Old School Fishing Reel Made Again
ST. CROIX FALLS - Some anglers like to offer fish something new.
In principle, Mike Yurk of Hudson agrees with that line-fishing strategy.
Just he takes information technology to the other extreme.
"Look at that," said Yurk, 68, as a largemouth bass shook on the cease of his line. "Quondam time tackle strikes once again!"
RELATED:Wisconsin warden shortage and changes in responsibilities raise concerns
Yurk worked the 14-inch bass to the side of the boat, flicked the hook out of its rima oris and watched information technology swim off.
The lure was a Heddon Cisco Kid, a jointed creepo bait fabricated in about 1960. The Mitchell 304 spinning reel and Gamefisher series fiberglass rod made past Sears, Roebuck and Co. used to cast the lure were well-nigh the same historic period.
The bass that struck was spawned in 2014 or then. Fifty-fifty its neat-bang-up-bully-peachy-great grandparents had likely never seen a 1960-era Cisco Child in this lake.
"All the same works like a charm," Yurk said as he made another cast.
I joined Yurk on Tuesday on Deer Lake for one of the "retro angling trips" he plans each year.
In keeping with the theme, we used tackle fabricated in the 1950s and '60s.
I as well tossed a Cisco Kid to start the twenty-four hours, but used a Ryobi Five-Mag baitcasting reel and Heddon Pal tubular steel rod.
It was part celebration of fishing history, part personal trip downwardly memory lane.
In no respect was it a sacrifice of angling efficiency.
After Yurk continued on the third cast of the solar day, we doubled up on bass two casts later. Later 30 minutes, we had landed 12.
It was no wonder. The crankbait was older than me, but it had a seductive wobbling action to rival any modern lure.
Why would you ever purchase a new allurement if you had a box full of these?
"The manufacturers have to keep irresolute and making new things to go on their sales going," Yurk said. "I purchase new stuff, too, but it'southward not because the onetime stuff stopped working."
Yurk developed a love for line-fishing during his youth in central Wisconsin.
He'd go into sporting goods stores in Oshkosh and await at the various lures and other tackle, most beyond his budget, and dream almost the day he could fish with them.
When he was confirmed at church, he remembers spending the money he received in gifts to buy a Mitchell 300 spinning reel and fiberglass rod.
Now that, my friends, is coin well spent.
Yurk said he's had a soft spot for angling tackle of the 1950s and '60s, the stuff that was on the shelves when he was a kid, ever since.
Yurk entered the U.Due south. Ground forces after college and served for 22 years at bases around the state and abroad.
His stations included southern states that are noted for infrequent largemouth bass fishing.
When he retired at the rank of major in 1995, he settled in Hudson with his wife Becky, a.one thousand.a. the "Bass Queen."
One of the offset things he learned was the bass line-fishing in northwestern Wisconsin was better than anywhere he had been stationed in the Ground forces.
Shortly after getting re-established in Wisconsin, Yurk began visiting antique shops and buying erstwhile line-fishing tackle.
His original Mitchell 300 had been stolen many years ago. Now, as an adult with an "allowance" courtesy of Uncle Sam, he bought a handful of rod and reel outfits, including Mitchells, too as lures and other tackle.
In recent years, he'due south planned at least one "retro" day a yr.
"I enjoy just looking at these things," Yurk said, opening a wooden tackle box. "Just information technology'due south possibly even more fun to use them."
Yurk too broke out a harbinger hat with a green, plastic insert on the front brim for the outing. Information technology's the type of hat he remembers his male parent and others of the previous generation wearing when they fished on Lake Winnebago and the Wolf River.
The Cisco Kids we used were fitted with the original treble hooks. Whatever steel they used in to brand the lures in 1960 sure kept an edge. If I've encountered a sharper claw, I don't remember information technology.
We spent most of our time casting toward shoreline structure and retrieving the baits around weed clumps. The fish ambushed the lures with carelessness.
After lunch, we fished forth the deep border of the weedline in 12 to 15 feet of water.
We defenseless more often than not largemouth, but also a few xanthous perch, bluegill and stone bass.
Deer Lake has an abundant largemouth population. At that place is no minimum-size limit, simply all bass from 14 to xviii inches in length must be released.
I kept some of the thirteen-inchers we caught for a futurity meal. I've come to look forrad to angling outings on Wisconsin lakes where regulations encourage harvest of a few largemouth.
Not simply is it benign to the fish customs, they are excellent table fare.
We varied the lures throughout the afternoon, including a Heddon Sonic circa 1955, and caught fish with them all.
The biggest difference from nigh modern tackle was in the rods. I used both the tubular steel rod and later a fiberglass rod; both were far more than limber than the graphite models I typically fish with.
"It's just a different type of hook set up," Yurk said, smile as he landed a chunky 13-inch bass.
We ended the day in mid-afternoon after catching well-nigh 45 fish in five hours.
The experience showed former tin can be new, besides.
And on this twenty-four hours, different was as fun, productive and interesting as modern could e'er exist.
Source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/columnists/paul-smith/2018/07/14/retro-outing-proves-fishing-fun-and-gear-timeless/773450002/
Post a Comment for "Old School Fishing Reel Made Again"