Before you had a boxful of baits..............

[doubleheader]

The post yesterday about losing baits and Lew's comment on Pikie Minnows got me thinking about my own tackle as a kid. It was pretty limited, but when I was about 10 (1962) I was a pike assassin on the Nip and I carried out my dirty work with only two lures, a red/white daredevil and a small green Creek Chub Minnow. It was nothing to catch 20-30 hammer handles a day, but it was a blast for a 10 year old on spinning tackle. I bought the Pikie Minnow at Lakair, where between fishing trips, I was prone to hang out, ice cream cone in hand, checking out the various lures and assorted fishing gear that were displayed on the wall. Dad was a walleye and musky fisherman, but while he trolled for musky I trolled for pike. Somebody had to. The west arm was a little different then, Deer Bay was absolutely loaded with pike. Mind you a good one was only 20", but I was more into quantity. It was at the mouth of Deer bay where the water drops to over 20 feet that Dad slammed the biggest fish I ever saw, and have ever seen to this day, but that's a whole other story. We would head east to the Muskrats or down to Merganser when the forecast allowed. My job was to sit up front and look for rocks, a job at which I was only mildly successful. Even down there we fished it a little different than today as we would head back into the bays rather than out in the main channel. Those were great days for a kid.

[lew]

The west arm was a little different then, Deer Bay was absolutely loaded with pike. Mind you a good one was only 20",

 

Your making me homesick with that tale Fred, but not much has changed with the dink pike

 

[wallyboss]

Oh to go back to my childhood tackle box( pockets of my jean jacket) with 3-4 different size red devils. That's all I needed back then. Why do I need 2-3 tackle boxes full now?

[aplumma]

Good memories for sure. I fished in a farm pond with a mepps spinner and a few flies that I had a heck of a time throwing out on my zebco rod and reel. The bluegills were always hungry and either my hands were smaller or they were really big fish. A can of bread dough and a pencil thin bobber was the ticket if the bite was slow.

 

 

Art

[Gnote]

For me it was rapalas, i would save my money and go down to the hardware store to grab one once i had enough. Just standing there for 10 minutes wringing my hands over which colour.

I lived on a river that had a dominant smallmouth population with a mix of everything else and rapalas could catch almost anything. To this day my pb smallmouth at 5 1/2 pounds came from that river on a rapala when i was about 12.

[manitoubass2]

I didnt even know what a rapala was as a child. All I ever fished was a spinner with a minnow and trolled. Caught tons of fish too!

 

When my grandpa passed, my dad found his tackle box and thought id like to have it. Of course I want it!!!! Open it up, had some bug dope in it thats was highly suspect, some weights and about a 100 hooks lol. Ah well its still cool to have?

[porkpie]

Jig and grub, mepps black fury and a Cordell big O in my teenage years.

[outllaw]

in the day it was a k-40 flatfish st clair rigged. a pikie striper minnow or a live perch under a float. then a hammer to thunk them. .. walleyes were the june bug spinner awesome lure tipped with worm.. mason line blk. and we called the new stuff catgut before monofilament. .

[OhioFisherman]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unused-Vintage-Heddon-Wood-Strawberry-Vamp-Lure-on-Checkered-Card-/231457167436?nma=true&si=CinTz6xAZQ2hwMeveUG1P4cVooc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

I caught a lot of fish up north on those, not a color scheme I would normally buy,but they worked!

[Beavertail]

Doubleheader, thanks for the great read. I always enjoy stories about the past and simpler times. For me growing up, it was a little, single tray Old Pal tackle box with a handful of lures(which were purchased at either the local Highway Market or Dutch Boy for those of you that remember Kitchener back in the 80's). Most of my time was spent fishing the Grand for Smallies and a #2 gold Mepps Aglia was hard to beat...that or we'd wade the shallows flipping rocks looking for crayfish(which was almost as fun as the fishing)to bottom bounce with, soft shells were like gold!

[Joey]

When I was a kid when we lived in Flin Flon, mom and dad used to take us up to a lake and we'd put out some kernel corn on a hook, using the pocket fisherman, and other times it was always just the Red Devil Good memories

Edited February 17, 2015 by Joey

[Acountdeleted]

Worms on a hook. Still the best thing you can throw into the lake.

 

My favourite (see only) lure was a crayfish coloured Big-O. I remember if I ever lost that lure on the rocks or heavy weeds it would bring me to years.

 

On the rare occasion my dad would tie one of his top water rapalas on to my line and we would go for bass up the river. Good times.

[bigugli]

As a Muskoka brat, we only had 3 or 4 go to lures ouside of live bait.

Eppinger Daredevle

Jitterbug frog

Black Fury mepps

Broken back blue Rebel minnow

Rebel diving crawfish

[wormdunker]

In the early 60's all we ever used in Buckhorn were the original floating rapala - gold & black or the black & silver! We caught more than our share of walleye with them & nothing else. I still have several of these beauties today but haven't used them in many years. This past spring I met up with an older fella (82 yrs) who has been fishing this particular lake west of Sudbury for 50 years! Do ya think he might know some honey holes? I went to the dock one day to view his boat. The only lure he used was an original rapala -black & gold. Oh & he still had 3 original Mitchell 300 reels! That's all he used! Every evening he'd come in from fishing with a nice catch of walleye! A large group of other campers would gather at his every afternoon to listen to him talk of the good ole days! Myself included! Today all I use on Erie for monster walleye is various colors of worm harnesses.

[DRIFTER_016]

This lure in yellow was a staple when I started fishing.

Caught so many fish on it back in the day.

Maybe I should try tossing them again.

 

Of course the Mepps Black Fury was heavily used then. It's still a really good lure for the whitefish up here in Yellowknife.

[manitoubass2]

I still use beetle spins.

 

They definitely produce but I only really use them during the mayfly hatch

Edited February 17, 2015 by manitoubass2