I know a lot of people who long for the good ol’ days when people were polite, bread cost a quarter and the fishing was amazing.

The times, of course, are a matter of perspective. What was cool yesterday is not cool today. But as our years pile up, we cling to our past to elevate our own existence.

Maybe the music was better when we were kids. Maybe pro athletes were tougher. Maybe schools were better. Sure, you could buy a burger, fries and Coke with the change in your pocket. And a great day of fishing was measured on how many chubs and suckers we pulled from Yellow Creek in Boardman and Poland.

Those comparisons, and a hundred others, are for you to make. Every generation earns the right to judge the next one with disdain. You get to decide whether the old days were better than today’s days.

I’m not convinced that our best days are behind us. I see a lot of stuff that is better today. One that is important to me is fishing.

For those of us in northeast Ohio, the places where we fish are more productive than I recall in the so-called good old days. Not just the creek down the street, but almost everywhere I go, the water is cleaner, the habitat is better and the fishing is trending up.

Mine is not a Pollyanna viewpoint. I am an optimist, to be sure, but the evidence is clear. My experiences are better on the water because the ecosystems are healthier.

Consider three of our major waterways close to Warren and Youngstown. Do you remember Lake Erie, Mosquito Lake and the Ohio River in the 1960s? Those certainly were not the good old days for any of them.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife outlook for Erie continues to be excellent. Just last week I reported on the evidence that shows Mosquito’s walleye population is on the upswing. I recently wrote a feature article for a national magazine about the improving walleye and smallmouth bass fishing on the upper Ohio River thanks to cleaner water and improving habitat.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: northeast Ohio anglers are living in the good ol’ days.

This, of course, is good news. But it also is a reminder how quickly we might backslide. That the fishing is great at Erie, Mosquito and the Ohio River is not to be taken for granted. Anglers, biologists, lawmakers, regulators and citizens must stay alert for evidence of abuse, eroding standards and ulterior motives that can easily threaten our waters.

In my article on the Ohio River, I cite that just 30 years ago, river anglers were lucky to catch a few catfish. Now, they are catching lots of walleyes and smallies growing fat on emerald shiners and gizzard shad thriving around the expanding spreads of aquatic grasses that serve as nurseries for the river’s food chain.

Biologists in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as well as the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission all agree: the federal Clean Water Act was pivotal in reducing pollution and curbing the industrial and municipal discharges that were poisoning the waterway.

It took decades for the Ohio and our Mahoning River to heal, but they can backslide dramatically if we let our attention stray from enforcement of clean water standards and divert funding away from smart fisheries management.

We’ve gained so much. We are enjoying the good old days. Let’s make sure future generations also experience great fishing on clean water.

Jack Wollitz writes this column weekly for readers of the Tribune Chronicle and Vindicator. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.