"In The Old Days"

Back in the late 50's and early 60's my dad used to fish Lake Wylie (Seven Oaks). He would use a Cat's Paw Hook (a leader hook with a spinner and several beads). Then he would use Uncle Josh Pork Bass Strips (white). He then cut the strips into smaller strips and then shred one end into many little legs and attach it to the hook. He would then start trolling in the back of the creek and troll this rig to the mouth of the creek. He sure caught a lot of crappie using this method, enough to feed his wife and four boys and some of his neighbors. His set up for this was a spin cast reel on a five foot rod. He had a 5 hp. Johnson on a rented wooden boat. That's one way it was done in the "Old Days". Now I have better understand of the saying, "It was simple and good back then."

It was simpler and we caught a lot of crappie years ago. Back in the 70s I had two older gentlemen that took me fishing almost every Sunday afternoon. We fished out of one of the guy's 14 foot jon boat with a 3 hp johnson outboard. No trolling motor, just paddles. We fished with three cane poles, corks and minnows in laps or tree tops. We caught a lot of very large crappie. Probably more than I do today in my $20K boat, 10 poles at $100 each, two $750 fishfinders and $1000 in lures. lol. Makes me want to go buy some minnows and corks.

My dad and mom worked in the Cotton Mills when I was growing up and there were 4 of us boys. We didn't have much in the way of luxury toys or playthings. But one Christmas Santa brought 4 brand new rods and reels and left them under the tree. (My dad had an Abu Garcia 170 Spin Cast that he fished with.) Under the tree there were 2 just like dad's and 2 Zebco 33s. My youngest brother upon seeing them said, "I want one just like daddy's". My dad said, "no the oldest picks first and so on down the line". I am the oldest, and I saw that my brother next oldest to me had already touched one of the ones like dad's so I took one of the Zebco 33s. It worked out that the youngest and the next oldest got the ones they wanted. Just to have a rod and reel of my own, Wow How Cool Was That?! One of the greatest Christmases ever.
Then dad showed us how to tie on a jig and cork and then took us that day to the Allen Plant Hot Hole to fish. Every one of us caught fish on Christmas Day and needless to say our Dad Hooked Us on Fishing for Life.

That is a super cool memory. Cherish it.

I remember tossing small pieces of bread over a submerged net, wait till several minnows(misquitofish) were swarmed around and snatching it up. We would get several dozen in our bucket then start dropping them under a cork w small split shot. Using a cane pole we would drop it in/around bushes from bank. Those were 1-1.5 acre ponds around grandparents place.


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Caught my first fish in my grandfathers pond. My grandmother found a long tree limb and tied on some line and a hook. Then of all things she put on a cheese puff. I caught a big bass on it and my grandfather got mad because he said it was his brood fish or something like that. Either way I was hooked on fishing at a very early age.


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