Jim Donaly Redfin Floater Minnow Antique Lure

The Jim Donaly Redfin Floater Minnow Antique Lure is a collector favorite. Jim Donaly patented his first lure in the early mid teens, coincidentally with lure that went by the same name. We see this later on with lure makers, as they use the same names or model numbers, and it can muddy the water for anyone not accustomed to following the bread crumbs. To this day one of the things that has stuck and resonated with me early on in my couple decades of collecting was, him telling me, “Lure companies were in the business to make money, not to make it easy for us collectors”. I should pay him a royalty for as many times as Ive passed that on or used it since.

We have a nice example this week in on consignment, click below to view.

Redfin Floater Lure

To differentiate it from its previous incarnate, the word floater was added to it. The lure is a plain large wooden lure that was made to be fished on the surface. The large buoyant plug has a large simple aluminum prop which is found sometimes stamped with the makers name. This large bait will be often found in a Jersey Rig hook pattern as is this example. The reason was for this lure maker was his residence in Newark, New Jersey and their law allowing only three hook points on any single fishing apparatus. The lure employed the use of a simple screw eye as the means of connecting the hooks to the body. Most all Donaly baits found are crudely painted, as one would expect when your spouse and child are turning these out at the kitchen table. You can find them in a series of simple colors or patterns usually painted in primary colors.

While the WOW gets the credit for being the most recognized antique lure do to its form and hardware transposed onto the later Heddon lure, the Crazy Crawler, the Jim Donaly Redfin Floater , was no less important and was integral part of the Donaly Antique Lure Legacy. In the gallery below we round it out by coupling it with the correct era and very scarce lure box.