UPDATE: Bill Bryan, Bagley Lure Designer Part 2

UPDATE: Bill Bryan, Bagley Lure Designer Part 2

Fascinating how the world works. Florida lure guru Bill Stuart of the Museum of Fishing (and former owner of Bagley) writes:
 
Bill [Bryan] was my best friend and hunting and fishing partner for 46 years.  He worked for me twice over our years of friendship, first in a research support business and then as a lure designer at Bagley.  He was my bird dog with his finger on the pulse there when I was thinking of buying the company. 

Bill's widow, Hazel, still lives here in Bartow and goes to our church.  I will take a copy of the article to her tomorrow night.  My wife of going on 50 years will tell you that Bill and Hazel came with the marriage package and we have had a great friendship over the years.

An avid hunter and a compulsive fisherman I went on many trips with him just for the fellowship and to shoot photos and enjoy the great comradery.  He and Hazel both attended Erskine College in South Carolina.  Bill was in charge of all things mechanical and I was in charge of rattlesnakes.  We made a great team, because I had none of his talents and he could not stand rattlesnakes.  I have about a 6' rattlesnake skin on my wall that I shot out from in front of him.  Photos of Bill, both of his bird dogs, pointers, hang on my walls.  They were not the best dogs in the world, but they were good enough for us.

The last quail hunting trip I went on was in the early 80s.  It was a hot day and by noon the dogs were whipped.  When Bill told his old dog to load up she just stood there and waited on him to pick her up and lay her in the jeep.  From where he put her she did not move an inch.  We loaded the guns and headed for the cow pens.  About a mile later I stopped the jeep and Bill asked what I was doing.  I told him I was pointed on a full covey in the road about 30 yards ahead of us.  We got out, left the dogs in the jeep - actually neither of them even lifted their head to see what was going on.  Bill and I traded sides, we walked up the covey, he killed three to the left and I killed three to the right and as far as we were concerned one could not have a better ending to a day in the woods.  

I had never seen that article and thanks for giving us a look at it!  Have a great day!

Bill sent an addendum not long later:

I  just told [my wife] Nancy what I had written to you about my relationship with Bill and she said, "well, you might as well tell him about my best fishing expedition.  It was when Bill [Bryan] and Hazel had been appointed by my mother as our official chaperones, as we were not yet married.  I caught a big tarpon in Boca Grande Pass and Bill Bryan held me in the fighting chair!"

So many thanks to Bill Stuart for sending more information about his great friend Bill Bryan. I am so pleased to be able to share some information about a lure designer, as we know so little about them...

-- Dr. Todd