It was different back then. The Gun Factory was finally tore down this year! Back then eggs were illegal for some reason and the bait of choice was a sponge soaked in some secret concoction typically involving cod liver oil and anise. I was always repelled by the smelly things and typical used either flies in colder water or spinning lures when the smelt were running. (the smelt runs have gone away too).
People just fished a couple of holes and I think I was the only one who fished the runs below Lake St behind the High School (at least I never ran into anyone else there). 90% of the fishing was in three holes: below the falls, right above Lake St, and down by the RR bridge. These days it is mostly fly guys who probe every hole and run from the lake to the falls.
Fly guys were very, very rare. However, there was another fly guy who fished down by the RR bridge that rolled a monstrous, ugly nymph across the first gravel riffle. The days he was there he caught 5 bows for every one the rest of the crowd caught. Always wondered why no one else picked up a fly rod then.
I had a fishing buddy from Central PA that I could never convince to fish in Fall Ck. Finally, after spending a semester doing field work in Greene Co. Senior year he headed with me down to the pool below Ithaca Falls on a bright spring day. It was the peak of the smelt run and the fishing was hot and was topped off by a 5 lbs brown (browns were rare back then since they didn't stock many - but the few browns I caught were all fat and large). He had fished all the famous places in central PA and the Catskills and had never seen a brown that big along with a bunch of dime bright lake run bows of similar size. He sure regretted snubbing his nose at tribs fishing for the bulk of his time in Ithaca.
