Donaly Redfin Minnow Lure

The Donaly Redfin Minnow Lure is one of those pre 1920’s lures that’s a treasure to hold or own. The lure was made in 1911 with some indications that it may have been earlier. That makes this wooden glass eyed antique lure over a century old. I only hope I can hold up as well as this lure. Having lived through 2 Great World Wars a Great Depression and a series of conflicts Id say its in pretty nice shape. This 100+ year old lure is hand painted in either green and white, or red and white color finishes. The antique lure has three adorning flasher fins and measures in at 3 1/4″ in length. The Redfin lure having a double hook under the belly and a single hook at the rear. Jim Donaly of Newark New Jersey, would give us collectors and fisherman another lure late in the 20’s that wold last decades after its patent procured from Heddon. The famous Wow antique lure that would become the Crazy Crawler. Jim Donaly was not a one horse show and made a half dozen or more lures spanning a few decades.

We have a Redfin Minnow in on Consignment this week, please click below to view.

Redfin Minnow

The late ought’s and early teen years were bristling with fishing lure competition. We see some of the greatest lure makers of all time emerge in this 15 year time span. Sport fishing was just coming into its own with advents in both fishing technology and media to get the word out about it. We see iconic sporting magazines such as Field and Stream offer fishing contests with $2000 first prizes. We also see a lot of fishing gluttony and pressure on the species, even as early as 1901 with the Sturgeon collapse in Oregon due to over fishing. Its nothing to see old photos with a single fishers catch being in the 20’s. So while these were the some of the greatest times for fishing lures and makers this also would be the spark to light the fuse for us to end up being our own worst enemy.