McCollum Bush Hog spinnerbaits (70s, 80s)

[Big-Bass]

Flea market find for today:

This one has the vinyl skirt (before living rubber) and a very long arm (not used to seeing these).  Does anyone know what kind of Bush Hog this is?  These were the favorite spinnerbait of my late father and I have a few of them, just none with this large of blades and such a long arm.  I know this is stock but is the version called the Top Hog?  Most of my tandems have smaller baits and a shorter arm with a Sampo style swivel attaching the bottom blade.  If anyone has info, please let me know and if any of you have any Bush Hog spinnerbaits that you would like to sell, I would be interested.  Thanks and best wishes on the water!

[roll tide]

Yes this is the Top hog version of Clay's Bushhog. The difference being the longer arm and the bigger blades. When I was a teenager back in the 70's my friend that taught me how to bass fish took me to Clay Mc Cullum's house in Tuscaloosa . I traded him a hundred or so pounds of wheel weights for bushhogs. Man i had a grocery bag full of them. Story was that some patients at the V. A. helped assemble the lures.

  Mr. McCullum had quite a reputation as a bass buster here in Tuscaloosa , Al. He had 5 giant mounts to prove it. One weighing over 14 lbs. They would be displayed at local bait shops to promote his bushhogs.

  Today I only have a few of em left , none in the orig. package.

  Hope you get to read this , running across your post brought back some really cherished memories. Hope you find this interesting..........Carl

[Scott Jeter]

I still have several including the Mini Bush Hog and just found one in original packaging and ordered it!!

[Fishes in trees]

Those baits, with the longer arm and the twin large Colorado blades, were for a technique known as "bulging".  It was similar to throwing a buzz bait, except the idea was to reel fast enough to make the blades bulge the surface, without actually breaking the surface plane of the water.  You could use any number of different trailers on those baits, I preferred the old Zoom twin tails.   Back in the day, I had a few days when bulging was the ticket, if you cracked the surface of the water, might as well reel in faster, because that cast was spoiled.  I've seen days when bulging worked big time and buzz baits didn't work at all.

 

At the time this style of fishing started ( as far as I remember hearing about it) most guys who threw these kinds of baits were using pistol grip rods and 20 lb mono.  Popular reels for this technique were the old tear drop shaped Lew's Speed Spool or, the cool guys had the narrow spool Ambassador 4600.  High water around drowned bushes was probably the most successful area to use this bait.  Some place where it was a little too snaggy to throw a lipless crank.

[Big-Bass]

I try to find as many of these as I can.  My dad who passed in 2015 used these and they were his favorite bait.  I remember being a young boy and going to a place near me called Zambor's and Bush Hog's were all over the shelf!