Hula poppers jitterbugs and bushwackers rib worms mister twister worms Mann’s jelly worms Johnson minnow with and without the wing thing gold Redfin rapala’s

I caught a lot of fish on the old H&H baits and tiny torpedoes. I could not afford the more expensive 2 dollar lures very often. The original Zebco 33s were my reels of choice.

Zebco 33 on Lews speed stick 5’6” the ole pistol grip

I've had a lot of good times on the water, on several lakes. But I would love to have 1 more chance, to experience fishing a lake like Toledo Bend in the 70's, and Sam Rayburn in the mid 90's. I've never been to Fork, but from what I understand, it was great in the late 80' thru the mid 90's.

1970"s GPS Unit

Skeeter hawk in the trees, I think tpw should find the funding to take a bad dead lake like bardwell and drain it replace the timber, brush fill it and stock it make a Great Lake again

You ain’t fishing Bardwell the right way. It is still a very good bass lake. The lake has hundreds of brush piles. But......You’ll need a fancy, new fangled device called “side scan“ to find them. Or a hundred years of counting down grubs till ya lose a hook. Haha.

It's still the one - and in the only color you need.

Still fishing with the Zero Hour Bomb Company Product on a pistol grip.

That’s just an example, I have not fished it for years, Navarro mills then, kill all the trash fish add brush refill and stock, they should be a new refurbished lake opening every five yrs, or just block off a creek arm kill all the fish stock trees and new fish, old lakes suck, and their full of rough trash fish

Devil’s horse great bait especially for dead sticking 1 to 5 minutes but I thought it was a smithwick lure?

4 inch Cotton Cordell Redfin in gold pattern Also

Go during the middle of the week to Fork. Kept a roll of quarters in my truck at all times! Why you ask? So I could call in sick from the pay phone at Lake Fork Marina. We couldnt call in sick until after 6am at my old job!!! LOL

I used to call in with the bubonic plague on fridays am to make 3 day fishin weekends

I would almost never use a sick day for actually being sick.

Fishing fever for sure.

I remember a 14 ft flat bottom aluminum, 9.9 Johnson, paddle, concrete anchor and a window sash weight on a knotted cord for the depth finder. Baits were pretty simple - two or three hook rigged Creme worm with a spinner, Devils Horse, Pico Perch (white with red head), Hula Popper, H&H spinnerbait, trolling Hellbenders and Bombers, Jitterbugs, hair jigs with pork and for schooling fish a topwater bait with a leader on the rear pulling a Goin' Jesse, which was a small shad imitator not many have heard of. In 1962 the World's Fair was held in Seattle and my grandparents brought us all back a couple of the original Rapala 2 1/2 - 3" minnows. They were like magic. So much so that the lips were breaking off from catching so many and my mother would carve a new one out of a plastic pill bottle at night and glue it in with epoxy so we could catch them again the next day.

True Temper glass rod, Zebco 202 and 404 with cheap mono (only mono). It wasn't until '64-65 that we caught on to TX rigging but worms were hard to find so an uncle would buy ice cube sized chunks of plastic in purple, blue and red along with a Creme style mold and have us kids pour for all of us. Probably where some of my sinus issues arise. Fliptail worms and lizards showed up about that time also.

Most of this took place on the Pines in Johnson and Alley creeks. For a 7-8 year old kid it was like heaven.

Sweet memories!