An Original Louis Rhead Painting

One of my all-time favorite writers was Louis John Rhead. Many people know Rhead from his books, and it's certainly not a revelation to many that he was also one of the notable painters of his day.

Below is a photo of an original painting sent in by Doug Bucha. Thanks, Doug! It's really beautiful. If anyone is interested in it, please contact Doug directly. He's in the NFLCC Directory.



-- Dr. Todd

UPDATE: Louis Rhead Waga-Waga Found!

UPDATE: Louis Rhead Waga-Waga Found!

Joe Stagnitti just posted this on Joe's Board; since the posts on Joe's disappear very quickly I am copy this over to my blog so it chronicle this awesome lure! Joe writes:

Wow....sometimes, the lure gods smile on you.....

I bought this bait from Bill Kennedy, he got it from a large online auction lot with lots of nice old baits. We both thought at the time that although this bait was very well made, that it was just a cool piece of folk art.....imagine what I thought immediately after reading the blog!!!
Just couldn't believe when I scrolled down to Rhead's illustration of the bait, and couldn't dig this bait out of the folk art case fast enough!!!



Congrats, Joe! You've got an awesome, awesome old bait there and the only known Rhead Waga-Waga. What a rare New York lure!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

Jerry Martin posts that Rhead may have made other wooden minnows. I don't consider his frog to be "truly" wooden, as according to his own instructions on how to make the lure in Fisherman's Lures and Game Fish Food much of the body was made of cork, but he did advertise several wooden minnows which we sadly do not have any pictures of yet. Also, Jerry noted that the Waga-Waga was once advertised with a metal tail--now that would be a heck of find!

-- Dr. Todd

Louis Rhead's Waga-Waga and Waga-Pup Fishing Lures

Louis Rhead's Waga-Waga and Waga-Pup Fishing Lures

I have always been fascinated by Louis John Rhead, the children's book illustrator-turned-fishing scribe. In particular, I recall about 15 years ago a wonderful article in the NFLCC Magazine about Rhead and his production lures, which he made and sold as '"Art Nature Lures" through William Mills in New York and from his home in Brooklyn. The article mentioned that he only made a few true casting plugs (the vast majority of his other baits being fly rod lures) and that there was only one wooden lure he ever made: the Waga-Waga. The author noted he had never seen one before.

This stuck in the back of my mind. Recently on an unrelated search I ran across an exciting tackle ad--pictured below.


Run in Forest & Stream for July 1917, it was interesting because not only did it list the Waga-Waga in two sizes (the smaller being referred to as the Waga-Pup) it also declared that the lure had a "carved wood propeller." Fascinating! This ad was the first I'd seen by Rhead aimed at the bass fishing (casting) market.

My excitement built as I saw that in that same issue, Rhead had written an article called "Bass as Gamy Fighters." Knowing Rhead from years of research, I knew he never passed up an opportunity to publicize his own lures. I turned to the second page of the article--and sure enough, there it was. The first image of Louis Rhead's only wooden fishing lure I had ever seen.


Although the picture shows the 2" Waga-Pup, we can be assured this is just a smaller version of the larger Waga-Waga.

So now that we know what Rhead's only wooden lure looks like, does anyone out there have a lure with a carved wooden tail marked as an "unknown?" You may just be holding a Louis Rhead Waga-Waga!

-- Dr. Todd