almost as obsolete as the vcr

just having fun looking through my old scrolls…..and feeling old. remember these days?

I am 31 and vaguely remember seeing mags with them when I was a little kid.

How long were the scrolls in length?

Average time it lasted? I assume there were different feed rates)

Pencil or pen? Problems?

how well did the “graphs” hold up in the wx?

how many years were they out till the screens came about?

How well did they show fish?

Lots of questions about this blast from the past. Care to offer up more info on them?

I thought this was about BK.

As for detail, well ahead of there time. I could mark schools of chubs or smelt out on Lake MI in 180 fow along the bottom. Suspended bait or fish was easy. The key was to keep the stylus in good condition and the belt had to fit snug.
I think the rolls were 50′. Its been so long I just don’t remember. I also kept multiple rolls in the boat along with replacement stylus and belts and just changed them as needed.

It was a different way of fishing for me on most lakes back then. I would make a pass or two over spots looking at what was or was NOT there. If I marked fish (the above pictured is a set of humps that were not on a Mendota map) like in the pic of schools of gills , I would shut the graph off and start fishing. I used this and a Bottom line 310XT until about 1994 when I bought an LMS350A. The graph was superiour detail to the Bottom Line unit. The LMS had good detail for a tiny screen.
But I still have this graph and it worked perfect up through the day I took it off of my 18 Lund Alaskan and sold the boat.

There is a blast from the past! We had one of those paper ones on Mille Lac…the green lowrance box was in use at that time in Grandpa’s boat too.

I bet most of us could start a cool museum if we would have kept all the old fishing stuff.

I still have some octagon bamboo fly rods and a steel bait caster.

My first thought was; this is going to be about Vexilars. Oooppps

Your not old Randy,I remember the three way triangle with land based markers and an X on the floor!

Grew up using that on Lake Michigan too!
On a day with no wind the smell of that graph and carbon charcoal would make me want to hurl.
Good memories.

Ditto on evrything Randy said. I learned to read a locator when the paper graphs came out. Befoe that I was not always sure of what I was seeing on my flasher. The paper graph allowed me to go back and review the time spent on the water. Dang you could burn thru a roll quickly when you had it at max speed.

An LMS350A was my first GPS unit. Much better on lake Erie than a compass and watch.

Thanks for the reminder,,, I think,,,, now I am feeling old too.

Very cool. I too grew up with paper trolling on the big lakes. I loved their level of detail…not so much the consumables. I think we still have the old Lowrance X-15 (or some such) laying around someplace.

Guess I’m old as well then since I can still remember using paper graph’s on Lake Michigan.
They did indeed have excellent detail. There’s still a few people around who have and use them.

I haven’t looked for a long time, but wonder how available the rolls of paper and stylus/belts are???