Saturday, January 23, 2010

Deconstructing Old Ads with Bill Sonnett



The Heddon Slick Trick Spoon



I was recently was really surprised to see a Heddon "Slick Trick Spoon" in a marked box for sale on Joe's Board. I had almost forgotten that this obscure bait even existed. Today's ad is a flyer dated August 1 1932 and sent to dealers by Heddon prior to the 1933 season. The only other mention of this lure I've seen is a somewhat obscure reference in correspondence at the Heddon Museum. Even that only describes the bait and does not mention it by name. Some 20 years ago while surveying some of the largest Heddon collections in the NFLCC, I could locate only two examples of this lure and if I'm not mistaken those came out of the factory archives. Since that time perhaps a half dozen to my knowledge have been found. The real mystery is that this "Feature Lure" never made it into the 1933 Heddon Catalog or any other Heddon catalog. Don Ludy called me a few years ago and asked me what a Heddon Slick Trick Spoon was. He had found one pictured in a hardware supply catalog. What ever happened to this mystery lure remains a mystery.

-- Bill Sonnett

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