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A trip back in time thanks to 1931 magazine TOM VENESKY OUTDOORS

Sunday October 05, 2008 | 08:47 AM

It was a simple title from a simpler time.

Adorned at the top of the faded magazine cover were the words “Hunting and Fishing” and this particular issue was from April of 1931.

Back then, if you had 5 cents the magazine was yours.

Before I gingerly flipped through the frayed and delicate pages to go back in time 77 years, something on the cover caught my attention.

The cover art was a beautiful painting of a brook trout leaping at a fly.

Under the painting was a message to readers: “Patronize Your Local Sporting Goods Dealer.”

1931.

Back then there was no Wal-Marts driving every neighborhood shop within a 20-mile radius out of business.

There weren’t any colossal Cabela’s mega-stores adorned with spectacular wildlife mounts and stuffed with everything one would need to do anything outside.

In 1931, there was no Internet from which to order lures, camouflage clothing, tree stands, calls, boats, blinds or anything else pertaining to hunting and fishing.

Still, in 1931 the publishers of “Hunting and Fishing” thought it was important for hunters and anglers to support the small shop on the corner.

I suppose the major competition was the presence of the large department stores such as Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Today, local sporting goods shops face competition from numerous mega-corporate super stores that attract shoppers with flash and glitz.

Unfortunately, the foresight displayed by the publishers of “Hunting and Fishing” is absent from most of today’s outdoors magazines, none of which would dare encourage readers to support local shops for fear of losing advertising dollars from their corporate supporters.

Not that “Hunting and Fishing” didn’t take money from corporations.

As I turned the pages and read the stories inside the old magazine, I noticed ads from numerous companies. But these businesses were different, and more interesting, than a one-stop super store.

On Page 1 was a beautiful ad from the Enterprise Manufacturing Company advertising its Pfleuger reels and lures. The center of the ad was highlighted by impressive sketches of a largemouth bass, Northern pike and a brook trout – all going after Pfleuger lures of course.

On other pages, the Hunter Arms Company professed the accuracy of its L.C. Smith Long Range Gun, while in another space the Browning Arms Company claimed to have the only automatic 16-gauge shotgun on the market.

Firestone, the company that makes tires, made rubber hunting boots in 1931, according to one ad, while the Hamilton Carhartt clothing company offered readers a free match box if they mailed in their name, address and the name of their local sporting goods dealer.

As I closed the magazine with a promise to open it again later and read some more, I glanced at the cover one more time.

I stared at the beautiful colors of the trout, still clear on the delicate page, and pondered how great it must have been during the “good old days” decades ago.

Those days and times are gone now, and many of the companies that advertised in “Hunting and Fishing” in 1931 are gone.

But the trout on the cover is a scene that never gets outdated. All you have to do is head out to a stream this fall, cast your line and paint the picture yourself.