Flashback Fishing Challenge

 The other day I was in my fishing room doing some long overdue organizing, cleaning and general “fish futzing”. As I was going through my rod rack, I came across a couple old rods I built myself back in the mid 80’s. One was a six-foot medium action spinning rod and the other was a 5’ 8” spinning rod that I used to jig up more Missouri River walleyes than I could possibly remember. It got me thinking … why did I ever stop fishing with these? The six-footer was rigged with an old reliable Cardinal 4 while the jigging rod sported the Cardinal 3. I owned and relied on several Cardinal reels back in the day, and as I checked these reels out, both were still as smooth as ever.

I also pulled out my first baitcasting rod and reel, a custom Boron rod my dad had made for me for my high school graduation with a classic ABU Garcia Ambassador 5000 my mom had bought me to go on that rod. I had retired the combo in the summer of 1987 after I used it to catch my first trophy walleye (an 8-pound chunk) casting a perch colored #7 Shad Rap along a weed edge in one of my old honey holes. The memories these fishing items brought back gave me a goal for this upcoming season; to spend at least a few fishing trips using nothing but gear I haven’t used in over 30 years.

The more I thought about it I figured why limit it to just using old rods and reels? I have got a ton of old lures that haven’t been wet in over 30 years either.

As I started digging through some of the old tackle boxes on my storage shelf and found some real gems like my old Smithwick Rogues (the “pre-PRADCO ones) that used to be my favorite jerk bait for spring smallmouth. I found some original Storm Thin Fins and Flat Warts, several original Rapala Floating Minnows (which catch just about everything that swims) and a few old balsa Shad Raps.
I discovered (or maybe I should say “rediscovered) a Rebel Wee Frog, a couple Moss Boss slop spoons and a handful of Johnson Silver Minnows. Then I found a box of old topwater baits that included a frog pattern jointed Jitter Bug, a couple Tiny Torpedo’s and my old Devil Horse lures. I also came across a few old inline spinners, mostly Mepps and Vibrax, that were my go-tos when nothing else would get bit.

Bottom line is I had a pretty solid arsenal of proven fish catchers picked out and I couldn’t be more excited to give them their opportunity to fool some bass this coming season. Time had taken its toll on a few of them, with hooks and hardware showing some rust and finishes that could use some attention, but I always have a good selection of replacement split rings and hooks on hand and after an afternoon of refurbishing these lures, I am sure they will be ready to get the job done.

The rods and reels too would take some effort to get cleaned up, lubricated and respooled but that’s all stuff I do for all my gear before the season so adding a few more combos to the list isn’t going to be an issue. This won’t be a huge task as I have always been pretty serious about taking care of my tackle, so everything is in pretty solid condition.

This entire idea has me so pumped to get back on the water (like I need another reason to want spring to get here) so I can try these “well-seasoned” tools on the current crop of fish. I’ll certainly report my successes as well as my failures, but I have a feeling that even the failures will be fun days on the water …  like spending time on the water with old friends.

Now if it would just quit snowing ….