Classic tackle

[kingfish]

Just got back from a trip to the tackle shop and couldn't get over the selection available nowadays, don't get me wrong I like the scent impregnated, noise making, luminescent, holographic images with hooks sharp enough to split an atom but how did I ever catch any fish before this. I still like the simple classic lures I guess and wish I still had my old hula poppers and cisco plugs from years ago. Anybody else still use the older styles, Mepps, Heddon??

[Houndlover]

I use alot of older tackle. I've got some old Williams, hula poppers, old rapalas, benos, various spinners and topwaters, all of witch must be 30 years old but still catch fish!

I also have 4 or 5 old custom Muskie lures with no brand names.... Hand made I suppose. I love the wooden crank baits with bite marks in them from big strikes.

[GoldenLakePete]

I still use some old lures too. Hula Poppers, Jitterbugs, Williams, Mepps etc. One of my favourite lures is an old Heddon River Runt. I'm down to my last "Creme" worm - anyone remember when the only plastic worm you could buy was a "Creme". Can't find them anymore.

I also use old reels. I have a bunch of old Mitchell 300's that just won't quit!

[sawbill]

Hey, Pete, you need any parts for those old Mitchells? I seem to have a pile of the things kicking around my basement. My first was a Mitchell Cap, open face spinning reel that I bought from picking and selling blueberries.
I grew up using June Bugs, red and white daredevils and Williams warblers.

[JBen]

Back when I was knee high to a grasshopper, worm harnesses were all the rage. Some years later Mr twister tails came on the market and became the hot thing. Fished those for years and years trolling Chemong for Eyes and Lunge..
Growing up trolling Chemong, my fathers go to lure were Beno's and in my mothers tackle box, her goto lure were flat fish.

These are 40 years old and still going. Once in a blue moon when I'm feeling nostalgic, recalling life as kid under the age of 10, thinking about mom/dad I'll put one on.


By the time I was 11, we had moved to the Pigeon where fishing top water in "inaccessible" unfishable waters were the norm, our tackle boxes changed. Black Hula Poppers, (Dads goto), green Jitter bugs (moms) were for years king initially, then Dad discovered a lure by Creek Chub that Bass and Musky cannot resist. Even today it's still deadly and I will on occasion tie one on, when nothing else is getting a sniff. I hesitate though because I may have the only ones left on the planet. Creek Chub went out of business around 1980, Dad bought every single one he could find in any store. From an initially stock of maybe 20 these are all I have left.

35 years old, still slaying them and still like new Although the one I use has obviously been attacked many, many times (actually have one more where there isn't a dot of paint left and the pock mocks from teeth have rendered it useless)

[Houndlover]

Jben those are sweet.

I have a red and white beno and the thing is great. So much wiggle it drives fish crazy. I had a 3 piece beno but lost it, it was pretty cool the way it snaked through the water. I can no longer find benos or Canadien wrigglers.... Any one know if they still make em? They were kill on river walleye when I was younger

[JBen]

Just goes to show Houndlover how and why Classics remain classics. I actually have one of dads Canadian Wigglers left as well. We used to troll for Walleye and get incidental Lunges. My father never used anything but Benos ( His favourite was Orange with black dots), they worked like stink then, and still do. Somewhere in the war room in another box, that I have an Orange/black dot that's 3 or 4 segments (not sure why my Dad bought that one he never used it) …That things a snake and the action on it is unreal. I haven't seen a Beno in a store in years, if I did I'd buy my Dads favourite Orange/Black.

[GoldenLakePete]

I used to have a Beno "Eel" that was a killer on walleye.

[GoldenLakePete]

Hey, Pete, you need any parts for those old Mitchells? I seem to have a pile of the things kicking around my basement. My first was a Mitchell Cap, open face spinning reel that I bought from picking and selling blueberries.
I grew up using June Bugs, red and white daredevils and Williams warblers.

Thanks for the offer, Sawbill! If they ever break I'll take you up on it. They just seem to keep on running!

[JBen]

The "eel" that was it

Pete dad used Mitchels to, I don't have any left but do have the Ugly stick he bought sometime around 75-80 and used with his Mitchel.

Anyone remember Moss Boss's. If I recall they came out of the Southern States around 1980, first few we got a hold of, we got from Americans. A precusor to todays frogs.