Mister Twister Toads . werethese the first ?

[scaleface]

I've had these Mister Twister lures since the early 80's . The first lures of these kind I ever seen . I also had some cool  fluke like by Mister Twister baits that caught the heck out of fish but used them all up . These lures were discontinued but ahead of their time .

 

[Chris_97TJ]

I still have a couple of those also. My uncle worked for Saia trucking in the 80's, and they handled moving Mister Twister's products to stores across the county. He would bring me home cards and cards of soft plastics all the time, all different kinds. They were about all I used, since my folks didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on fishing tackle. 

[Catt]

I'm pretty confident H&H Lures of Baton Rouge was first with their Swamp Frog & their Cocahoe Minnow was the first "boot tail" swim bait.

[WRB]

What date was the boot tail minnow? Worm king in San Diego came out in the early 70's and Smitty's Kelp Critter in the late 60's, both hand pours for the salt water market. The H & H lures look like injection molded production lures and good quality.

Tom

 

 

[Deleted account]

35 minutes ago, WRB said:

What date was the boot tail minnow? Worm king in San Diego came out in the early 70's and Smitty's Kelp Critter in the late 60's, both hand pours for the salt water market. The H & H lures look like injection molded production lures and good quality.

Tom

 

 

I don't know who made them, but back in the late 60s, early 70s a Salty Dog was the lure of choice for weakfish (grey sea trout) in NY/NJ. It was basically a white sassy shad with a pink tail on a lead jig head. When the run was on, we'd catch a bunch of good ones each tide.

[Catt]

@WRB H&H been around since the late 50s early 60s. Outside of the Gulf Coast not well known but their Cocahoe Minnow is killer on Specks-n-Reds 

[WRB]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

@WRB H&H been around since the late 50s early 60s. Outside of the Gulf Coast not well known but their Cocahoe Minnow is killer on Specks-n-Reds 

I think most of the swimbaits started along coastal areas by salt water anglers. Our coastal baitfish are mostly anchovies about 4" to 6" long and thin with green backs silver sides so that's what the guys like Worm King made up. Same anglers fish both fresh and salt water so it's natural for it cross over. Just hope some of the history survives, it's very interesting. Thank you for sharing. H & H toad was way ahead it's time, good looking bait.

Tom

[Catt]

@WRB H&H Lures made the first spinnerbait I ever saw (1962) & are still a huge seller at $1.99. Like the Beetle Spin everyone cut their teeth throwing them. We threw colors no one today would dream of throwing, red/white, black/yellow, blue/chartreuse & other weird colors 

[Elkins45]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

@WRB H&H Lures made the first spinnerbait I ever saw (1962) & are still a huge seller at $1.99. Like the Beetle Spin everyone cut their teeth throwing them. We threw colors no one today would dream of throwing, red/white, black/yellow, blue/chartreuse & other weird colors 

Wait, I’m not supposed to be throwing black/yellow?

[smalljaw67]

I'm not sure if the Mister Twister toads were the first but I do know which one got that style of bait popular. It was the Sizmic toad, a small company that was bought out by Uncle Josh and still sold using the Sizmic brand name.

[Team9nine]

Always fun researching old bait and fishing history, but almost impossible to literally track down exact "firsts" since so much came from tiny local startups before being mass produced by larger companies, hence giving the impression of being the originator of something...plus the small local stuff usually is poorly documented (history wise). Here's a link to more on the Mister Twister bait, the Hawg Frawg. H&H started in 1959, and interestingly, both it and Mister Twister, which patented the twister tail in 1972, were Louisiana companies, so I'm sure there's some connection to the design in question between these two companies and locale.

 

http://bassfishingarchives.com/retro-ads/the-start-of-the-toad-invasion

 

[Crestliner2008]

Well, I gotta chime in here my friends. Back in the '60's an old time fisherman by the name of Bill Plummer, designed and sold what he called the "Bass Frog". He developed this frog from a kid's toy which was a rubber frog with legs and a tube (going into the hollow body) and a bulb. When a kid squeezed the bulb, the frog's legs extended, causing it to jump! He put a huge weedless hook through the body. Removed the pump. Colored it natural frog and used it as a surface lure. It flat out caught some enormous bass back then.

 

It was first introduced within the pages of "The Fisherman's Bible" - if you can recall that far back! That was the first thick paperback yearly publication, which also introduced Buck Perry's Spoonplugging creation. Bill developed the lure on the waters of Quabbin Reservoir, where I started fishing back in the 70's - and which I still fish today! I had several of these "killer" baits, in my "hip roof", metal tackle box. (I bet there's a lot of guys here that have no clue of what I'm talking about!) Wish I had some of those lure now.....they'd be worth their weight in gold! LOL!

[scaleface]

41 minutes ago, Crestliner2008 said:

Bill Plummer

I had a Bill Plummer Super Frog with the wire weed guard . Also had a Snag Proof Frog which Ithink was the first of its kind . Had a Snag proof leach and crawdad to . 

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Always fun researching old bait and fishing history, but almost impossible to literally track down exact "firsts" since so much came from tiny local startups before being mass produced by larger companies, hence giving the impression of being the originator of something...plus the small local stuff usually is poorly documented (history wise). Here's a link to more on the Mister Twister bait, the Hawg Frawg. H&H started in 1959, and interestingly, both it and Mister Twister, which patented the twister tail in 1972, were Louisiana companies, so I'm sure there's some connection to the design in question between these two companies and locale.

 

http://bassfishingarchives.com/retro-ads/the-start-of-the-toad-invasion

 

 

While I can not verify this to be true but local lore is that both Mr Twister & H&H were heavily influenced by Mattel's Creepy Crawler.

 

"Creepy Crawlers (or Thingmaker) is an activity toy made by Mattel, beginning in 1964. The toy consists of a series of die-cast metal moulds resembling various bug-like creatures, into which is poured a liquid chemical substance called "Plastigoop", which comes in assorted colours. The mould is then heated to about 390 °F (199 °C) in an open-face electric hot plate oven. The Plastigoop is cured by the heat, and when cooled forms semi-solid, rubbery replicas which can be removed from the mould."

[Team9nine]

53 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

While I can not verify this to be true but local lore is that both Mr Twister & H&H were heavily influenced by Mattel's Creepy Crawler.

 

"Creepy Crawlers (or Thingmaker) is an activity toy made by Mattel, beginning in 1964. The toy consists of a series of die-cast metal moulds resembling various bug-like creatures, into which is poured a liquid chemical substance called "Plastigoop", which comes in assorted colours. The mould is then heated to about 390 °F (199 °C) in an open-face electric hot plate oven. The Plastigoop is cured by the heat, and when cooled forms semi-solid, rubbery replicas which can be removed from the mould."

I kid you not, I owned one of those kits back around 1970-1971 and remember making all those critters. The one I had you actually molded all the body parts and could then "assemble" them to create whatever type bug you could imagine in you head.

2 hours ago, Crestliner2008 said:

Well, I gotta chime in here my friends. Back in the '60's an old time fisherman by the name of Bill Plummer, designed and sold what he called the "Bass Frog". He developed this frog from a kid's toy which was a rubber frog with legs and a tube (going into the hollow body) and a bulb. When a kid squeezed the bulb, the frog's legs extended, causing it to jump! He put a huge weedless hook through the body. Removed the pump. Colored it natural frog and used it as a surface lure. It flat out caught some enormous bass back then.

 

It was first introduced within the pages of "The Fisherman's Bible" - if you can recall that far back! That was the first thick paperback yearly publication, which also introduced Buck Perry's Spoonplugging creation. Bill developed the lure on the waters of Quabbin Reservoir, where I started fishing back in the 70's - and which I still fish today! I had several of these "killer" baits, in my "hip roof", metal tackle box. (I bet there's a lot of guys here that have no clue of what I'm talking about!) Wish I had some of those lure now.....they'd be worth their weight in gold! LOL!

Bill Plummer is one of my favorites. Whitefish Press sells a book written about Bill by one of his close friends that has a lot of interesting details about the man. For instance, he developed several other lures for HH, but none were as popular as the frog. The frog made him a millionaire. He was also very much against tournaments.

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

3 hours ago, Catt said:

 

I kid you not, I owned one of those kits back around 1970-1971 and remember making all those critters.

I had a set too .

[Jaderose]

20 hours ago, Catt said:

@WRB H&H Lures made the first spinnerbait I ever saw (1962) & are still a huge seller at $1.99. Like the Beetle Spin everyone cut their teeth throwing them. We threw colors no one today would dream of throwing, red/white, black/yellow, blue/chartreuse & other weird colors 

90% of the time, I'm throwing a spinnerbait, it's an H&H.  Love em and caught a ton of fish on them

 

I'm pretty partial to Orange/Brown.  Not even kidding.  Also.....If you pay $1.99 you are paying too much...lol

[WRB]

I don't know who made the 1st spinnerbait besides Shannon that date way back before the sixties. I remember the 1st single blade safety pin shape spinnerbait was exactly like H & H and bought at lake Roosevelt AZ the fall of 1961 when I started at ASU. The spinnerbait was on a peg with no bag or label and all white and worked great! 

The early Plummer frog had a more streamlined head, the Super frog had a bigger head and still have them both.

Good stuff Catt!

Tom

[Crestliner2008]

WRB - The old Shannon Twin Spin! Boy does that bring back memories. I do not know why twin spins are not popular today? A great cross between jig and spinnerbait. I haven't used on in years, but I betcha they'd dynamite!