Early Lipless Baits

[Mobasser]

I was going through some of  my old stuff last weekend, and found a shad colored Heddon Bayou Boogie. I'm pretty sure I bought this one in the early eighties.                                                       I remember it being a good lure, and catching quite a few fish with it. These were 2" long, and came in several colors. They're easy to recognize because of the slant or angle cut face, which is usually painted red.                                                                       At some point, the Whopper Stopper company became involved with these lures, and I've seen some new in package with both Whopper Stopper and Heddon logos on them.              There were other slant face lures. The only one I know of was the Pico Pearch bait. It looked almost identical to Heddons Bayou Boogie. I've never fished a Pico Pearch.                                        I think this slant face style of lure was very popular from the 1950s- 60s clear up into the early eighties. The fact that they made them in different sizes and so many colors says there was a good market for them.                                                  I think they lost popularity when the Bill Lewis Rattletrap hit the scene.           I wish they would bring them back.                          Does anyone remember fishing the Bayou Boogie, or the Pico Pearch?

 

 

[Jigfishn10]

I still have a few bayou boogies. I remember they dropped like a rock and you had to fish them fast. if you can keep them in the middle of the water column they were great for stop - n - go.
 

They weren’t bad on a lift drop either. 

[Catt]

One reason the Rat-L-Trap became more popular down here at least was availability. I could buys Traps out of Bill's station wagon, local stores around Toledo & Rayburn carried them. Bayou Boogie & Pico Perch we had to wait for tackle shops to receive their monthly allotment.

[Bankbeater]

I have a couple of Bayou Boogies and one or two Pico Perch baits that belonged to my dad.  I don't remember ever fishing with them.  I do remember fishing with a Heddon Sonic back in the late '70s.  Those sonics were killer baits.

[scaleface]

I used both of them .  Pico Perch shallower in emergent timber. Bayou Boogies deeper , yoyoing them off the bottom.

[F14A-B]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

One reason the Rat-L-Trap became more popular down here at least was availability. I could buys Traps out of Bill's station wagon, local stores around Toledo & Rayburn carried them. Bayou Boogie & Pico Perch we had to wait for tackle shops to receive their monthly allotment.

I’ve tried Yozuri rattle baits and Luckycraft LV rattle baits and none of those can even get close to the effectiveness of the OG rattletrap and I’ll buy them 10 at a time. My only gripe is they’ve moved up to about $10 bucks a piece. Nonetheless I’ll buy em as I see them 😂 They are that good. 
They may not look like those pretty JDM models but I’m not caring about that at all. Fish destroy OG traps! 

[king fisher]

Whopper Stopper is the company that made the original Bayou Boogie.  At that time Heddon's number one lipless lure was the Sonic, and larger Super Sonic.  

 

The summer of 1976 was when I started bass fishing, with lures which everyone I new referred to  as bass plugs.  Up until that summer the only bass I caught were while fishing for trout with night crawlers under a bobbers.  I bought my first pass plug which was a Heddon Sonic in June, and by July I had a new friend the Bass Monkey.   Everyone fisherman I new swore by the Sonic, and I also had great success on the lure.

 

By the summer of 1977 I had acquired a half dozen plugs, and the sonic was still my number one plug.  Then the Bait Monkey convinced me to order a Rattletrap out of the new Bass Pro Shops catalogue. 

 

A friend of mine who swore by the Super Sonic had turned 16 got his drivers license and his dad let him take their small boat to lake by himself.  He invited me to go, and I couldn't wait.  His dad always insisted on fishing for crappie, and now we were going to be able to fish solely for bass all day.  I tied on my new Rattle trap the 1/4 oz version in baby bass color.  My friend started with a Super Sonic.   I caught bass on almost every cast, while my friend tried every lure in his box and couldn't get a bite.  That was the end to my Heddon Sonic addiction, and the Bait Monkey made best friend for ever status on that memorable day.

 

I always wanted to buy a Bayou Boogie  but at that time every tackle purchase was agonized over for day's, and the Sonic always ended up in my box, and after my discovery of the  fishing catching power of the Rattle Trap I never even looked at another lipless for 35 years.

 

The Whopper Stopper Bayou Boogie and Hellbender are probably the only two popular bass lures of the 70,s that I never tried.  I always wanted to buy one, but my local hardware store didn't carry that brand and I always ordered some other lures from Bass Pro. 

 

I may have to buy one and give it a try simply to satisfy my curiosity after all these years.  

[scaleface]

I still have a few Picos and Boogies but they are not in my crank box. I have moved on to other baits. When I first  started fishing from a boat back in the 70's ,  a 200 acre lake near by had a lot of emergent timber. I talked with  guys who fished it and Picos were a favorite lure. Thats how I started fishing them. 

[rgasr63]

I have a couple boogies in my Dad's old stuff. The rattle trap and the super spots were the big thing back when I was coming up. Somewhere along that time the diamond shad came out too. I really miss the Diamond shad it was a good lure for me also.