Retro fishing outing, gear are timeless
Trips down memory lane prove to be fun
ST. CROIX FALLS - Some anglers like to offer fish something new.
In principle, Mike Yurk of Hudson agrees with that fishing strategy. But he takes it to the other extreme. “Look at that,” said Yurk, 68, as a largemouth bass shook on the end of his line. “Old time tackle strikes again!”
Yurk worked the 14-inch bass to the side of the boat, flicked the hook out of its mouth and watched it swim off.
The lure was a Heddon Cisco Kid, a jointed crank bait made in about 1960. The Mitchell 304 spinning reel and Gamefisher series fiberglass rod made by Sears, Roebuck and Co. used to cast the lure were about the same age.
The bass that struck was spawned in 2014 or so. Even its great-great-greatgreat-great grandparents had likely never seen a 1960-era Cisco Kid in this lake.
“Still works like a charm,” Yurk said as he made another cast.
I joined Yurk on Tuesday fon Deer Lake for one of his “retro fishing trips” each year.
In keeping with the theme, we used tackle made in the 1950s and ‘60s.
I also tossed a Cisco Kid to start the day, but used a Ryobi V-Mag baitcasting reel and Heddon Pal tubular steel rod.
It was part celebration of fishing history, part personal trip down memory lane.
After Yurk connected on the third cast of the day, we doubled up on bass two casts later. After 30 minutes, we had landed 12.
It was no wonder. The crankbait was older than me, but it had a seductive wobbling action to rival any modern lure.
Why would you ever buy a new bait if you had a box full of these?
“The manufacturers have to keep changing and making new things to keep their sales going,” Yurk said. “I buy new stuff, too, but it’s not because the old stuff stopped working.”
Yurk developed a love for fishing during his youth in central Wisconsin.
He’d go into sporting goods stores in Oshkosh and look at the various lures and other tackle, most beyond his budget, and dream about the day he could fish with them.
When he was confirmed at church, he remembers spending the money he received in gifts to buy a Mitchell 300 spinning reel and fiberglass rod.
Now that, my friends, is money well spent.
Yurk said he’s had a soft spot for fishing tackle of the 1950s and ’60s, the stuff that was on the shelves when he was a kid, ever since.
Yurk entered the U.S. Army after college and served for 22 years at bases around the country and abroad.
His stations included southern states that are noted for exceptional largemouth bass fishing.
When he retired at the rank of major in 1995, he settled in Hudson with his wife Becky, a.k.a. the “Bass Queen.”
One of the first things he learned was the bass fishing in northwestern Wisconsin was better than anywhere he had been stationed in the Army.
Shortly after getting re-established in Wisconsin, Yurk began visiting antique shops and buying old fishing tackle.
His original Mitchell 300 had been stolen many years ago. Now, as an adult with an “allowance” courtesy of Uncle Sam, he bought a handful of rod and reel outfits, including Mitchells, as well as lures and other tackle.
In recent years, he’s planned at least one “retro” day a year.
“I enjoy just looking at these things,” Yurk said, opening a wooden tackle box. “But it’s maybe even more fun to use them.”
Yurk also broke out a straw hat with a green, plastic insert on the front brim for the outing. It’s the type of hat he remembers his father and others of the previous generation wearing when they fished on Lake Winnebago and the Wolf River.
The Cisco Kids we used were fitted with the original treble hooks. Whatever steel they used in to make the lures in 1960 sure kept an edge. If I’ve encountered a sharper hook, I don’t remember it.
We spent most of our time casting toward shoreline structure and retrieving the baits around weed clumps. The fish ambushed the lures with abandon.
After lunch, we fished along the deep edge of the weedline in 12 to 15 feet of water.
We caught mostly largemouth, but also a few yellow perch, bluegill and rock bass.
Deer Lake has an abundant largemouth population. There is no minimum-size limit, but all bass from 14 to 18 inches in length must be released.
I kept some of the 13-inchers we caught for a future meal. I’ve come to look forward to fishing outings on Wisconsin lakes where regulations encourage harvest of a few largemouth.
We varied the lures throughout the afternoon, including a Heddon Sonic circa 1955, and caught fish with them all.
The biggest difference from most modern tackle was in the rods. I used both the tubular steel rod and later a fiberglass rod; both were far more limber than the graphite models I typically fish with.
“It’s just a different type of hook set,” Yurk said, grinning as he landed a chunky 13-inch bass.”
We ended the day in mid-afternoon after catching about 45 fish in five hours.
The experience showed old can be new, too.
And on this day, different was as fun, productive and interesting as modern could ever be.