Old Tackle Article in Raliegh News & Observer

Antique fishing tackle, and fishing history, has been in the news quite a bit of late. This is certainly a good thing, especially when the articles get at the heart of what collecting tackle is all about. A good article by Mike Zlotnicki entitled "Tackle Box Treasures: Some Old Lures are Worth Big Money; The Rest are Nice Mementos" in The Raliegh News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina shows how almost all collectors get started: someone gets their father/grandfather/uncle/neighbor's tackle and tries to figure out what they got.


Mike Zlotnicki's Martin 5KS-12 Salmon Plug
The article interviewed NFLCC members Jim Fleming, NFLCC Gazette editor (but not, as the article erroneously notes, editor of the NFLCC Magazine), and Dan Basore of Chicago, architect of a traveling exhibit currently on display until October. Among the author's treasures were a Martin salmon plug (pictured above) and a Heddon King Basser in the box. These lures, as the author notes, were part of a lawsuit between the two companies in the late 1930s.

I thought it was a thoughtful and interesting article that certainly will inspire a few people to dig out their old tackle, and hopefully get them to appreciate what they have.

-- Dr. Todd