Old School Lures

[jtharris3]

I ran across this guys channel on YouTube. Some of these lures bring back memories!

 

 

 

[Catt]

Yeah he's fun to watch ?

[Captain Phil]

There have been very few truly new bass lures in the past 50 years.  The first "bass plugs" were top water frogs carved by James Heddon out of a broom handle around the turn of the last century. When I was a kid back in the fifties, spoons were popular here in Florida.  Some people attached a spinner to the front of a spoon and the buzz bait was born.  When the Rapala came out, it was all the rage.  You couldn't buy one as they sold as soon as they hit the shelves.  The plastic worm changed everything.  In the seventies, the Big O craze got everyone into crankbaits.  Many modern lures are based on lures of the past.  A great example is the Whopper Plopper. The only "new" lure I have seen in the past 50 years has been the Chatterbait.  The best antique lure in my tackle box is the Heddon Tiny Torpedo.  

[BrianMDTX]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

The best antique lure in my tackle box is the Heddon Tiny Torpedo.

That, or a 40 year-old black Arbogast Jitterbug would be mine. 

[scaleface]

I've been watching his channel .   I have a lot of old school lures and some still get fished .

[Captain Phil]

2 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

That, or a 40 year-old black Arbogast Jitterbug would be mine. 

The man that taught me to bass fish was a friend of my father's from our church.  His kids were too young to fish and I was eager to learn.  This was before electric trolling motors, so we would take turns sculling his jon boat from the front.  When I was out of school in the summer, we would fish together at night.  We only used one lure at night, a black musky jitterbug.  I can still remember the sound of that lure coming through the dark.  We didn't catch many fish, but the fish we caught were big.  Many times we would be splashed by a big fish hitting near the boat.  Great memories.

[Guitarfish]

Oh yeah.  You could fish the blup blup blup fast or slow..  And I second the Tiny Torpedo.  I built up a stock of them last year.

[Captain Phil]

2 minutes ago, Guitarfish said:

Oh yeah.  You could fish the blup blup blup fast or slow..  And I second the Tiny Torpedo.  I built up a stock of them last year.

 

[BrianMDTX]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

The man that taught me to bass fish was a friend of my father's from our church.  His kids were too young to fish and I was eager to learn.  This was before electric trolling motors, so we would take turns sculling his jon boat from the front.  When I was out of school in the summer, we would fish together at night.  We only used one lure at night, a black musky jitterbug.  I can still remember the sound of that lure coming through the dark.  We didn't catch many fish, but the fish we caught were big.  Many times we would be splashed by a big fish hitting near the boat.  Great memories.

That’s one lure you can tell how fast the retrieve is by the sound of it. It is a great night fishing bait. 

[JimT]

6 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

There have been very few truly new bass lures in the past 50 years.  The first "bass plugs" were top water frogs carved by James Heddon out of a broom handle around the turn of the last century. When I was a kid back in the fifties, spoons were popular here in Florida.  Some people attached a spinner to the front of a spoon and the buzz bait was born.  When the Rapala came out, it was all the rage.  You couldn't buy one as they sold as soon as they hit the shelves.  The plastic worm changed everything.  In the seventies, the Big O craze got everyone into crankbaits.  Many modern lures are based on lures of the past.  A great example is the Whopper Plopper. The only "new" lure I have seen in the past 50 years has been the Chatterbait.  The best antique lure in my tackle box is the Heddon Tiny Torpedo.  

 

when I was a kid, Rapalas are all we fished. Can't tell you how much allowance I spent on those things, I was always losing them 

[Fishingmickey]

The Heddon Dying Flutter has a special place for me.  I still think that five bass limit I put together that foggy April morning 30 years ago is still my biggest limit ever. 

FM

[Alpster]

19 minutes ago, Fishingmickey said:

The Heddon Dying Flutter has a special place for me.  I still think that five bass limit I put together that foggy April morning 30 years ago is still my biggest limit ever. 

FM

This is nearly identical to a Smithwick "Devil's Horse" another great old bait.

 

 

Another old favorite of mine is the "Snagless Sally". Great search bait!

 

 

[the reel ess]

I'd like to amass more vintage lures. I ran across this little gem ;last weekend at the beach and bought it for $5. I learned from another member it's called a Johnny Rattler and probably from the 70's. Although it looks brand new. I bought it from an older guy who used to live on Clark's Hill Lake and I'm pretty sure he hasn't fished in quite a while. It's either unused or has a custom paint job.

[Captain Phil]

The Johnny Rattler was a great Tarpon bait as well.  Anyone remember this lure?  

[Team9nine]

24 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

The Johnny Rattler was a great Tarpon bait as well.  Anyone remember this lure?  

 

Johnny O’Neils Weed Wing...or a similar version

[Catt]

4 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

so we would take turns sculling his jon boat from the front. 

 

Most guys here have no idea what that is!

 

I did it with a 2' long paddle in one hand & worked a Hula Popper with the other.

[jbmaine]

Back when I was a kid 1950's-1960's I used jitterbugs, crazy crawlers, hula poppers. I still have a couple of them from back then.

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I'd like to amass more vintage lures. I ran across this little gem ;last weekend at the beach and bought it for $5. I learned from another member it's called a Johnny Rattler and probably from the 70's. Although it looks brand new. I bought it from an older guy who used to live on Clark's Hill Lake and I'm pretty sure he hasn't fished in quite a while. It's either brand new or has a custom paint job.

 Similar to the Dalton Special . I still use one .

[whitwolf]

I still throw Rebel crankbaits to this day. They aren't  considered vintage but there are a few in my non-fishing collection of Rebels.

[Mobasser]

In the late 1960s, my older brother and I rowed around a 2 acre farm pond almost every evening. His favourite was a small, frog colored Bass O Reno. Mine was a black mid size Hula Popper. We always talked and argued about which one was better. One night after dinner my brother caught a 4lb bass on the Bass O Reno. That settled that argument. But, he was a much better fisherman than I was, older, and could cast better. I think both these old baits are still good.

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, whitwolf said:

I still throw Rebel crankbaits to this day. They aren't  considered vintage but there are a few in my non-fishing collection of Rebels.

As  you know I still throw the Deep Wee R's a lot . I never caught much on the Rebel Humpback .

[SC53]

6 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I'd like to amass more vintage lures. I ran across this little gem ;last weekend at the beach and bought it for $5. I learned from another member it's called a Johnny Rattler and probably from the 70's. Although it looks brand new. I bought it from an older guy who used to live on Clark's Hill Lake and I'm pretty sure he hasn't fished in quite a while. It's either unused or has a custom paint job.

Johnny Rattler or “Mr. Excitement “ we called them. Great for bass but spotted sea trout loved them. Tarpon too as Phil said. That was probably a standard color and not custom as they had a lot of wild color combos on them. 
That Weedwing was the ticket down here in Florida back in the day. 
I grew up using a Nip-I-didee prop bait, Dalton special, devils horse, Rapala purple creme worm and Johnson spoons. 

[Ratherbfishing]

I'll have to see if I can get some of the new tube worms.  They were/are awesome.

 

I had a fairly large number of snakeheads but I don't know what happened to any of them.  Would like to get those back.

[Captain Phil]

9 hours ago, SC53 said:

I grew up using a Nip-I-didee prop bait, Dalton special, devils horse, Rapala purple creme worm and Johnson spoons. 

I forgot about the Nip-I-didee.  Great big bass bait, especially in choppy water.

 

[the reel ess]

13 hours ago, whitwolf said:

I still throw Rebel crankbaits to this day. They aren't  considered vintage but there are a few in my non-fishing collection of Rebels.

I believe that was the first crankbait I ever owned and I caught a lot on them. I used them and T rigged worms exclusively for bass until I was about 18. My dad was of the opinion that you could catch al bass at any time with a worm. I bought some cheap spinnerbaits from BPS around that time and showed him otherwise. The bait monkey bit and I never stopped.