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Today's Good Old Days for California Anglers

© Louis Bignami

These are the "good old days" for today's younger anglers. Looking back at over 60 years of fishing - I can remember my father walking to work at the University of California so we'd have gas for out annual trip to Kennedy Meadows on the Stanislaus River -- things have changed. Some have improved. We can now keep sturgeon and there are dozens of new reservoirs providing bass and more. Access is infinitely easier. Sixty years ago bass were barely considered a game fish and offshore fishing was in a rather primitive state.

TECHNOLOGY REPLACING TECHNIQUES?

Clearly fishing is far easier now than then. Then, outboards were new enough so that several marinas would rent rowboats and tow anglers out to the action until the evening pickup. Now specialized craft from Boston Whalers, bass boats and even float tubes hit the water.

Information, such as these columns is far more widely available and has, in some cases like the Smith or Sacramento Rivers during salmon and steelhead runs, mobbed out the water. Topographic maps were often out of date and depth finders, GPS units and sonar were far off.

Getting there is a lot easier, with Eisenhower-era freeways to cut transit time. Kennedy Meadows used to be eight hours from Berkeley. Now it's four or so.

Leaders were gut and had to be soaked. Spinning gear was a French delusion as were plastic worms, monofilament land numerically designated fly lines, plastic plugs and most of the other gear in tackle boxes and vests. Cranking linen line, and fly lines onto line driers was standard and bass boats were far in the future. Then a trolling rig, HCH fly rod and a surf stick handled most options. Now fly rods form forests in tackle closets and untralight tackle has opened up new delights in fresh and saltwater.

One thing has remained. California offers a wonderful variety of fish species, and a great assortment of scenic fishing venues for those who take the time to apply decent tackle and techniques without what Frenchy, one of the best bait fishers for trout I've ever met, called "pigging out." With trout limits of 15 fish and most in the foot to fourteen inch range, Frenchy always caught six fish to feed his wife and four children. This in contrast to the usual pattern of daily limits.

Then "catch and release" wasn't widely practiced; today it's a must for most of the impacted species. Of course, catch and release should not be used as a justification to catch far more fish than survival percentages on release justifies.

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