From Ron Brooks,
Your Guide to Saltwater Fishing.
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I was flipping through - actually I was reading every page - of an old magazine my cousin sent to me a few weeks ago. He collects old sporting publications and sends me one or two from time to time. This one was the April 1950 issue of Hunting and Fishing published by the National Sportsman Corporation out of Boston, Massachusetts.

I smiled as I read the ads for fishing lures, reels, rods and outboard motors. I have seen or fished with virtually all of them in my lifetime, and every ad brought a smile as I thought about my memories of a particular lure or motor.

Mercury introduced the biggest outboard on the market that year – the 25hp “Thunderbolt”. Johnson advertised their Seahorse line that had an idle clutch. The caption on the picture said, “Motor’s running and you’re sitting still – you’re in neutral!”

I remember the brand new 10hp Johnson my uncle bought for the Chris-Craft kit bought he built in his back yard. He could actually pull a water skier with that monster of an engine.

As I carefully turned every page and read every advertisement – L&S lures for $1.10 each – I came upon and article by a famous outdoor writer, the late Joseph D. Bates. Jr., that amazed me. Remember, this was 1950. One part of the article read this way,

“In the last few years we have undone a great deal of the terrible harm that has come to our fishing. The proportion of sportsmen-anglers grows greater while that of the meat-fishermen grows less, insofar as our game fish are concerned. Unfortunately the percentage of law violators is no lower and it is high time that sportsmen did more to protect their heritage from them.”

Sound familiar to anyone today? Accompanying this article on the apparent demise of sport fishing in 1950 was this list called a “Formula for Good Fishing.” I want to share it with you:

1. Give game fish a sporting chance by using the lightest tackle possible.
2. Carefully release all small fish; especially those bordering on the minimum size limit.
3. Keep large fish only, keeping no more than for immediate needs.
4. Do not give fish away. They are rarely appreciated, so let others catch their own.
5. Treat fish-hogs and law violators ruthlessly, since they are the enemies of all sportsmen.
6. Learn to release fish without harm and use tackle which will not damage them.
7. For every day of fishing, invest a half day in conservation and stream improvement.
8. Influence the appointment of authorities that will support fish and game laws without fear or favor, and who will use revenues from fishing solely for its development.
9. Join at least one sportsman’s organization and work intensively on its programs.
10. Teach at least one boy or girl the joy of angling and the principles of good sportsmanship.

Wow! I am humbled by this formula. I am also amazed that it still applies in today’s world.

I remember fishing in the fifties. Fish were abundant and easy to catch. There was no such thing as being skunked – either on a freshwater lake or in the ocean.

Mr. Bates, who authored quite a number of books and myriad articles on fishing, passed away in 1988. I wonder, if he were still with us, what he would think about the condition of our fisheries today.

As I see it, what was a good formula for yesterday is still good today.