I remember fishing the river in the late 80's....it was unreal. We'd drop off mom and my baby sister at the laundromat and then my dad and the first five kids, all boys, me in the middle with two older and two younger brothers.....we'd hit the river and come back with limits of walleyes and smallmouth, plus a bunch of behemoth rock bass. My parents are from Iowa....didn't know it's looked down upon to eat rock bass. Oddly enough, if you don't know any better they're like a thicker sunfish or crappie and taste delicious.....only ever seen them with worms once, out of thousands I've cleaned....the walleyes and smallmouth all had worms that day too so I tossed them all.
In the late 80's we had a 16' Lowe Line with a 20hp merc, which was our family's first boat. My dad picked up when visiting my Grandma and step-Grandpa in Branson....when they were still realtors prior to moving back to NW Iowa. It was an awesome boat. Really wide and deep and had four benches. Plenty of room for one adult and five little kids. Even my little brother who was three at the time could catch a limit. My dad would motor us into a big snag, my oldest brother would check depth with a paddle, and anything that was over 3' deep? Game on. We'd start piling out and scatter all over the snag and start dropping our jigs with crawlers on them down through any openings we could pull a fish through. On some of the bigger snags that had 6' to 7' of water under them....they were just ridiculous. We'd leave some of them with half our limits....around 18 walleyes, same for smallies, plus a bunch of rock bass....there were no catfish back then. 2013 was the first year we ever caught them on the stretch of river we fish.
We'd stay at the cabin for up to three weeks at a time with my dad flying out of Brainerd for work several times during a stint like that....he had a phone line put in so he could work from a desk in my parents bedroom that doubled as an office.
We'd mainly fish the little lake the cabin is on, and we ate fish probably five out seven nights a week. People were more thrifty then. Fish for dinner was a way to keep us occupied and keep down food costs. A six pack of black label beer was a splurge for my dad....he'd have one while mowing the yard, one while fishing, we never had pop....just drank tap water and kool-aid when lucky.
There wasn't a washer and dryer at the cabin then so about once a week we'd need to run to town to drop my mom and baby sister off at the laundromat and then dad and the boys would go fish the river. It probably sounds worse than it was in terms of being sexist. My mom enjoyed having some quiet time to herself to read and dote on her baby girl which she really only got at the laundromat. In terms of my dad.....having to watch five young boys was a pain in the ass. There's no better way to keep track of that many kids than by sticking them in a boat. It's the best playpen ever made. The kids can't go anywhere and love being in it.
Fishing was so good back then on the river that even my little brother who was three had no problem routinely catching a limit. It was dry enough that an entire river's worth of fish were concentrated into probably less than 5% of it. All we had to do was drive into a snag, drop down a jig and worm, and fish on.....or we'd get snagged. We learned to tie a fishing knot really fast at a young age fishing the river. There was nothing worse than to be tying on a jig while your siblings were pulling up nice walleyes and bass....except for pulling up a nice walleye, not waiting for the net and breaking off while you tried to horse it in, only to have your brother catch it with your jig still in it's mouth while you were tying on a new jig, which happened more than on one occasion. We had a lead smelter and poured our own jigs. Jigs were cheap back then but we went through a lot of them. To this day there's no way you'll ever convince me that there's a better color than the dark silver shiny metallic natural color of a freshly poured jig head.
We'd get done on the river whenever the set time was when my mom thought she'd have the laundry done. We had an old orange cooler with a white top that was always full of fish, and more times than not it wasn't big enough to hold our 36 walleyes and 36 smallies plus usually more than 36 rock bass. We'd get back to the cabin and all the boys would go into the screened in fish cleaning house we have to clean fish. One of the younger boys would run in some of the first ones we cleaned so by the time we were done and came into wash up with the rest of the filets....my mom already had dinner on the table. Fried up fish breaded in bread crumbs that we called "fish cookies." We never had stuff like tartar sauce back then so they were consumed typically with ketchup as the only condiment with a side of instant mashed potatoes and a vegetable....green beans, corn, peas, steamed broccoli or cauliflower.
Of all the limits and all the fish we caught there was never any pics taken. It was the 80's....people were more focused on living life than they were with documenting it. Pictures weren't cheap and we were always busy....there was always somewhat of a sense of commotion in my family, being fairly big. First day of school, birthdays, Christmas, and Easter were the times the camera was pulled out of the closet and a couple pics got taken.
When we got back with all those fish it was rather unceremonious....we pulled the cooler and the stringers out of the boat into the fish house and started cleaning.
The other thing, shared in an effort to not come off as if I'm embellishing, was we kept everything back then. Half the walleyes we cleaned were under 14," hell probably 13" with quite a few being 12." It wasn't like we were cleaning lineups where they were all 18" to 20." We'd usually get one or two over 20" a fair amount in that 16" to 18" range, and about half are what I refer to today as dinks and throw back. Same principle applied to the smallmouths....if they were as big or bigger than any of the sunnies were catching and cleaning from the lake we were on, what's the difference in keeping a small smallmouth that's still bigger than they were?
Fishing the river in the late 80's was where I truly fell in love with fishing....
...and although it's getting pretty good and low right now....
...it still ain't shit compared to the late 80's.
There's still literally three times the water coming down "my family's" stretch of river as there was in 1988 despite this being as low or damn near as low as I've ever seen it since the late 80's early 90's.
