Tag Archives: fishing

Voices from the Past: Christmas Fishing 1877

Voices from the Past Fishing for History

The following blurb came from the Indiana School Journal for December 1877. It was written by Charles Wackford of Shawnee Prairie, Indiana, and retells a very charming Christmas tradition mixed with fishing. I love it. We reached home at ten o’clock, receiving an invitation on the way to eat Christmas dinner with the Graham family. […]

Heddon SOS 170 Minnow Lure

Heddon 170 in Red & White Finish

Heddon SOS 170 Minnow Lure The Heddon SOS 170 Minnow Lure is the second to the largest in the family of 4. This antique fishing lure was first introduced in 1928 by Heddon of Dowagiac Michigan. The wooden fishing lure measures in at roughly 4 1/2″ in length. The lures main focus was the larger […]

Creek Chub Bomber Kreeker Vintage Fishing Lure

Creek Chub Bomber Kreeker

Creek Chub Bomber Kreeker The Creek Chub Bomber Kreeker shown first in the gallery below was introduced in 1942. The Bomber lure was a series model number 6600 made by Creek Chub of Garrett Indiana. This wooden antique lure is 2 7/8″ in length, and can also be referred to as a Kreeker (After), and […]

Heddon 100 Green Crackle Back White Pasteboard Box

Heddon 100 Green Crackle Back White Pasteboard Box

Heddon Fat Body 100 Antique Lure Green Crackle Back White Pasteboard Box This is a Heddon Dowagiac Underwater Model 100 Minnow Lure. The lure is a early circa 1911 era Combo. The wooden, glass eyed, minnow lure has 3T and cup rig hardware. The lure has three red gill marks, a single belly weight and […]

Coxe 94-C Narrow Spool Bait Casting Antique Reel

Coxe 94-C Narrow Spool Bait Casting Antique Reel

Coxe 94-C Narrow Spool Bait Casting Antique Reel This is a Vintage Bronson Coxe Model 94-C Narrow Spool Bait Casting Antique Reel. Reel is in used but very nice condition. Introduced in 1949, the No.94-C was the narrow spool version of the No.95-C economy model. These were only available in catalogs through 1951 (although some […]

Voices from the Past: Charles Kewell

Voices from the Past Fishing for History

The following note was sent to the editor of the Sporting Goods Dealer and published in June 1906, and illustrates the fact that the sheer number of named fly patterns a century ago had already reached into the thousands. Note that Charles Kewell, a reputable sporting goods dealer and inventor of a casting spoon that […]

Rinehart Jinx Lure Model 200

Rinehart Jinx Lure Model

Rinehart Jinx Lure Model 200 The Rinehart Jinx Lure Model 200 series lure is the Bass Size offering. Fred Rinehart of Newark Ohio, began producing this middle size version around 1940, three years after he (technically) started his business. The Bass size Jinx would be produced for over two decades, or 22 years to be […]

Early Shakespeare Antique Lure & Reel Rod Catalogs

Early Shakespeare Antique Lure & Reel Rod Catalogs Here is a great little glimpse back in time to the earliest Shakespeare Lure, Rod & Reel catalogs. This not only gives us an idea of the items but what the company was focused on in the early days. These are rare to find, so enjoy being […]

52 Trade Houses Part 21 Oklahoma Tire & Supply OTASCO

Trade House Tackle, Part 21:Oklahoma Tire & Supply Co. One of my favorite subcategories of trade tackle were those marketed by auto supply stores. Today, most collectors are puzzled by the connection between automobiles and fishing tackle, but in the early history of the car little distinction was made between motoring and sporting pursuits. For […]

Pflueger Ballerina Antique Lure

Pflueger Ballerina Antique Lure

Pflueger Ballerina Antique Lure The Pflueger Ballerina Antique Lure was introduced around 1952. This wooden pressed and painted eye lure was Pflueger of Akron, Ohio model series number 5400. This wooden tapering cigar shaped fishing lure has a front forward line tie. The lure itself measure 4 1/8″ in length from tip to toe and […]

Angling Echoes August 2019 The Reel Issue

ABOUT THIS ISSUE The August issue of Angling Echoes focusses on the fishing reel. I have been fascinated by fishing reels since my childhood days when I would disassemble my father’s Mitchell 308 on the dining room table at our cabin, and then struggle mightily trying to put it back together before he found me […]

Paw Paw Platypus Antique Lure

Paw Paw Platypus Lure Rainbow Trout

Paw Paw Platypus Lure Photo Gallery The Paw Paw Platypus Lure Rainbow Trout was first introduced in 1941. This strange looking plastic, raised painted eye lure, was the Paw Paw Bait Company model series #3500. The lure originally called a Wham Doodle, which was made of wood with whats referred to as an alligator eye. […]

KK Animated Minnow Antique Lure

KK Animated Minnow Antique Lure This is a scarce and very desirable K&K Minnow, made in Toledo, Ohio. This jointed, 2 piece, wooden, yellow egg yolk glass eyed minnow is a collector favorite. The lure has two segments held together via nested screw eye. The lure employs the use of 3 dual hooks held to […]

Voices from the Past: South Bend’s Customer Service

Voices from the Past Fishing for History

The following article appeared in the trade journal The Printer’s Ink for October 1921. It covers in enormous detail the customer service department for South Bend Bait Co. of South Bend, Indiana. If you ever wondered why the firm grew so large so quickly, look no further than the manner in which they tailored letters […]

Creek Chub Husky Injured Minnow Lure

Creek Chub Husky Injured Minnow Lure This Creek Chub Husky Injured Minnow Lure is a series 3500. This wooden glass eyed Creek Chub Bait Company lure made in Garrett Indiana was first introduced in 1929. The antique lure measures 5″ inches in length. The Silver Flash Example below in the gallery is believed to have […]

Creek Chub Husky Musky Lure

Creek Chub Husky Musky Blue Flash

Creek Chub Husky Musky Lure The Creek Chub Husky Musky Lure was first introduced in 1919. This large wooden lure made by the Creek Chub Bait Company of Garrett Indiana had a model number 600. While its said its intent was to be salt water fished lure as it was first introduced in Mullet Scale […]

Black Bass in Florida James Heddon Janette Hawley

Black Bass In Florida James Heddon Janette Hawley

Black Bass in Florida James Heddon Janette Hawley In the Black Bass Florida James Heddon Janette Hawley article from 1904 printing of Angling Stories we get this great article from James Heddon, I think. The book is a compilation of Angling stories from other Magazines, such as Sports Afield. We see in the article penned […]

52 Trade Houses Part 19 Scheel’s Hardware of Minnesota

Trade House Tackle, Part 19:Scheel’s Hardware of Minnesota Scheel’s is a name that is very familiar to most people from my part of the country–Minnesota. They also sold fishing tackle for a great number of years. The firm was founded in 1902 by Frederick A. Scheel, who opened a general store in the small town […]

Outing Bassy Getum Lure

Outing Bassy Getum Lure The Outing Bassy Getum lure is Circa 1926. The antique lure is a hollow, painted brass lure. As you can guess the paint doesn’t like to stick to these after they were used a few times. The fishing lure was made by the Outing Manufacturing company from Elkhart Indiana. Outing made […]

Fred Arbogast Tin Liz Sunfish Lure

Fred Arbogast Tin Liz Sunfish Lure

Fred Arbogast Tin Liz Sunfish Lure The Fred Arbogast Tin Liz Sunfish Lure has always been a collector favorite. Long before the Jitterbug and its top water treachery would take the fishing world by storm this unique and simplistic lure was born. Fred Arbogast from Akron, Ohio is synonymous with fishing on so many levels. […]

Hobbs Supply Bon Net Lure

Hobbs Supply Bon Net Lure

Hobbs Supply Bon Net Lure The Hobbs Supply Bon Net Lure was a 6 fishing hook Minnow. This wooden glass eyed bait was Circa 1952 and measured in at 3 5/8″ in length. The antique fishing lure had 6 hooks and used what collectors term as surface hardware. The Bon Net underwater minnow was made […]

Heddon 100 Antique Lure Fancy Sienna in Wood Box

Heddon 100 Antique Lure Fancy Sienna in Wood Box This is a very tough and super desirable vintage Heddon Underwater Minnow antique fishing lure, a wood box model series 100. This wooden, glass eyed lure measures 2 3/4″, and weighs in at 2/3oz. The 100 minnow model lure was first introduced in 1904 and made […]

52 Trade Houses Part 17 JC Penny

James Cash Penney (1875-1971)

Trade House Tackle, Part 17:J.C. Penney & Co.James Cash Penney (1875-1971) founded the store that bore his name in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. A lumberjack by trade, he saw the future of retailing long before most others, and by 1912 owned 34 stores across the Rocky Mountains. He began expanding eastward and by 1929 there […]

Louis A. Paeth: The Man Behind the “Fish and Feel Fit” Logo by Peter Paeth

Louis A. Paeth: The Man Behind the “Fish and Feel Fit” Logo by Peter Paeth Recently I received a wonderful series of emails from Peter Paeth, the son of painter Louis A. Paeth. Peter has graciously agreed to allow me to reprint pieces of this correspondence on the blog to share this information with everyone. […]

Louis Paeth and Harley Davidson: Fishing for a Connection

Louis Paeth and Harley Davidson: Fishing for a Connection by Peter Paeth In January ’09, I had bought a reprint of a 1926 Harley advertisement featuring a farmer in bib overalls on a motorcycle.  The illustration had the “feel” of my father’s work, and when I scanned and compared it with his verified work from […]

52 Trade Houses Part 14 The Tackle of General Merchandise Co. of Milwaukee

Trade House Tackle, Part 14:The Tackle of General Merchandise Co. of Milwaukee This week in 52 for 52 we are featuring one of the many mail order catalog companies that exploded in the post-war era. General Merchandise Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin grew from humble roots into a massive conglomerate that eventually got purchased by one […]

Alonzo H Fowler Forgotten Pioneer of the Bamboo Fly Rod Part II

Fowler Reel Ad 1884

Alonzo H. Fowler: Forgotten Pioneer of the Bamboo Fly Rod, Part II Alonzo H. Fowler:Forgotten Pioneer of the Bamboo Fly Rod, Part IIBy Dr. Todd E.A. LarsonCopyright 2019, all rights reserved.As tournament casting was the premier way to advertise a fine bamboo fly rod in the 1870s, the 1876 tournament was shaping up to be […]

The History of the F.C. Woods Expert Minnow in Ads

1901 Hozwarth Expert Lure Ad

The History of the F.C. Woods Expert Minnow in Ads The History of the F.C. Woods Expert Minnow in Ads Ads can often be misleading, especially when older pictures are used from years prior. The most famous example of this is the use of illustrations from the 1920s in Heddon catalogs from the 1950s. However […]

Alonzo H. Fowler Forgotten Pioneer of the Bamboo Fly Rod Part I

Fowler Gem Antique Fishing Reel

Alonzo H. Fowler Forgotten Pioneer of the Bamboo Fly Rod Part I Today and tomorrow, I am happy to share with everyone an article I have been working on in bits and pieces for the past seven years. It deals with a forgotten pioneer of the split bamboo fly rod, and will hopefully be the […]

Decker Lure Box Chronology

Decker Lure Box Chronology by Tim Clancy

Decker Lure Box Chronology by Tim Clancy Today we are all fortunate to have a guest author here on the blog, Tim Clancy. Here, he illuminates one of his passions: Ans. B. Decker history. Ans. B. Decker and his father and three brothers were all well known fishing guides on Lake Hopatcong, a huge resort […]

Tight Lines Tuesday Fred Arbogast

Tight Lines Tuesday Fred Arbogast

Tight Lines Tuesday Fred Arbogast Tight Lines Tuesday by John Etchieson – Fred Arbogast made fishing line too – Among the collectors of antique and collectible fishing tackle the name Fred Arbogast is well known. Fred Arbogast was one of the true pioneers of the fishing lure industry. As with so many who enter the […]

Voices from the Past The History of the Nottingham Wooden Winch

Nottingham Winch Reel

The following article came from the London Fishing Gazette, 07 September 1895. It details the background history of the famed Nottingham Wooden Winch. History of the Nottingham Wooden Winch Anglers throughout the country are by this time familiar with the qualities of the Nottingham wooden winch, and a few facts in connection with its invention […]

52 Trade Houses Part 13 Manhattan Marine & Electric Co

This colorful 1953 Manhattan Marine catalog was typical of the company's fare.

Trade House Tackle, Part 13:Manhattan Marine & Electric Co. of New York City One of my goals in 52 for 52 is to show everyone the sheer diversity of fishing tackle sellers in American history. So far, we’ve covered discount stores, department stores, wholesale hardware concerns, a bookseller, a plumbing supply store, and today, we […]

The Angling Marketplace March 8 Seller Timed Auction

March 8-18 Seller Timed Auction This auction catalog will go live and bidding will commence this Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm. After 10 days of bidding, on Monday, March 18, if any lot receives a bid during the last 10 minutes of the auction (6:50-7:00pm), an extension timer will start on that lot for 10 […]

Tight Lines Tuesday TH Chubb

Tight Lines Tuesday TH Chubb by John Etchieson 133 years ago in 1886 this very rare and beautiful russet colored silk line wrapped on a cardboard line winder and packaged inside this blue, tan, and gold leaf bordered box marked ‘OUR “SPECIAL” BRAND OILED SILK BLACK BASS LINE’ was introduced and sold by the Thos. […]

Moonlight Muskie Pikaroon Antique Lure

Moonlight Muskie Pikaroon Antique Lure This Moonlight Muskie Pikaroon Antique Lure is one of those lures that takes your breath away. Every now and then I get an antique lure in on consignment that that fits that bill. The Moonlight Bait Company bought or acquired the Silver Creek Novelty Works bait company somewhere in the […]

Live Action Frog Lure

Live Action Frog Lure

Live Action Frog Lure The Live Action Frog Lure shown in the box below is quite a fishing lure contraption. The fishing lure was first made in 1960 by the Action Frog Corporation out of Long Beach, California. This antique frog lure is 5 1/5″ inches in length overall. This crazy frog lure has a […]

Heddon Torpedo Lure Model Series 130

Heddon Torpedo Lure Model Series 130

Heddon Torpedo Lure Model Series 130 This gem is a Heddon Torpedo Lure Model Series 130. The 130 was first introduced by Heddon of Dowagiac, Michigan in 1924 and would last for 35 years until 1959. The Torpedo would cross decades of composition changes from material it was made from, eye type, hook and hardware […]

Friday Fun House February 22nd Edition

Good Reads The American Angler’s Book: Embracing the Natural History of Sporting Fish, and the Art of Taking Them Over one and a half centuries after its original publication, Thaddeus Norris’s The American Angler’s Book remains a classic heavily sought after by fishing enthusiasts and collectors. Considered father of American fly fishing, Norris’s encyclopedic compilation of nineteenth-century […]

52 Trade Houses Part 12 Davidson’s Firearms of Greensboro NC

52 Trade Houses Part 12 Davidson’s Firearms of Greensboro NC Trade House Tackle, Part 12:Davidson’s Firearms of Greensboro, NC This episode of 52 for 52 will deal with one of my very favorite kinds of trade houses: gun dealers that sold fishing tackle. Throughout history many legendary gun names–Winchester, Remington, Browning, etc.–lent their names to […]

Angling Marketplace March STA Times

March 8-18, 2019 Seller Timed Auction This timed auction catalog will go live and bidding will commence Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm. After 10 days of bidding, on Monday, March 18, if any lot receives a bid during the last 10 minutes of the auction (6:50-7:00pm), an extension timer will start on that lot for […]

Voices from the Past James Grant

Voices from the Past Fishing for History

Voices from the Past James Grant There is nothing more delightful than coming across a reference to a fishing tackle maker in an unexpected place. In my “other job” as a history professor I try to keep up on recent research. A fairly recent book I picked up called Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections […]

Yankee Doodle: The American Humorist’s Take on Victorian Angling

The cover of Yankee Doodle showing the trademark character.

Yankee Doodle: The American Humorist’s Take on Victorian Angling When I was working on my dissertation (which dealt with the überexciting subject of British travel writing in the Balkans), I would consistently be distracted by the British humor journal Punch. Punch was a legendary satirical political journal that took swipes at all aspects of British […]

JD Allen Antique Lure Fish Spoon

JD Allen Antique Lure Fish Spoon

JD Allen Antique Lure Fish Spoon This JD Allen Antique Lure Fish Spoon is kind of a 19th Century fishing lure head scratcher for me. These spoons are marked JD Allen, South Otselic, NY and a size number 4. One of the main mysteries Ive never been able to resolve is, in Arlan’s book, JD Allen […]

Friday Fun House February 15th Edition

Dr. Todds Friday Fun House Video of the week Sites & Social Media www.facebook.com/groups/NAVTC/ If your on Facebok, you need to drop by and say hello to the folks @ National Antique & Vintage Tackle Collectors Cody, Chris, Rick, Clay & Cindy moderate a large and continually growing FB Hangout. With over 580 active members, […]

52 Trade Houses in 52 Weeks Part 11 Henry C. Lytton’s The Hub of Chicago

Henry C. Lytton's portrait ca. 1904.

52 Trade Houses in 52 Weeks Part 11 Henry C. Lytton’s The Hub of Chicago Trade House Tackle, Part 11:Henry C. Lytton’s “The Hub” and its Fishing Tackle This week we get a fun little history of a venerable Chicago iconic institution–Henry C. Lytton’s “The Hub” stores and their foray into fishing tackle. Henry C. Lytton […]

The Fishing Valentine

The Fishing Valentine: A Photographic History Valentine’s Day started as a Victorian British tradition but really began to take off in America around the end of the nineteenth century. By 1910, the tradition of bringing Valentines to school to distribute to classmates began and created a long-running tradition here in the United States for school […]

February 2019 Angling Echoes

February 2019 Angling Echoes About this Issue Someone once said February days are the teeth of winter, and where I grew up, the month served as the heart of the ice fishing season. Now that I no longer live in the frozen northland, I find it a strange month that can be minus 20 one […]

Paul Bunyan Electro Lure

Paul Bunyan Electro Lure

Paul Bunyan Electro Lure The Paul Bunyan Electro Lure was First made in 1938. The Paul Bunyan Antique lure company was out of Minneapolis St Paul Minnesota and was a series model number 1000. The lure was not made at first by the Paul Bunyan, however like many other lures the patents were acquired. The […]