Anglers can't get enough of new gadgets | News, Sports, Jobs - Morning Journal News

Anglers can't get enough of new gadgets | News, Sports, Jobs - Morning Journal News

Anglers can't get enough of new gadgets | News, Sports, Jobs - Morning Journal News

Posted: 17 Aug 2020 09:06 PM PDT

When ever the economy gets soft many so-called experts will feel obligated to chime in with their solutions to improve the situation. I'm not smart enough to understand their plans, but I do think my solution is fail proof; just get the news out that a new product will catch more fish and anglers will open their wallets and spend bucks. I speak from experience.

I started fishing many decades ago, and even at an early age I was spending my pennies on surefire fish catching lures. I once even actually put pennies into an envelop to purchase a scent that was supposedly so effective that it was banned in several states. Getting banned probably had more to do with truth in advertising that its ability to catch fish. In retrospect, I remember that this magic potion smelled a lot like anise, and now that I'm much older I have found that anise does attract fish, especially catfish and carp. So, maybe that magic fish catching scent did have some value.

Fast forward to the present and you will find that I still search for a better lure and tackle, and even boat electronics. Just this spring I saw a lure on a TV fishing program and immediately ordered a few. That was early in the spring and so far the Steel Shad lures have not put a fish in the boat. I also remembered an older lure called the Beetle Spin and added a couple of those to my tackle supply. I'm sure the Beetle Spin is great for casting, but don't use them for trolling as they twist your line enough to make it useless.

Perhaps nothing proves my point more than the development of fishing electronics. When I first became addicted to fishing WWII was raging across the world and any electronics were being deployed to defeat enemies who were attempting to destroy the world as we know it. Sonar was being used for more serious chores than catching fish during WWII.

While researching this column I found a 1976 Sears Boating & Fishing Catalog and the featured electronics demonstrated just how far we have come in our quest for better fishing. The sonar instruments listed were a long way from what we now have available. Even their appearance is different and they looked like something out of a 60s sci-fi movie.

The 1976 sonars were nearly all of the flasher type. With a flasher a dial light flashes to indicate depth of the bottom and any intervening fish. It was effective and I had one, but the big advancement of that year was what was called Video-Sonar and it actually featured a screen display using small black squares to form a pattern. This was a far cry from the full color screens on our modern sonars. They now even include GPS. The cost of the 1976 top of the line sonar was $499.95, and I have no idea what that translates into 2020 prices. I do know that the one I bought strained the budge of a WKBN -TV news photographer. And of course it was outdated by the time I got it home.

Fortunately for the family budget most of what we anglers spend money on is not as expensive as electronics. In fact fishing is really the best bargain a family can have. All you really need to enjoy many outdoor hours of family fun is an inexpensive spincast outfit and a can of worms. The quarantine so many of us face might just make family fishing even more important than ever.

Fishing is also good for the country as whether an angler's money is spent on a package of hooks, or something as exotic as a sonar unit or a boat, there can be no doubt that our spending helps the economy. I'll continue to do my part to help the economy.

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