News of the Week: September 10, 2012

Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!

NEWS I MISSED

Chinese fisherman nets fish worth cool half million.


THE MONDAY 10: The Ten Fishing Stories of the Week You Need to Know

The Big Lead: Actress Emma Watson (Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies) calls her gift of a fly rod from Karl Lagerfeld "one of the best things I've ever been sent."

The Tuna Congress hopes to save the iconic Bluefin.

Fishing's greatest reward is a shared memory.

What lies beneath is a fish that makes derby anglers humble.

Planer Truth: trolling lures outdoes live bait.

The vintage tackle winner this week from Field & Stream is the Hayden's Multi-Wag.

British pop star wants to make his own TV fishing show.

Does Idaho have a world record smallmouth living in it?

Russell John "Boom" Corrente, fishing guide and inventor of the "Hands Free Fishing Rod Holder" has passed away.

Finishing With a Flourish: New exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum.


-- Dr. Todd

1000 Words

This week in 1000 Words we feature a late 1970s photo of one of my favorite ballplayers from my youth -- "Fast" Freddy Lynn, the outfielder for the Boston Red Sox. As the Bosox are having one of their most awful years in a decade or more, it might be nice for them to reminisce about the days when the outfield of Lynn, Rice, and Yastrzemski (and Dwight Evans) struck fear in A.L. pitchers. Here he is spin fishing in one of the local Boston streams.


-- Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads: The South Bend Woodpecker Bait – Leader of the Pack (1914)

The South Bend Woodpecker Bait – Leader of the Pack

Soon after the appearance in 1902 of the original “Heddon Dowagiac Perfect Surface Casting Bait” (“Slopenose” to collectors), various companies developed similar baits that simply used a wooden collar that was lathe turned as part of the wooden body. I'm not sure who started this but the 1906 Moonlight Floating Bait is my candidate. One thing is for sure, this style of bait was popular and easy to produce. Each company had its own name for their version but it remained for the young South Bend Bait Company in 1911 to come up with what was probably the most popular model of this style and a name that came to be applied by fishermen and collectors alike to the entire class the lures. The name of course was “Woodpecker”

The first South Bend Woodpeckers are somewhat hard to find as the small company had not yet “caught on” with the fishing public. These first model Woodpeckers are easy to identify. They have, as shown below, a large (4 &3/4 inch) body with only two hooks. The hooks are always very large (makes one wonder how big the bass were back then). The single belly hook is hung on the earliest style South Bend hook hardware, which is a somewhat flattened aluminum washer and screw eye. This hardware was abandoned for a shallow round-bottomed nickel cup in time for the 1913 season.

Earliest style South Bend Woodpecker cc1912. Note it came with two very large hooks and the belly hook is hung on the earliest style South Bend hook hardware a "smashed" aluminum disc/cup.
The next known South Bend catalog is for the season of 1914 and that brings us to today's ad from the June 1914 issue of National Sportsman magazine. This is one of the few ads I have seen that features only this lure. It was called in the 1914 catalog the “Midget Woodpecker”. This smaller two-hook size (3 inch body) would become the standard for most fishermen as it was more in tune with the size bait favored over much of the country and yet it still weighed ¾ oz which meant easy casting with the tackle of the day.


By 1914 the Wood pecker was supplied in two sizes with the larger standard size equipped with three treble hooks or two weedless hooks and available in Red & White, Frog color and Luminous. The Midget was available in Red & White, and Luminous. Both sizes could be had with weedless hooks if desired.
 
Given the number of South Bend Woodpecker Baits seen today at shows it is obvious that it was very popular. Some time ago I read an article that had appeared in the local paper around 1915. It suggested that three baits were very effective on local Bass lakes and were really all one needed. The three were live frogs, a green crackle finished underwater minnow and a red and white “woodpecker” style bait.

Three South Bend Woodpeckers. The oldest at the top is the 1912 model. In the middle a 1914 Midget Woodpecker with a round-bottomed nickle cup. At the bottom is a post-1918 Midget Woodpecker with a flat-bottomed cup and a now-changed, round line tie.

With such a simple body “woodpecker” type baits were easy to duplicate and while many were produced not only by the major lure companies, many more were made by small operators in home workshops. At that time in my hometown of Jackson Michigan there was a thriving industry of pattern makers and machine shops. When one looks through the city directories of the day, “lathe operator” and “Pattern Maker” are seen over and over in the column marked “occupation”. Consequently, we see in older tackle boxes a great variety of “folk art” and the products of small, long-forgotten entrepreneurs. Some home operators such as Art Holzapfel (Mushroom Bait) and Louis A. Wiford (Croaker) have become widely known among today's collectors. The identities of many more are now forgotten.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The number of “woodpecker style” baits around indicates a great enthusiasm for their effectiveness “back in the day.” I am ashamed to admit that with all my experimentation with older baits, I have not given the South Bend Woodpecker a workout. We will have to remedy that in the near future.

 
Tight Lines!

-- Bill Sonnett

The Friday Funhouse

Video of the Week

An awesome film from the 1930s about fly fishing and camping in the Cascade Mountains.



12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them

Love this Topper Japanese spinning reel in the box!


This is one rare South Bend line spool.


There are like six people in the world who would find this cool. I'm one of them.


Yeah. This Heddon bait casting outfit is pretty much IT.


If you picked this week to be the one with two line spools in it in the weekly pool, you're the lucky winner!


A Martin spinning reel salesman's sample is a fine find indeed.


This Red Wing Black Bird is a superb color on a CCBC plunker.


An awesome K&K animated minnow.


I like the simplicity of this vintage spring hook.


A dealer box of G.M. Skinner Mascalonge baits is a nifty find.


I usually don't list things with outrageous reserves or huge starting bids, but this H-I kit was too cute to pass up.


This is one neat Nichols bait in the box.


As always, have a great weekend--and be kind to each other, and yourself.

-- Dr. Todd

Snarls & Backlashes with Finn Featherfurd: The Tackle Hawks, Part I

The Tackle Hawks, Part I

Well I guess this is as good a time as any to introduce myself. I'm Finn Featherfurd, and Todd's given me a soap box every now and then to spout off from. As I'm from Todd's neck of the woods I've known him (and his father and brother, who are also incredibly sharp collectors) since the late 1980s. I watched him grow from a rail thin undergraduate to a not-so-rail thin professor. I chose the name Finn Featherfurd because I like it, and because I admired Sparse Grey Hackle and always wanted to write under a pen name. It lends just the right amount of mystery to it, don't you think?

When I approached Todd about subjects to write on for his blog, one thing he suggested was I do something with newspapers and fishing. As a former columnist for several big papers, I learned the inside workings of the paper business, and I've always had a soft spot for them. So I thought about it, and keeping with the theme of the Fishing for History blog, I suggested I pen my first series of articles about one of my favorite subjects: old newspaper ads.

Yes, newspaper ads. To be more specific, newspaper ads hawking FISHING TACKLE. And yes, I'm aware that Wild Bill Sonnett does a weekly column on fishing tackle ads -- and I might add does them better than me, or anyone else on this green earth, could hope to do. Seriously folks, you ought to be carving a statue of Sonnett out of marble for all the pearls of wisdom he's dropped into your unsuspecting laps. There isn't a single episode of Deconstructing Old Ads that doesn't have multiple revelations in it. I couldn't hope to reproduce that kind of success in my wildest dreams.

So I'm going to take a different tack.

As a lover of newsprint I have always been fascinated by pictorial advertising, which really became popular in papers around 1900 and reached its apex in the '20s and '30s. While most of us are used to seeing the great magazine tackle ads ala Larry Smith (a reference you young 'uns are likely to miss), papers carried a lot of wonderful pictorial advertisements. Take for example the ad below for B.D. Grant from the May 24, 1906 Princeton (Minnesota) Union. You know what I like about this?


Every single God damn thing. Can I say God damn? I guess I'll know if it gets published. Let's start with the image. Classic turn-of-the-century (and not this lame 2000 b.s. either) styling when men fished in jackets with jaunty caps. And that mustache, neatly groomed. I'm sure this fine angling gentleman rode a velocipede to the babbling brook.

He's baitcasting for trout, by the way, which would certainly make the fly fishing zealots (like our dear blog owner) faint dead away, tut-tutting as they gently swoon to the ground, careful not to harm their $2000 bamboo fly rods. I never could figure out why it's OK to spin or baitcast for every fish on earth except trout. One of my favorite things to do is find a pod of "fly anglers" as they like to call themselves and cast a Mepps right between them from the other side of the stream.

Don't get me wrong, I love fly fishing, but it's just another way to catch a fish. No better or worse than any other, and despite what the Gingriches and Halfords say, not any more ethical either. But I digress.

Let's look at the text of the ad. Skinner Trolls, "Dawagac" Minnows, Mechanical Frogs…I'm getting excited thinking about it. If I were reading this over morning coffee in the summer of 1906 you can be damn sure I'd beat a hasty path with my horse-and-buggy down to B.D. Grant's shop; Even the address--Odd Fellows' Block--is just perfect.

Over half a continent away, the following year the Hauser brothers, presumably Germans of good, solid stock, of Salem, Oregon were putting together their own tackle ad, run in the April 22, 1907 issue of the Salem Daily Capital Journal.


It's certainly a different idea on how to run a tackle ad, along the lines of "throw everything including the kitchen sink" at the reader. It does have a nice pictographic header, but the crux of the ad is all about shoving as much tackle down your throat as will fit. Whereas Mr. Grant was content to titillate with his "Dawagac" minnow literary references, the Hausers depict a Colorado spinner, a H.J. Frost automatic fly reel, the "Yellow King" fly and a trunk rod (7 pieces mean a hell of a lot of ferrules and the action of a dead branch). Fortunately the 010 rod shown was only $3. I'm sure it made for excellent kindling.

The "Yellow King" intrigues me most. I did a Google search for it but gave up after about a minute as I was inundated with slightly disturbing links. Ah the internet. You're always only a click away from your eyeballs boiling in their sockets. Anyway, I'd love to know what the "Yellow King" looked like. It looks too big to be a dry fly, probably not a wet either. Likely either a bass fly or streamer…

The Hauser brothers should have taken a lesson from the Salt Lake Hardware Company. The ad below, dated June 24, 1916 and run in the very Mormon-y Salt Lake newspaper Goodwin's Weekly, is a perfect newspaper ad. Well, it should be, considering the paper it was run in billed itself as "A thinking paper for thinking people."


What's not to like? A beautiful piece of "Silhouette" art. Again, a pair of sharply dressed anglers, a snappy fly rod and reel, and a pipe to lend a touch of elegance. "From the very lightest and most delicate fly casting equipment up to heavier, sturdier tackle for lake fishing…" Not much more needs to be said here.

More so than even Mr. Grant's ad (and certainly more than the Hauser brothers), THIS ad makes me want to go fishing. It makes me want to buy fishing tackle, also. And THAT'S what a good newspaper ad is supposed to do.

We'll jump into some more classic newspaper ads next week.

-- Finn

Finn Featherfurd is the pseudonym of a sad and lonely retired professor and newspaper columnist who has spent the better part of the past four decades (unsuccessfully) chasing fish in the Lower 48. A long-time collector of vintage fishing tackle of all kinds, he is currently fascinated by pre-1920 children's fishing reels (40 yards and smaller). When the spirit moves him, he will contribute occasional pieces and essays to the Fishing for History Blog. He can be reached at finnfeatherfurd@yahoo.com.

Voices from the Past: Scarf Joint Fly Rods (1838)

The following excerpt is from the article "Fly-Fishing" published in the American Turf Register for June 1838. It argues the best fly rods are those made with a "scare" joint -- a scarf joint in today's lexicon. There are some who still subscribe to this theory, and a few makers, like Bob Clay, are manufacturing modern bamboo scarf rods.

The best rods for trout-fishing are those that play with a regular spring, and which are neither too stiff towards the butt nor too supple at the top; and the most convenient length is from twelve to fifteen feet. The latter length is preferable for a tourist who may visit . streams of various width; as with a fifteen feet rod he can fish a narrow water as well as one that is comparatively broad, and cast with such a rod, if he be an artist, twenty-four yards of line, with about as much certainty as he can eighteen or twenty with a rod three feet shorter. In fishing a wide stream, the command of five or six yards more water is of great advantage to the angler, and the power of casting so much more line will frequently enable him to fish a likely place without the necessity of wading. Bag-rods which are joined by means of sockets are to be preferred to such as are joined by means of screws, as the latter, in consequence of being more stiff at the joints, do not bend in so regular a curve. The top piece of a fly-rod ought never to be joined to the next lower length by a socket, but ought to be neatly fitted to it by a 'scare' and tied on when at the water-side with a piece of well-waxed twine—an operation which an angler who has the use of his fingers will perform in two minutes.

-- Dr. Todd

News of the Week: 04 September 2012

NEWS OF THE WEEK



Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!

THE TUESDAY 10: The Ten Fishing Stories of the Week You Need to Know

The Big Lead: How fly fishing is shaping the global economy…in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Alabama man passes on his passion for angling.


Invasive species are always a threat, everywhere they are found.

Rockport bait stand owner arrested for felony theft.



Reel Time trivia .

Learning on the fly.

A Kansas man is spoon feeding white bass.

Kids + fly rods + trout = fun.

An angler's passion for Mountain lakes.

A "Best Fishing Story" contest from Upstate New York.

The accidental fishing guide is going strong after two decades.

Finishing with a Flourish: Even though he's not a Knick anymore, Jeremy Lin still attracts press everywhere he goes, even fishing.


-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: The Year Without A Bamboo Fly Rod? The Great Cane Deficit of 1890

The Year Without A Bamboo Fly Rod? The Great Cane Deficit of 1890

We speak a lot about "Pre-Embargo" cane in the bamboo fly rod world. This term depicts Tonkin cane brought to America before the embargo brought on by the Korean War (and not resumed again until the 1970s). The embargo with communist China meant that only those with deep stocks of cane could continue to build split bamboo rods after this.

What is of interest is that this was NOT the first time that bamboo for fishing rods was in short supply in America. In 1890, as we'll discover, there was a cane shortage that affected American rod makers and anglers alike. Here are a pair of articles from the summer of 1890 discussing this "Cane Shortage." The first is from The Pittsburgh Dispatch, 01 June 1890 and the second is from New Ulm Weekly, 06 August 1890.

The Supply of Rods Doesn't Keep Up with the Supply of Anglers

The manufacture of fishing rods are in a state of mind over the fact that the stock of Calcutta bamboo poles from which the rods are made has given out, and it is impossible to secure another stock of those poles until next July, which will be too late for this season's trade. It shows that the anglers are increasing faster than the rod dealers imagined they would, and the dealers are totally unprepared to meet their demands.

The Japanese bamboo is almost as tough as the Calcutta variety, but the joints are so close together it is difficult to cut it up to any advantage. The action of the Japanese is perfect, but the tip is fatally weak and cannot be used as a substitute for the Calcutta tip. It is not generally known that America makes the best fishing rods in the world.

Bamboo Fish-Poles

The manufacture of fishing rods are in a state of mind over the fact that the stock of Calcutta bamboo poles from which the rods are made has given out, and it is impossible to secure another stock of those poles until next July, which will be too late for this season's trade. It shows that the anglers are increasing faster than the rod dealers imagined they would, and the dealers are totally unprepared to meet their demands.

Such a state of affairs never existed before in the history of fisherman's supplies, says the New York Evening Sun. It shows that the anglers are increasing faster than the rod dealers ever imagined they would, and the dealers are totally unprepared to meet their demands.

Split bamboo rods will therefore go up in price during the rest of the season.

These bamboo poles are imported in bundles of fifty, and usually brings about $15 per bundle. Today one of these bundles could not be bought for love or money. This particular bamboo is sought after and used in preference to others owing to the strength of its enamel. Its life as a rod is twice as long as that of a rod made of a Japanese bamboo, for instance.

The Japanese bamboo is almost as tough as the Calcutta variety, but the joints are so close together that it is difficult to cut it up to any advantage. The action of the Japanese is perfect, but the tip is fatally weak and can not be used as a substitute for the Calcutta tip.

It is not generally known that America makes the best fishing-rods in the world. They last longer and the workmanship is far superior to those produced by the best English makers.

-- Dr. Todd

Labor and the Fishing Tackle Industry

Labor and the Fishing Tackle Industry

Today, the majority of us will celebrate the working man in America by watching a ball game, attending a fireworks celebration, or stuffing ourselves with burgers and hot dogs. I thought I would take a minute to reflect on the meaning of Labor Day as it concerns the history of fishing in America.

Labor Day had humble beginnings, being organized by the Central Labor Union and celebrated for the first time on Tuesday, 05 September 1882 in New York City. By 1884, the first Monday in September was chosen as the official Labor Day, and was soon widely emulated. The New York Times ran a detailed article on 07 September 1886 entitled "Parades in Other Cities: How Labor Day Was Observed by All Classes of Workmen." That year in New York City itself, 14,000 working men paraded before Mayor Grace. In 1894, it became an official federal holiday.


Labor Day Parade in Buffalo, NY, ca. 1900
The fishing tackle industry was largely built on the backs of the American working man and woman. It was one of the early industries to hire women in large numbers (almost all factory dressed flies were tied by women, and women predominated in the manufacture of fish hooks) and over the years offered gainful employment to hundreds of thousands of employees, American workers who built communities, raised families, and fought and died for their nation.

Mostly, these fishing tackle industry employees' names are lost to history. For every Charley Heddon or William Shakespeare, Jr., there were 100s of workers whose names we will never know but who designed, built, and packaged the tackle we use and collect. Fortunately, a few of their names and deeds have been preserved. People like Nettie Cruse, forewoman of the dressed fly division of Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Akron, Ohio, who died tragically in the great fire that consumed the Pflueger factory in 1891. Louis Valentine, who worked from 1906-1958 assembling Pflueger reels by hand, and who was thought to have completed 500,000 Pflueger Supremes in his lifetime. Don Martin, who left his position on the factory line at Shakespeare to join the Marines in 1941 and died in the Pacific fighting at Tarawa. I bought some Shakespeare spinner blanks from Don's baby sister who remembered that he had the kindest eyes.


Anonymous Shakespeare worker assembling reels at the Kalamazoo, MI factory
Organized Labor and the fishing tackle industry had at times a difficult relationship. Pflueger underwent a series of turbulent strikes in the 1930s, caught up in the labor turmoil in Akron spawned at the great rubber factories like Goodyear and Firestone. Shakespeare and Heddon suffered violent strikes in the post-World War II era, and even smaller companies like The Sunset Line & Twine Co. in California had labor problems that made national news. But these were exceptions; the majority of tackle companies, big and small, had placid relationships between management and labor. In fact, in my interviews with former employees of Pflueger I conducted in preparation for my next volume of Pflueger essays, everyone I talked to had nothing but good things to say about working in the tackle factory. From what I know of Shakespeare, Heddon, and other companies, there was a similar sense of community elsewhere too.

So this Labor Day, in between trips to the cooler or during the seventh inning stretch, pause for a moment and reflect how even in your chosen hobby--whether it is researching fishing history or collecting fishing tackle--the fingerprints of the American working man and woman are everywhere. They built your fishing tackle, and they built your nation.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day.

-- Dr. Todd

1000 Words

One of my favorite vintage fishing photos appears below. It shows two girls ca. 1900 watching their father (presumably) fishing in a stream. It's just a charming image that covers everything I like in a great fishing photo, sans the fish.


-- Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads: An Older Bait Gets a New Life...and Then Another (1952)

An Older Bait Gets a New Life...and Then Another

The Heddon Tadpolly Spook was introduced as “NEW” in this two-part advertisement in the May 1952 issue of Outdoor Life magazine. As is usually the case, great things were expected. It was a lure that had good action, floated at rest and traveled five or six feet under the surface when retrieved. It was light for its 3 inch length weighing only 3/8 oz. A spinning size was introduced the following year in 1953.

Ernst Radke, in his 1955 book New Angles to Bass Fishing, gave the Tadpolly a strong review, noting that it landed softly on the water and had produced well for him at night over sunken weed beds. It had an attractive look that appealed to me and I purchase one in the late 1950's with the usual high hopes. I don't ever remember taking a bass on it. After a time, one did not hear much about this lure and it disappeared from the tackle shop shelves for what seemed like several years.

With the introduction of Coho Salmon into the Great Lakes and a growing interest in trolling for Coho, Brown Trout and Steelhead in those same bodies of water an odd thing happened. Someone discovered that the somewhat forgotten Tadpolly was a very effective lure in this new venue. Tadpolly sales skyrocketed and new colors, new sizes, and models with internal rattles soon hit the market. By the 1980's at least seven different models were on the market. The original bait was equipped with standard Heddon surface hardware, light hooks and a screw eye line tie. None of this was nearly strong enough handle a large salmon. My guess is that many a Coho swam off with hooks or part of the lure before Heddon came to the rescue. Internal metal plates were soon molded into the plastic body which provided a greatly strengthened line tie as well as hook attachments. Some changes were also made over the life of the Tadpolly in the shape of certain models to add structural strength to the lure.
 
An original Heddon Tadpolly Spook with standard Heddon surface hardware.This pictures shows the internal plate hardware at the rear of a later Tadpolly Spook. This plate was molded in at both hook attachment as well as the line tie to withstand the strong runs of Coho Salmon.
With the introduction of so many new and sometimes bazaar colors, the Tadpolly has taken on a third life as a natural for the “color collector” of Heddon Plastics.

Two early Tadpolly Spooks with "gold eyes". The thin neck was later beefed up to ad the strength needed for heavy salmon. 
-- Bill Sonnett