Unlike my picture taken in 1994 that accompanies my Griffin Daily News article, I have aged a lot in the past 30 years.  I have also seen many changes in fishing, especially bass fishing, during my life.  Some I like, some others like but I don’t appreciate.  To each his own, I guess.

    I think the most important change in bass fishing is the development of the electric trolling motor.  I will never forget the fun I had sculling an old wooden jon boat for my uncles.  Back then one person sat up front and fished while the other in the back used a paddle to move and position the boat for casting.

    That back seat job often went to us kids. We learned a lot watching and listening, but it was frustrating, too.  Sometimes we got to make a few casts, with the adult taking over the paddling, but usually it was expected our turn fishing would come when we were adults.  We were not spoiled like kids nowadays.

    Sometimes we tried fishing by ourselves and sculling from the front. It worked pretty well, but it meant positioning the boat, putting the paddle down, picking up your rod and reel and trying to get a cast in before the wind or waves moved the boat out of position.

    Now with the touch of a button and rock of the foot you keep the boat in position perfectly, freeing your hands to cast at all times. Newer trolling motors even allow you to push a button and the trolling motor will hold you in one place, allowing you to move around the boat to fish or sit and tie on a new lure without worrying about where the boat will go.

    My first ‘depthfinder” was a heavy cord with a used spark plug on the end. Knots were tied every foot, and every yard a double knot marked it.  I even used freezer tape to put a numbered tag every yard to keep up with how much string was out.

    My newest “depthfinder,” a Garmin Panoptix Livescope, shows everything in front of the boat out to 100 feet in detail, even showing fish as they move in the water.  With a little practice I have learned to identify the kind of fish I am seeing and make a pretty good guess if they will bite. Most of the time.

    The Panoptix cost a bit more than a ball of cord and spark plug weight.  A paddle is a little cheaper than a spot-lock 36 volt trolling motor.

    Fishing line is another huge improvement.  I will never forget Edgar Reeves, Mr. John Harry’s son who was 15 years older than me, taking me with him to Clarks Hill in May. I mostly skulled his boat while he cast a Devil’s Horse topwater plug to flooded button bushes and sweet gum trees.

    He told me I could cast some but when I picked up my Mitchell 300 spinning reel loaded with monofilament line, he said it would not work with topwater. The new-fangled line was not any good compared to his braided line.

    He was right in a way.  Monofilament has improved a lot over the past 60 years since my trip with Edgar. It is much thinner, stronger and limper than the old stuff.  But I use much more fluorocarbon line when fishing since it is not visible underwater and does not stretch as much.

    Unlike monofilament, fluorocarbon sinks so it is not suitable for topwater baits.  But I seldom use mono for topwater, new kinds of braid, very similar to what Edgar used, are now the best line for topwater most of the time.  What goes around comes around!

    Spinning reels were introduced to eliminate the problems with bait casters. The first bait caster I tried to use had no free spool, the handle revolved backwards when you cast. It was called a “knucklebuster” for a very good reason.

And there was no level wind, you had to move the line with your reel holding hand thumb across the reel spool as you reeled in to keep it even.  And there was no drag system.

Spinning reels had problems of their own, from loops forming when you cast that made a mess on the next cast to line slipping under the spool and jamming.  But they were much easier to use.

Then spincast reels, also called closed face reels, were developed to make casting even easier but the first ones jammed way too often, and dirt and debris collected inside the closed face.  New ones are much better.

I fell in love with bass tournament fishing the first time Jim Berry took me to a Sportsman Club tournament in 1974.  I still fish three club tournaments each month.  But the intensity of many young fishermen, “grinding” it out and not having fun but turning it into work while fishing, worries me.  There are hundreds of other great developments in fishing. I hope I am around to witness a few more!