Deconstructing Old Ads with Bill Sonnett

THE FIRST PLASTIC LURE ?


We had a discussion a while back when someone ventured the opinion that the first plastic bodied fishing lures were made in the very late 1920's. My own example of an earlier plastic bodied lure is the subject of a write up from the April 1917 National Sportsman Magazine. Introduced in 1917, the second year Al Foss offered lures, the Oriental Wiggler was an immediate success and was still being made in the 1950's. The Nifty Minne was available with a clear celluloid plastic tube a few years before that as seen in this 1915 ad from Field & Stream. It could be argued that both these lures relied on something other than the celluloid portion of the lure. A live or dead minnow in the case of the Nifty Minne and a strip of porkrind in the case of the Oriental Wiggler. "Celluloid" plastic was registered by that name in 1870 so I'm sure there must be older examples than these out there. After reading this I'm sure someone will come up with earlier examples of "Plastic" lures. As I've said before, there is very little that is actually "new" in the field of fishing lures.


-- Bill Sonnett