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.