Friday night topic …..that cost me a buck or two.

Thinking back to when I was a kid makes me wonder. At what point did I think I needed to move on from a Zebco 33 Classic and start collecting expensive rods and reels? With the exception of the drag (which isn’t horrible) that thing worked just fine for many many years. Same with lures. Simple Daredevil spoons and Mepps spinners will put tons of fish in a boat in addition to a basic bobber set-up.

Now, thinking about all the tackle & rods & reels and money spent gives me a headache.

Speaking of basics….. the boat will be sporting a 20′ cane pole again this summer. Some things never get old for me.

Some things are full circle.

The cane pole (old mans finger) as the grandson calls it is the highlite of spring crappie fishing.
I have an old dead fall off shore where we toss that cane pole with a small plastic under it. NON stop action.

I remember as a kid saving up to buy a Mepps… they were the best artificial, especially the bucktail version. I still have a few (and some Roostertails) that I throw when I fish small streams and rivers from shore

My girlfriend had an old uglystick with a zebco that was just cursed to catch fish. We were at red lake once when it was way to windy to go out so we fished off the dock by the launch. She caught more fish than anyone and she had to hand strip the line out of the reel ever time. We crushed the walleyes and it was in the fall. Really weird

Not sure but I think any mechanism which allows you to wind and store/manage line quickly and conveniently will be better than wrapping it around a rock or piece of driftwood. Zebco was definitely next on the evolutionary timetable, but I’ll gladly spend a few bucks for a nicer reel

P.s.: ugly stiks catch fish too. No need to discriminate.

I can remember as a kid my Dad would get out our 15 foot cane poles and tie them to the door handles of our 59 Chevy and off we would go to do some bank fishing at a small river not too far from our home.

I remember fishing as a kid with a small tackle box and 1 fishing rod. That 1 rod had to do everything and all species. Dad didn’t have a boat so it was all shore fishing or going with friends/family that had a boat. Now when it comes to rod selection it’s what species and what technique to determine setups and how many rods can we fit in the boat just in case. All the new fancy stuff is great but when I look back some of my best memories are of the simpler times in my friends 14’ duck boat with no electronics or clue what we were doing besides just fishing.

cane poles……. talk about memories. went to canada with a bunch of guys, not sure what lake was our official designation at the time but a guy convincec the group an over night stop at a lake just across the border in Ontario with big pike.
so here i am with my boat and 4 long azz cane poles sticking out the back……..talk about embarrassing at the border!!!!! we did get the 4 biggest pike that day with the ole cane pole and 5 of diamonds.

but there was no fight……..just lift the cane pole up and flopped the fish in the boat.

Dutchboy wrote:

Speaking of basics….. the boat will be sporting a 20′ cane pole again this summer. Some things never get old for me.

Never done that sounds fun!

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
Speaking of basics….. the boat will be sporting a 20′ cane pole again this summer. Some things never get old for me.

Never done that sounds fun!

Easy fishing. Runs the lure away from the boat but not that far back. The fun & challenge becomes maneuvering the fish into the net. I promise you that you will get strange looks because you rarely see Cane poles anymore since the late 60’s early 70’s. There are still a few of us doing it but not many.

Dad and us boys each had 2-3 of those Zebcos. I finally bought a spinning reel around 15-16 years old and Dad judged me up and down. He let me know he could cast twice as far and just how silly that reel was. My first day using it of course it had some pretty curly factory mono and I got one of the worst tangles. He caught multiple fish while I was trying to undo the spaghetti junction I’d created. He didn’t say anything but I could feel him watching and staring. I finally put the new rod n reel aside and went back to the Zebco. He mumbled something about me coming to my senses…..

My dad said they used to fish them and when the fish hit and were hooked they just threw the pole in the water and circled back to get it.

CaptainMusky wrote:

My dad said they used to fish them and when the fish hit and were hooked they just threw the pole in the water and circled back to get it.

Thats a wives tail. With the dacron you will never break off if you are using a leader. Maybe way back when they were rowing and the Pike were bigger they might have. But I’ve never in my life seen it. You’ve caught enough Pike. Don’t you think if there was line slack from throwing the pole in the water the Pike wouldn’t shake the hook?

not really dutchy……that trip i explained earlier….i fish was landed in that manner…..had i not been there i wouldnt of believed it either!!!

When guys double up big fish offshore they’ll tie a buoy to one rod and just throw it out and circle back. We did the same on a tarpon trip…fish took us through a bridge piling so we tied of the rod and picked it up on the other side. We didn’t land the fish but it still on when we got to the buoy.

I started out in the 60’s with a recurve bow. Then the compounded bow came out in early 70’s and as new tech came out I kept going more and more high tech, and faster and faster bows. Till one day my string broke when taking a shot at a nice buck. After that I went back to instinctive shooting recurve and long bows.

But I’m not ready to go back to Zebco 33’s.

glenn57 wrote:

not really dutchy……that trip i explained earlier….i fish was landed in that manner…..had i not been there i wouldnt of believed it either!!!

I did it as a kid. A couple of still days of hot Aug. weather would get Tullibees dying off. Then north winds pushed them down to the south end. I had saved up fish cleaning $$ and had a big old spoon. Rather than try to use a Mitchell 300 spinning reel or my old man’s Johnson Century Grandad used his canepole. Sometimes he wound the line up around the tip. Some times he just pitched the pole and his grandsons had to bend into the oars.
Used a .32 revolver as a net.

I’m thinking the DNR might have some sort of regulation against using guns today. But maybe not, who knows. If you can net, you can shoot I suppose.

This reminds me an eating PBJ sandwiches as a kid and thinking what could be better.
Sorry but a steak dinner is better than a PB&J sandwich.

Ripjiggen wrote:

This reminds me an eating PBJ sandwiches as a kid and thinking what could be better.
Sorry but a steak dinner is better than a PB&J sandwich.

I don’t know…there isn’t much better than a good PBJ. White bread, a quarter inch of peanut butter (Jif Creamy), and some really sugary strawberry jelly is about as good as it gets. If it sticks to the roof of your mouth you’ve done it right.

Exactly just like a Zebco and daredevil. Guess what there is more to life as well. I don’t regret eating a steak either and thinking man I should have just bought a jar of peanut butter and loaf of bread. Some days sure. Most days I’m glad I picked a steak and it’s never given me a headache.

Dutchboy wrote:

Thats a wives tail. With the dacron you will never break off if you are using a leader. Maybe way back when they were rowing and the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Pike were bigger they might have. But I’ve never in my life seen it. You’ve caught enough Pike. Don’t you think if there was line slack from throwing the pole in the water the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>Pike wouldn’t shake the hook?

Nope he swears by it and he is t one to lie or stretch the truth about anything honestly. Not sure where I got the exaggeration from must be my mother may she RIP. I doubt they had Dacron because they couldn’t afford it. He knocked his front teeth out chasing his buddy through a house that was under construction and it had a 2×4 across the doorway. His buddy was short. Since he was 6’8″ he got it full bore. My grandma told me all about his teeth hanging there for 2 days. He never did. Lots of fun stories from the farm I guess… Don’t let me tell you the story about when grandpa told him to throw him a hammer.

I heard many stories of using big Daredevils or big sucker minnows on cane poles and just letting them float in the water and then go find them later. I have many fond memories of using my Johnson Century reel casting a floating Rapala and letting it sit, then twitching it and having bass and pike just crush it. That was great fishing! Some of the snotrockets seemed to jump out of the water and try to land on it. That was always exciting. My dad used a Bass-O-Reno, my uncle a Lucky 13, jeez did we catch a lot of bass, didn’t even have a locator much less forward facing sonar. I remember being at the access and there was a plastic worm floating nearby. I grabbed it and my dad and uncles declared they were useless here up north, the bass wouldn’t eat them. Guess they might have been wrong on that one.

I had a Zebco 33 at one time and fished a lot with a buddy on Tonka. He had an Abu Garcia that had a higher gear ration. He could get 50% more casts because of it. He would outfish me 5 to 1 but I’d usually get the biggest bass on a little old Lazy Ike. He would get so pissed off.

The_Bladepuller wrote:

Grandad used his canepole. Sometimes he wound the line up around the tip. Some times he just pitched the pole and his grandsons had to bend into the oars.

This was always the plan growing up on Platte Lake, if we hooked into the mythical Bull, a giant northern fabled to roam those waters. I think we actually sent the cane pole overboard 2-3 times in the thousands of northerns we caught, but most were hammerhandles that flipped right into the Puddle Jumper and released to the grease.

Dutchboy wrote:

Thats a wives tail. With the dacron you will never break off if you are using a leader.

I know several guys that go up to lake of the woods every April and still do the toss the cane pole over if a big fish or is 2 are hooked at the same time. They may noy break off but with the stiff cane pole and heavy Dacron line ( I think the guys I know use duck decoy line tied to a fluro leader but they often tear off due to the lack of give in the short line and stiff rod. Them dragging the cane pole wears them out some. Since the water depth is not deep enough they can not pull the cane pole under. Just drag it around.

202, 303, 33 and then the holy grail.. the Cast a Country Mile !!!

The good ol Johnson Century yep…