Water Fun + Fishing

Hooked on

Antique Fishing Lures

by Mike Petrucelli photos courtesy of indianafishinglures.com

Some 25,000 years ago, a prehistoric artist carved a relief of a salmon into the wall of the Abri du Poisson (Fish Rock Shelter) Cave in France. Millennia later, a lot of ink is spilled and a lot of pixels are posted about fish and fishing. And, why not? Fishing is a means of survival, a job, and a pastime. Why shouldn’t it also manifest as art?

Art is where you find it. In the case of fishing, you can see that kind of expression in antique fishing lures that date back to the early 1900s. “A lot more detail went into them, a lot more thought went into them,” said Travis Dunn, who collects antique fishing lures made in Indiana and displays them on his website and blog, indianafishinglures.com. “They were different than the ones now that you use only a few times.” Dunn has collected antique Indiana lures for about 15-20 years now, when an eBay search for a Rapala bass lure he was looking for turned up some vintage baits that were selling for $50, and even as much as $100.

He got interested in the history of some of these unusual-looking lures and he was, well, hooked.

“It was kind of like treasure hunting. I just started collecting old lures,” he said.

The Stuff They’re Made Of

The oldest ones, he said, tended to be metal, but manufacturers started using more wood, with different color schemes and fun adornments, like glass eyes. Another material that became popular was called Tenite, which was a type of plastic developed in 1929. Despite it being plastic, Dunn said, it tended to degrade over time.

Cooks Plug lure

Artful Designs

But the designs, while ostensibly supposed to mimic something a fish would want to eat, went from the straightforward (think a replica of a minnow) to the avant-garde (the whirl oreno, made by the South Bend Bait Co., one of the largest fishing tackle manufacturers in the country), to the downright kitschy (as evidenced by the South Bend-made Lloyd’s Mermaids, which were lures that were shaped like, you guessed it, mermaids).

Lures That Catch

Nowadays, Dunn said, lures and baits look more alike than back in the days of the Cooks Plug— which was shaped like a beer bottle, complete with label. But, he concedes, there’s a reason for that. “The flip side is a lot of (the older lures) did not work so well,” Dunn said, which would no doubt firmly put some of these lures in the decoration category.

When it comes to lures that do work well, your best bet is, of course, a bait shop. LAKElife country is, of course, ideal for fishing, whether for sport or for eating.

Fish For The Catch

Chief among these is the muskellunge, or muskie. The muskie is one of Indiana’s largest fish, and is highly prized as a trophy fish.

In Kosciusko County, muskie are stocked in Webster Lake, and the Barbee and Tippecanoe lakes chains. If you’re fishing them in Webster Lake, your catch needs to be at least 44 inches long to keep.

It’s better to fish for them when the water is cool (below 72 degrees), according to Joe Denton, owner of Ye Olde Tackle Box in North Webster. When the water gets warmer, the fish go deeper and bringing them up into the warmer layers of water can actually harm them.

But not to worry, Kosciusko County lakes boast plenty of fish, such as bass, perch, crappie, and bluegill. These fish are better suited to the warmer water temperatures and to summer fishing. Denton also added that lakes like Pike, Winona, and Waubee are seeing decent numbers of walleye as well.

Fishing Facts

As with anything wildlife-related, there are rules. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has a comprehensive listing of fishing license costs and requirements (you can buy a year-long license as well as a single-day license), catch limits, size requirements, and other regulations. If you’re just getting your feet wet with fishing, the DNR has three free fishing days left this year: June 5 and 6, and September 25. Find all you need to know at the DNR links below. www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/ fishing/fishing-guide-andregulations/ Bait and tackle shops abound in the area. Find a list of some of them, as well as fishing guide services at visitkosciuskocounty.org.

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