Sound familiar? I read tons of fishing articles that begin with the same general theme – overcrowding. I plead guilty to at least a few articles like this in the recent past. The amazing part of that quote is that it did not come from a recent article.
I caught up this week with a cousin I have not seen in several years. We talked and he told me about some magazines he had acquired. It turns out he began collecting old sporting magazines some time ago. He sent me a copy of the April 1949 edition of Outdoorsman.
The quote above comes from that magazine. It’s the lead paragraph from a feature fishing article. Overcrowded and hard-fished streams? Wow, that was 1949! I wonder what the author would think today about overcrowded fishing spots!
I think that one article puts a lot of things into perspective for me. I can remember as a kid being one of only a handful of boats at the ramp on a Saturday morning with my Dad. Today, we leave extra early to get in line at the ramp. It’s not that we want to fish that early, but we want to get a parking place that is actually in the parking lot for the public ramp, and not a half-mile down the road.
I suspect that fifty years from now, people will look back at our current situation and ponder about the good old days. Perhaps my grandson will be writing about the stories his granddad told him years before.
It’s true; we do have overcrowded fishing areas – in every part of the country. But, intelligent management of the resource and the facilities, I believe can help cure the effects of overcrowding.
I just thought it was interesting to see what someone else thought over fifty years ago about the state of the sport. I went on Ebay this morning and found several more issues of the same magazine. Needless to say, I bought them. Perhaps, I can gain even more insight into the fishing woes of fifty years ago!
