By Bob Jensen

(photo by Bob Jensen) Always remember that fishing is fun no matter what kind of fish you catch. Jim McDonnell, known as the Fishing Professor, enjoyed every catch.

There have been soooo many changes in the fishing world since I’ve become aware of such things. Many of those changes have been good, some not so good. The changes can be considered good or bad depending on how an individual looks at things.

Let’s take a look at a few of the changes in the world of fishing and see if we consider them to be good or not so good.

As a young angler, I spent a lot of time wading the small and medium-sized rivers in north Iowa. The smaller rivers were home mostly to northern pike, the medium-sized rivers had walleyes. Today the medium-sized rivers still have fair walleye populations, but smallmouth bass have become abundant.

The smaller rivers, due to erosion, have filled in to the point where there aren’t very many areas that hold gamefish.  hen a fish is spotted, it’s usually some sort of minnow. Many anglers will agree that more smallmouth are a good thing, but fewer places to fish are very bad.

Some fishing regulations that are currently in place, and some rules that are being considered for implementation are based on emotion, tradition, and maybe politics. Not on science and practical experience. Many anglers are starting to think that we need to leave the business of making fishing regulations to the professionals.

We need to let them apply their knowledge and experience to do what they think is best for fishing and the fisheries. Too many rules make it difficult to fish within the rules. There’s too much to remember. Rules based on science are mostly good. Too many rules and rules based on emotion and such, not so good.

Fisheries change, and so do fishing interests. When I lived in the Leech Lake area of north central Minnesota in the late 70’s, walleyes were the big deal. My fishing friends couldn’t understand why I spent much of my time chasing largemouth bass. Bass were under-fished and under-appreciated in that area at that time.

Every now and then my friends humored me and we fished for bass instead of walleyes.  After a while, they started to understand why I preferred bass. They found out that catching bass was a fun thing to do. Today those friends like to chase bass.

Those same friends helped me understand why they liked to fish for walleyes. Many years later, I’m thankful that they showed me why it’s a good idea to chase walleyes every now and then. It’s good when people can share their interests and help others enjoy their leisure time more. Variety in fishing is a good thing.

For the most part, people who go fishing and how they go fishing make me optimistic about fishing in the coming days and years. I’m especially optimistic about the type of fishing that many of us grew up with. The kind of fishing where we wanted to catch some fish, either for the table or just for the fun of catching some fish. But we also took the time while fishing to enjoy our surroundings and the people that we were fishing with.

We fished for as long as we wanted, for whatever species we wanted, with the type of bait or presentation that we wanted. And we always looked forward to our next fishing trip, whether it be just a couple of hours on a local pond, or a couple of days on a farther away body of water. That’s a good thing.

When it comes to fishing, remember this: Fishing has changed in many ways through the years, but the consistent thing is, fishing should be fun.