The original Super Rat by Lloyd Talent. Fishing history with pictures

[casts_by_fly]

Hi all,

 

I mentioned these in a thread over the winter that I might be able to get some original carded super rats. My dad dug them out for me and I’m sharing some pictures here for posterity and others curiosity. 
 

This isn’t the first frog lure but it’s the first one that worked really well for us. I don’t know the original creation date of the super rat but I remember fishing them as early as 1990-1991 I believe.  They were designed for Alabama milfoil mats and that’s what we used them for in PA. They were especially deadly in the ponds and at night. 
 

Compared to modern frogs, these are lighter, smaller, and much softer. They are comparable to a pad crasher junior in size but they might just weigh 3/8 of an ounce. The body is very thin and soft. As such, you need a quite light tipped rod to throw them.

 

There two other versions that were similar. There was a super frog which had a wider flatter body and one other which I think was more mouse shaped was a popping face and more square body. Mann’s bait company ultimately bought out the lure from Lloyd Talent  Bait co and added some variants also. 
 

This is an original box as they came from Lloyd talent. There were no mixed colors, you got 2 dozen all of the same. These are just the leftovers we had. There were three colors- black, white, and chartreuse. I can’t tell you how good the white is on a full moon night in the ponds. 

 

Thanks

rick

 

 

[OmegaDPW]

Those are freaking cool. Never saw them before. Thanks for sharing. 

[Tennessee Boy]

Very cool.  I used them on Guntersville in the 90s after Tallent sold to Mann’s. In the fall boats would be lined up on the main river channel throwing rats at the grass line.  You own some fishing history there.  Lloyd Tallent was a legend in Guntersville.  Thanks for sharing the photos.

[casts_by_fly]

I forgot to include the picture of the box lid. Bert was my uncle so these were reserved for him, hence why they never sold. 
 

[Tennessee Boy]

I was surprised to see the address of the company.  I used to live near there.  It was a nice residential neighborhood across the street from a farm then.  It’s behind a Target now.

[Pat Brown]

Reminds me a lot of the Strike King Pad Perch.  My most productive frog.

 

[Munkin]

Back in the day when it was called Rat fishing before the hollow body frogs came out. The baits I had were made by Mann's in the early 90's.

 

Allen

[casts_by_fly]

6 minutes ago, Munkin said:

Back in the day when it was called Rat fishing before the hollow body frogs came out. The baits I had were made by Mann's in the early 90's.

 

Allen

 

Mann's bait bought out these super rats from Lloyd talent.  When they bought them out they added some new colors (grey and brown that I know of) and some new shapes (a mouse, a little tube like a spook, maybe one more).

 

I also just remembered what the third original shape was.  It was a flat face andmore square body kinda like a popping frog.  It was about the size of the standard Arbogast Hula popper (about 2.5" long and 1.5" wide).

[Munkin]

10 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

Mann's bait bought out these super rats from Lloyd talent.  When they bought them out they added some new colors (grey and brown that I know of) and some new shapes (a mouse, a little tube like a spook, maybe one more).

 

All the ones I had were white that I bought at K-Mart.

 

Allen

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, Munkin said:

 

All the ones I had were white that I bought at K-Mart.

 

Allen

 

yep.  They kept the white/black/chartreuse versions and added on.

 

This was the first round.  I don't know that Lloyd talent produced them for Mann's, but I would suspect so.  The first editions were basically identical to the original.  

 

Here was a second or third edition in the mouse.  

 

 

 

Here is an example of the 'frog' vaiant.  Note the wider and flatter back body.  The ebay listing for this one is described wrongly as the rat.  I also note the variants on the sides of the pack.  That's what I was alluding to about Mann's expanding the lineup.  

 

The ghost was the walk the dog tube (pic below).  There was also the goblin which I think was a little bigger.  I have a chartreuse ghost somewhere downstairs I think.

 

 

the pygmy frog was originally just the popper.  Aparently the ghost and pygmy frog are still available.

 

 

 

[Team9nine]

Tallent sold off to Mann's in 1989 from the reports I've read. He said demand got too great and he couldn't meet it. One newspaper quoted him, "I didn't want to have to put up with all the problems of getting bigger. I enjoy fishing. I'm a fisherman, not a bait manufacturer."

 

Some of the early versions sold by Mann's included "The Ghost," "The Frog," "The Rat," and "The Super Rattlin' Rat."

 

 

 

[casts_by_fly]

13 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Tallent sold off to Mann's in 1989 from the reports I've read. He said demand got too great and he couldn't meet it. One newspaper quoted him, "I didn't want to have to put up with all the problems of getting bigger. I enjoy fishing. I'm a fisherman, not a bait manufacturer."

 

Some of the early versions sold by Mann's included "The Ghost," "The Frog," "The Rat," and "The Super Rattlin' Rat."

 

 

 

interesting. I’ll have to ask my dad how old these ones are then. This would date them before 1989 then. 

 

 

[Team9nine]

6 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

interesting. I’ll have to ask my dad how old these ones are then. This would date them before 1989 then. 

 

 

According to the stories I read, Loyd created his ‘Rat’ around 1974 after a few years of tinkering with plastics. Started out as a ‘local’ bait, but eventually got noticed by some pros. Became more popular, got featured on/in Bassmaster, then BPS wanted a huge amount. At that point, Loyd knew he couldn’t meet demand and sold off the rights to Mann’s. All this happened over a 15 year period (74-89), so all the Tallent originals would be pre- 89, and the Mann’s stuff ‘89 or later. 

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, Team9nine said:

According to the stories I read, Loyd created his ‘Rat’ around 1974 after a few years of tinkering with plastics. Started out as a ‘local’ bait, but eventually got noticed by some pros. Became more popular, got featured on/in Bassmaster, then BPS wanted a huge amount. At that point, Loyd knew he couldn’t meet demand and sold off the rights to Mann’s. All this happened over a 15 year period (74-89), so all the Tallent originals would be pre- 89, and the Mann’s stuff ‘89 or later. 

 

I'll have to check in with my dad when he first started ordering them for the shop.  My grandma had a bait shop for a long time in the basement of the house.  The basement door opened into a single room shop that was filled to the brim.  Being in western PA, most of it was trout- joe's flies and rooster tails, powerbait and paultski's eggs, terminal tackle, etc.  She was right on the river so got a lot of carp and catfish guys too so had plenty of stink baits, doughball, heavier lead, etc.  Of course she all sorts of worms in the fridge in the back room stored neatly in dapartment store shirt boxes which at the time were 24" x 10" x 4" and hard plastic with hard lids.  She must have had 4 dozen of them in there, all full in the spring.  But my dad was (and is) a bass fisherman first and foremost.  So he kept a modest bass section, mostly of things popular for the river but also things he was interested in.  He hand molded/tied spinnerbaits and buzzbaits for the racks.  I remember the grainy BASS footage from Guntersville where the Rat must have made its public debut.  I was yound then, but we watched the tournaments every weekend on TNN I think it was.  

[casts_by_fly]

Checked in with Dad.

 

These were from the first batch that he sold after advertising them and were hand made in his garage.  He had been doing them locally on a small scale but then on one of the fishing shows he advertised them as available to order.  My dad called him up the next day and chatted with him.  They were hand dipped in his garage and hand packed onto the bags and cards he shipped them on.  This was about 1983 or so.  My dad ordered 5 dozen at the time and these are from that original order.

 

 

[pdxfisher]

When I was a kid in the 70s I used to fish a Snagproof frog all summer long. I still have some of those in my box.

 

Other lures that I used to use from that era were a Mann's jelly worm, Zorro aggravator spinnerbait, Mann's one-eyd jack spinnerbait, hula popper, jitterbug, and a rapala or rebel minnow plug (they weren't called jerk baits back then). This thread really took me back.