go 70 mph to get to my favorite hole. Was fishing better back then? Maybe yes, maybe no....it's what you make it.
Oh, by the way...I still have my Plano 747 sitting on a shelf out in the shop.

Fishing is lots better now. People are a lot ruder.

Wow bear trap, really enjoyed that, thank you for sharing

You don't like folks out West? However I think you are wrong. Back in the 60's the biggest bass club in Texas and the nation was the Permian bass club in Odessa. Actually for me it was much better and one of the reasons was that people were more courteous back then.

West as in California, Washington State, Oregon, and such places. You know all the "hipster liberal" places, not western Texas

Dilly Dilly

The only thing better now is GPS and our electronics, and I wish I was the only one on the water that had them lol. It's not fair that the youth of today have never had the good fortune of being LOST on a lake! Try fishing Table Rock in Missouri, Eufaula in Oklahoma, Ouachita in Arkansas, or Toledo Bend for the first time without your gps. Back in the 70's we had to drive and hold a paper map at the same time, I've been so lost I didn't think I was ever going to make it back to the ramp. Some of the maps were two different sections, about as thick as a newspaper sheet, and disintegrated the first drop of water you got on them. Of course, we were only running about 35 wide open with a 90 horse johnson. But even not knowing where we were, a hundred fish day on Toledo Bend or Eufaula was routine.

Me and my best friend growing up got lost on Caddo in the early 80's, we were 12 or 13 and everywhere we turned looked just the same, GPS would have been nice

I like it the same I catch more fish now than I did then.

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.

1thing that is much better today is the quality ( weight wise),until 1988 you didn't give a lot of thought to catching 10lb+ fish in east Tx.lakes. Prior to then big bass in most tournaments were between 4 & 6lbs. Occasionally someone would stumble on a7 or 8. But in the early - mid 70s a5-8 lb fish got you about the same noteriety that a8-11 gets today.In the mid 80s there were several tournaments that were guaranteeing a fully rigged boat for the first fish over 12 lbs. But in Sept.86 out of the deep grass the multiple7-9 lb.ers. started showing up. The 12 lb. boat deal disappeared forever. These comments about 86 and after are about Sam Rayburn, They stocked Rayburn with Floridas, in a nursery cove in the 70s.I guess it just took a certain amount of time But Rayburn got revived in 86 like turning on a light switch. And it goy better and better every year until the fish kill in 98. There was also walleye stocked in Rayburn in the 70s.I only ever heard of 1 being caught. Hard to believe none survived.

1966 a 3 year old ME sat on a dock on Lake Caterine in Hot Springs AR, I stared at a bobber until it was time to come into the house. It was the only time my parents had ever seen me sitting still for any length of time. Mid 70's, Barlow's Tackle opens up with rod building supplies and a worm bar. Built me a super high sensitivity fiberglass Shakespeare rod and added the new to me and grandmother bought Garcia 5500C, I was the bomb. The worm bar was at least the size of a football field and had every color and style of worm possible and it did'nt matter what color it was as long as it was black. I waded the old 66 bridge on Ray Hubbard, fished the bridges rip rap on the upper end of Lavon and times were good. At some point the prices changed and it was in the form of the Shimano Calcutta a game changer in the baitcaster world. Smoooooth never had so many "o's". The fish were as dumb as I was but we made good friends and it is a sport that carries me thru most of days. I will take today as my favorite day to fish and I have felt that way everyday for the last 50ish years.

My old fishing buddy Mike called me out of the blue last night. We laughed about the old 7hp Sea King from Monkey Ward's. He said it always got us out there but never got us back. He was right. But we loved fishing Caddo and learned how to clean Hydrilla out of the water intake holes. We both graduated and went to USN Boot in '69.

I remember when we saw our first Skeeter flying across Caddo. It will always be the fastest, most beautiful Bass Boat I ever saw.

I remember easy limits of bass even on terrible post frontal days when we were fishing for the native Northerns. Once those finicky Florida's took over, it turned into a whole nother ballgame. But you're spot on about the quality. Prior to the Floridas going into the power plant lakes like Monticello and Fairfield in the early 70's, my biggest bass was a 5-12 from Livingston.

Growing up in West Texas i enjoyed it more. Looking for ponds and tanks and being able to fish them. Lots of fun. The people that raised me for a few yr=ears got me involved.

IMHO bass fishing tournaments were more fun in the 80's and 90's. Modern technology has removed a bunch of the skill from fishing. Nowadays, anyone with a $65,000 boat with electronics to pinpoint where the fish are can catch a good limit. And it has become a sport where you have to have all that to compete seriously nowadays. It is sad statement about the instant gratification society we live in today. There is no more studying lake maos for contours and putting time in on the water. You can see any lake now on Google Earth at different times of the year to find vegetation and underwater structure.

I miss the days of guys with flash graphs just going out and fishing and seeing what happens based off instincts.

There is less skill involved now more than ever. Most pros don't even pre-fish anymore. They have evolved into driving around all day looking for stuff on their $10,000 worth of electronics and marking waypoints. They then make a long series of miljruns to fish what they found after three days of driving around showing them exactly what lies beneath.

Pandora's box has been openenes and there is no going back to the simple times. Money and instant gratification has driven it to this point.

Oh, I imagine my current fishing partner could raise some eyebrows. How many can remember leaving the Texas side of Toledo Bend headed for Many, La and can't see the Louisana side for all the standing timber. How about running the pipeline in the Jungle on Livingston. Catching a 11-2 on the Big O and the marina staff didn't even want a picture. Earl Golding starting the Texas State Tournament. Joe McDaniels forming the MBAA, now ABA. Winning an open Bass Tournament with 13oz bass because it was the only bass caught. Caught it on a small white spinner bait, on the 5th cast trying to hit a duck. Could go on and on but maybe later.

I would have said ´back then,´ except for Private Water Fishing. With PWF, definitely now.

I started fishing in the late 60's and really got into it in the 70's as a teenager.12' v hull 7 1/2 hp Johnson and a sears 2 speed trolling motor.Purple yellow tail worms,red ambassador 5000 that I was so proud of,Every fish got cleaned.I still love to fish,I like competition so I do fish tournments,I have instilled both in my son.The biggest difference I see today are the folks that get into it because it's the "cool thing to do"buy the biggest and baddest boat with all the bells and whistles and never learn to appreciate the sport,learn manners or good sportsmanship,there are some good ones out there, mabey I'm just an old fart that just doesn't understand the younger generation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOkkcQIDRcdm-f4al4iCcA

Any of you gentlemen remember this guy, Don Dickson. He came to Dallas multiple times but he once loaded the boat at lake Arlington with a sports writer in the boat who then wrote a big article in one of the papers. One of the videos he tells the story. He is a true buck Perry disciple and actually worked for buck for a few decades. His new videos talk about fact based, simple fishing and very curious to hear everyone’s opinion. Just curious if anyone ever caught 37 legal largemouth bass in consecutive casts? Apparently it has been done.

I started fishing for bass with my uncle in the late 40s and he said if I had an A average in school he would get me a fiberglass rod. Never did work that hard in school but I got the rod. He was a river fisherman so that was about all I got to do since my dad didn't fish. Then we started fishing the TVA lakes. Around 1959 I got into driving race cars and the fishing kind of took a back seat until I got busted up in a super modified in 64. When I got out of the hospital I started doing some fishing again and bought my first bass boat a Stury boat and trailer cost $650. Sure was different than prices now I don't remember what the Lowrance Little Green Box cost buy I still have it. Fenwick rods and Lews Speed Sticks were the rods. Sure was different in the old days and I think we caught as many bass.

high fence

Anything is better before it becomes a business I think...

plus 1

It's gotten ​to high tech. Kinda like playing a video game where you watch a fish bite your lure on a screen and just reel it up. Boils down to everyone has got lazy, nobody wants to (or don't know how) to go find and catch fish without​ some high-tech devices showing them where to cast and what color bait to throw.

I remember back in the day bringing fish home ,having a few beers and cooking what you caught. Good times but not politically correct today.

Growing up in West Texas near Abilene, no land owner told a kid "no". I had access to thousands of acres of ponds (tanks) and wore the bass out with my 19 cent H&H Spinners and my Zebco 33. Later, moving up to an inner tube and finally a boat. Many a tournament was fished tieing that expensive boat to a tree and climbing into my tube.
Buck Perry's book changed everything. My first memorable structure catch - I followed a flat out, watching my green box, to 20 ft. with an abrupt 2 ft. drop to 22 ft.; I dropped a jig with a white grub and caught a 5 pounder. I acted like Rocky at the top of the steps holding that bass. I was the only boat on the lake. Next was the topo maps ordered from Colorado. Different sections of Texas, cutting and pasting when necessary and coloring in the lake shorelines. I've still got those maps. I don't enjoy casting to a shoreline. Spawning gets in the way of deeper structure fishing.

There was a state-wide contest in the mid to late 70s where the top ten catches each month in Texas got to fish the championship. A 7.4 in May got me in. That was a bag fish in those days. And my first polygraph; nervous as heck. That year the championship was on Cedar Creek. I nearly killed myself crossing the lake near the dam in horrible waves.

Our club qualified for the TABC Top Six State Tournament in 78 - we got third. Bunch of country boys up against the big city boys on Lake Livingston. First time any on us had been on the lake. We were proud of that one.

Was it better back then? There are too many disrespectful jerks in today's fishing community. Sure there were some then, but nothing like now. Sadly, too many of them are in bass clubs. But when you can get past those, some of the greatest people you would want to know, fish.

Like many older bassmasters responding here, I remember ever fish I ever caught and on what bait.