Corpusfishing.com

[Nematocyst]

I've always been interesting in how fishing strategies (tackle, techniques, lures, knowledge etc.) change over time and evolve.

Most of all I'm interesting in tackle/lures and techniques and I actually want to try some of these things out sometime to make an interesting old school fishing video.

I'm sure some of you guys have a lot of knowledge and stories to share. Thanks.

[cephus]

To start off with, you might explore how the old timers found the spots off shore that held fish without the electronics and GPS today. Those guys were hard core!
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Off Shore Port Mansfield

[chapcat54]

I grew up in CC back in the 60's and 70's. I did not have access to a boat back then, but I did a lot of bank, pier and wade fishing. Live shrimp under a popping cork was always my number one choice back then for inshore fishing, but when I waded places like Dead Mans Hole, I would often use a Johnson Sprite or Silver Minnow spoon. Double jig Speck Rigs were really popular for trout under the lights at night from piers. If memory serves, plastic shrimp tails were just starting to get popular back then. My go to rod was a 7' med action, same as now, with a Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning reel, ubiquitous back then. Bait casters have made huge leaps in quality over the years. Most everyone I knew back then also owned a Penn No 9, 109 or 209 level wind reel it seemed, or a Jigmaster, Squidder or Senator for the surf. Fishing lines back then left much to be desired compared to whats available today, but we still caught many a fish.

[CopanoCruisin]

Grew up back in the 60s in Ingleside. I can remember riding my 20" bicycle w/ banana seat often about 2/3 mile to North Shore Marina area and always fished with dead shrimp. Always caught redfish, at least 5,6 or 7 although the they were mostly only around 14/15". We never filet them back then. My grandmother and myself ate them fairly often. The last few years in highschool my running buddy Kenny Davis got a 14' Jon boat w/5 hp Sears motor. We alway run up and down the LaQuintal channel and continued to catch about the same size redfishish all the time. Life was pretty simple back then. Life is great now, although I sure always miss them good ol times. Thanks for the opportunity to take time and flash back!...........Ooops, I might have went back a bit more than 30/40 years, oh well.........cC

[Gotta Catchem All]

That's a great idea, make sure to hit the thrift store for a bucket hat.
I know my dad would always swim across channels since there were no kayaks, but that might be risky to film haha

[awesum]

We used a lot of Humps and Bingos

[Bigrock]

[willfish]

You will be spellbound to read "Plugger" by Rudy Grigar. Over the decades fishing the Texas coast, as well as in Louisiana and northern Mexico, he caught over a million lbs. of trout and redfish--on lures, often at night. As a history of the fishery, and his information on lures, the entrance of outboard motors into the picture, the growth of recreational and commercial fisheries over six decades, there is nothing like it.

[Curlew0412]

Biggest difference was boats and motors. We used a 12 foot flat bottom aluminum boat with a 5 HP Sea King motor from Montgomery Wards and could fish all day without another boat within a mile of us. Used Mitchell 300s and Ambassador 5000s reels. Mostly Johnson Sprite spoons in the bay. Packery Channel was open in the late 60s and fished the surf there with Bingos and Kastmaster spoons. During that period, you could always catch good fish along Packery under any conditions.

[Johninaustin]

30 years ago I was in my 30's.

50 years ago I would go wade fishing with my Grandfather along the causeway. the channels along the sides were deeper then, we caught croaker and reds mostly using dead shrimp. I used a Penn #9 on a 6' boat rod loaded with dacron line.

I remember the golden croaker runs. We would bring back coolers full. Reds and drum were always small, 18" was considered a monster. if you caught a trout it was by accident.

That was mainly because back then the lagoon was full of trotlines and gill netters. Everybody in the Bluff was a commercial fisherman.

[ironmanstan]

50 years ago I was ten and was fishing the rivers, resacas, canals, lower lagoon and surf as I grew up in the Valley. Started off with a handline. I was always catching Channel cats, carp, and a Gaspergoo when I was lucky. My first Redfish was caught on a handline near Rio Hondo. Croakers were easy off the jetties. Fast forwarding from the past to 30 years ago when we settled in the Bluff I was lucky to get to know all the commercial fishermen in the area a bunch of good guys they were. Yes you always a bad apple in the bunch that gives everyone a black eye. I still fish the same way except I use a rod and reel and I fish mostly lures every now and then maybe some live bait. I use no electronics except my cell phone and my wife makes me carry that. She also doesn't like me fishing alone anymore so I always need to take someone. I prefer someone with a good sense of humor. I also think that posting my reports here on Tyler's site is about as advanced as I will get before my fishing days are over. I'm not a guy with his chest poked way out and don't wear 80 dollar fishing shirts. However I'm a guy with a lot of knowledge about alot of things and I don't plan on taking it all to the grave I want to leave it all here with others. But thats not the question, the question was what was fishing like many moons ago. It was honest, fishing was honest, that's how fishing was years ago. You could leave your gear in your boat or your truck. Catching more or bigger fish than anyone one else does not make you a good fisherman. I know blah , blah, blah.........I could write a book but I hate typing, I get in too much of a hurry. IMS
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I LIKE MINE FRIED.

[lifeaquatic]

Fifty years ago sounds like a long, long time ago.

Rods were predominately made out of fiberglass. A material that many good rods were built from even in the 1950s and still used today. Graphite made the scene in the 1970s being introduced by Fenwick and revolutionized the fishing world. Reels have continued to evolve with advances in technology. Through years of advancement, today we have lightweight, sensitive, and specialized equipment that can fit just about any need. As for lures, the invention of the plastic worm was a big turning point.

My life started with a Zebco 202 in the 60s. I was born in Colorado and lived in a small town between Denver and Boulder. There was a city pond in the middle of town that had catfish, sunfish and muskrats. It was heaven. We would ice skate there in the winter and I couldn't wait for it thaw. A creek flowed downstream full of leopard frogs, garter snakes, and crawdads. If I wasn't fishing with a red and white bobber, split shot and Eagle Claw hook held together with a very poorly tied knot, I was downstream hunting for whatever moved in the grass or water bringing it home not telling my mom what I had in the box. That Zebco could cast a good twenty feet maybe more depending on how much weight was at the end of the line. Thanks to my Dad, Great Uncle and Uncle, fishing became a part of my life.

[drum head]

1960's get out of school, get a pint of shrimp with my penn #9 and Berkley rod, go to Portland reef. Great times great fishing.

[BBIBN]

50's and early 60's

"Lures" Humps, Bingos, Spoons, Mirror Lures and Speck Rigs.

No Yets or Igloos, we used a #5 washtub.

[BBIBN]

A pound of dead bait (shrimp) came rolled up in a sheet or two of the local news print. No plastic, no ziploc.