When it comes to fishing, ‘old’ often means ‘good’

Artie and I sat on the dock in Diversey Harbor mentally taking inventory of all the boats while watching our slip floats bobbing in the murky water. We were in the middle of a heated discussion about today’s vast amounts of fishing tackle.

The conversation also focused on one of the real sore spots that will never stop festering, the halting growth of a neighborhood bait shop.

But first, the issue of gear and tackle.

Artie believes he has license to spend my money any way he choses.

“You ought to get rid of those old Team Daiwa 700 and 1300 reels,” he declared, “and get yourself some new stuff.”

The Daiwa models are some of the most rugged spinning reels I have in my collection, which includes some newer, rugged reels.

And when it coms to rods, I just can’t see my wife or anyone else sticking one of my treasured Grandt rods in the garbage compactor.

This is strictly my opinion. I have said this quite a few times, there are far too many spinning and casting reels sitting on pegboards or in display cases. One may need a PhD in reel-ology to cut through the morass of claims and promises. The increased number of ball bearings stuffed into a reel’s inner sanctum can often furnish me with lots of material for my standup routines at local comedy clubs.

It’s about the same story for plugs, now more commonly called crankbaits.

Some minnow imitators are designed to shake their fadootles in a side-to-side, rapid motion. Other similar looking joberinoes will vibrate in a vertical, submarine-like up-and-down attack mode.

Count the number of spinner baits on the market — you’ll be amazed.

Surface or topwater fishing is one of my all-time favorites. And yet when I was a little boy growing up on Chicago’s Northwest Side, I used to walk my dog either on a short leash or sometimes no leash at all. But for the life of me I’ll never understand where the pros and lure makers came up with the idea to tout a retrieve of their lures as “walking the dog.” I’m sure I’ll hear from self-proclaimed dog-walker and expert Mark Zona on that one.

Artie’s tiny float disappeared beneath the surface. He lifted a fat 10-inch perch was out of the water. Artie unhooked it and then tossed it, still plopping around, in his bucket.

We decided to drop the tackle issue and focus our discussion on what has been commonly called “big box stores” and small, neighborhood bait shops.

“Do you think places like the Salmon Shop and other similar old-fashioned, small stores will disappear in the near future?” he asked.

I had to stop and carefully word my answer.

I’ve brought up this point to you before, dear readers — twice, as a matter of fact — in columns some time ago.

The “big box” stores used to be the kinds of places where small-time and even the jumbo manufacturers hoped to have their merchandise displayed. The tackle representatives, even people like the semi-retired, successful guy in Mundelein, would probably admit that he and his industry brethren were hot-to-trot to sell a Walmart or K-Mart.They would schmooze the big-box buyers until the cows cam home.

The smaller shops didn’t have the purchasing power or clout to offer the kind of discounts the big boys enjoyed, so the small guy’s price tags were higher.

You may recall this part of the prior column.

I stated that the small guy was open seven days a week, sometimes 14 hours a day, just so you could purchase a dozen minnows or two dozen nightcrawlers.

And yes, some of those shops smelled like the men’s bathrooms at Wrigley Field, but they were there for you fishermen, sometimes open as early as 5 a.m.

I reminded Artie the small shops were literally the heart and soul of the American fishing scene. Yet some anglers, extra-frugal as they are, would rather drive to the ends of the earth to save 25 cents on a pack of jigs or hooks while burning up 5 bucks worth of fuel to get it.

That fact was true when I first wrote it and is still gospel today.

So go spend your money — but one day you’ll ask where that old shop is, the one that had been there for decades.

ŸContact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, and catch his radio show 6-7 a.m. Sundays on WSBC 1240-AM and live-streamed at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.