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The Major Lure Companies (cont.)
While Heddon, Creek Chub, Shakespeare, Pflueger, and South Bend may be considered the largest and possibly most significant of the many fishing lure companies of old, the lure manufactures listed below are not to be ignored. They were very successful in their time, and are very important today to Antique Fishing Lure enthusiasts all around. Once again, this is only a partial compilation of the hundreds of varieties, colors, and styles of lures that were available for the early fisherman to add to his/her fish catching arsenal. I hope that you will find them as fascinating as I do.
Fred C. Keeling Company / Rockford, Illinois
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One of the most fascinating old lure companies, to me at least, would be the Fred C. Keeling Company out of Rockford, Illinois. Not a lot of information is known about this company other than the fact that the variety of lures that he manufactured seems almost endless, due to the fact that he mixed and matched almost any lure and hardware configuration at any given time. The same can be true of his boxes. It is hard to say which box is accurate because it seems he sometimes used what he had in stock at that time. It is plausible to say that anything is possible when it comes to Keeling's lures. What is known is that he purchased the company from J.L. Clark (maker of the Clark Expert Minnows), also of Rockford, in 1914 and continued to sell a line of his own very popular Expert Minnows among many other lures of his own design. Some example's of Clark Expert Minnows can be seen in the "Misc. Lure Company" section on this site. Some of Keeling's most interesting lures were produced prior to 1920, and are much harder to find and sought after by collectors. Although some of the color schemes on Keeling lures are spectacular to say the least, there is also a down side. Not unlike some other smaller early misc. lure manufacturers of this time period, a proper method of priming the lure bodies was not performed, which allowed for paint failure. With that said, it is usually very difficult to find many of these lures that do not have some amount of paint loss. Some examples of Fred Keeling's lures and boxes can be seen below.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Oval Body 5-hook Expert Minnow / c. 1915
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Round Body 5-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1914
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Round Body 3-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1914
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Oval Body 5-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1915
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Oval Body 3-hook Expert Minnow / c. 1915
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Round Body 5-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1914
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Keeling cup rigged 3-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1915
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Keeling Round Expert and Box. / c. 1915
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Keeling Red Wing and Box. / c. 1917
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Keeling St. Johns Wiggler. / c. 1914
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Keeling Oval Body 3-hook Expert Minnow. / c. 1915
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Keeling Single Hook Minnow. / c. 1914
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Keeling St. Johns Wiggler and Box. / c. 1914
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Round Body Midget Expert Minnow. / c. 1914
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Unidentified Keeling Minnow with Box. / c. 1915
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Keeling Single Hook Minnow. / c. 1914
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Keeling Baby Tom in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Baby Tom in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Scout in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Baby Tom in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Baby Tom in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Pike Kee-Wig in Green Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling Pike Kee-Wig in Red Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling Midget Tom in the Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Surface Tom and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Surface Tom and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Musky Tom and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling Musky Tom and Box. / c. 1920
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Rare Keeling's Intro Flapper Box with 2 variations of the Flapper. / c. 1923
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Keeling Kee-Wig and Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling Flapper and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling's Tom Thumb and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling's Bass Kee-Wig and Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling's Midget Tom Thumb and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling's Bass Kee-Wig and Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling's Musky Crab and Box. / c. 1926
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Keeling's Surf Kee-Wig and Box. / c. 1928
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Keeling's Surf Kee-Wig in a different Box from the previous picture. / c. 1928
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Keeling's Tom Thumb in Pre-Patent Lure Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling's Tom Thumb in Crab Color and Box. / c. 1920
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Keeling's Tom Thumb and Box. / c. 1920
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Uncataloged Kee-Wig with Special Hook Rigging / c. 1928
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Moonlight Bait Company / Paw Paw, Michigan
Silver Creek Novelty Works / Moonlight Bait & Novelty Works / Paw Paw Bait Company
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The Moonlight Bait Company was formed in 1908 by a group of fishermen in a local bass fishing club in Paw Paw Michigan. Much of their fishing was done at night, thus the name Moonlight Bass Club. They carved a very effective floating night bait and began to market it due to its popularity. The new company grew and eventually expanded in the early 20's and merged with The Silver Creek Novelty Works from Dowagiac, Michigan. Now operating as The Moonlight Bait and Novelty Works, they continued to successfully produce a number of very popular fishing lures until their final sell out in the late 20's to the Paw Paw Bait Company. Paw Paw continued to manufacture lures for nearly forty more years. Moonlight lures are not common, and this makes them very desirable among many antique lure collectors. Paw Paw lures were made in many styles and colors which make them a very fun lure to collect, and very popular among old lure collectors also. Some examples of both of these company's lures can be seen below. Once again, these examples are only the tip of the iceberg.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Moonlight "Bug" Box. / c. 1916
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Moonlight Floating Bait and Box #1. / c. 1910
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Moonlight Kingfisher Floating Bait and Box. / c. 1910
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Moonlight Weedless Floating Bait and Box. / c. 1910
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Moonlight Fish Nipple and Box. / c. 1911
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Moonlight #1900 and Box. / c. 1926
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Moonlight Jointed Pikaroon and Box. / c. 1928
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Moonlight Fish Spear and Box. / c. 1914
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Moonlight Pikaroon and Box. / c. 1923
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Moonlight Baby Bass Seeker Jr. and Box. / c. 1930
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Moonlight 99% Weedless Lure and Box. / c. 1926
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Moonlight Wilson Wobbler and Box. / c. 1921
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Moonlight #3000 Minnow and Box. / c. 1926
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Moonlight Bass Seeker and Box. / c. 1926
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Moonlight No-Eye 99% Weedless Lure and Box. / c. 1926
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Paw Paw Dreadnought and Box. / c. 1940
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Paw Paw Fluted Pikie Minnow and Box. / c. 1940
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Paw Paw Pike Caster. / c. 1940
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Paw Paw 3-hook Underwater Minnow. / c. 1940
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Paw Paw Dreadnought and Box. / c. 1940
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Biff Bait Company / Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Information on this short lived lure company is very limited to say the least. To my knowledge, The Biff Bait Company existed for 2 brief years (1925-26). This in itself has left me with a fascination of how such a short lived company was able to produce and market the mass quanities of fishing lures that it did in such a short period of time. Owner and founder, Albert R. Bayer, must have been a genius, as he seemed to have developed a system of production and sales that could do what other companies were only able to accomplish after years of production. Unlike many other antique lures, it is not uncommon to find Biff Baits still intact with their boxes and paperwork still in them. The wooden plugs seemed to have been coated with a varnish that was very susceptible to heat as it is common for them to be in somewhat of a soft state, leaving the lure stuck to the papers. Some examples of this fascinating old lure company can be seen below.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Whoopie Biff Plug and Box. / c. 1926
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Master Biff Plug and Box. / c. 1926
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Color collection of Master Biff Plugs. These are all the colors Biff used. / c. 1926
Master Biff Plug in "Perch" and Box. This color is rare. / c. 1926
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Biff Surface Double Wobbler and Box. / c. 1925
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Biff Surface Single Wobbler and Box. / c. 1925
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Biff All Around Musky Special and Box (Nickle). / c. 1925
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Biff All Around Musky Special and Box (Brass). / c. 1925
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Biff Musky and All Around Special Boxes. Shown for size comparison. / c. 1925
Biff Spiral Spinners in Aluminum. Pike and Musky Size. / c. 1925
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Biff Musky Spiral Spinner and Box. / c. 1925
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Biff Pike Spiral Spinner and Box. / c. 1925
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Bite Em Bait Company / Warsaw - Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Wenger Manufacturing Company / Warsaw, Indiana
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Another very popular fishing lure company was the Bite-Em-Bait Company from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. From what little information I can find, it appears that the company first began business in Warsaw, Indiana around 1917. It eventually moved to Fort Wayne in the 1920's, eventually becoming The Wenger Manufacturing Company. It doesn't appear that they were a long lived company like some of the other larger companies mentioned earlier, but during their short time in business managed to manufacture several very interesting and collectible lures. Like some of the other wood fishing lures of this time period, paint loss still seems to be an issue of concern due to poor priming. Their boxes were generaly very graphically presented with pictures of the lures being printed on the labels. Beautiful colors and interesting body styles make this a very popular lure among antique lure collectors, especially those from Indiana. I have also added a picture of the 14 color lure pamphlet insert with it's color coding system to help with the identification of their colors. Some examples of these lures and their very attractive picture boxes are pictured below.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Bite-Em Wiggler and Red Box. / c. 1920
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Bite-Em Pork Bait and Box. / c. 1922
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Two Bite-Em-Bate Plugs in Blended paint variations of Color T-62. / c. 1920
Bite-Em-Bait "Warsaw" Box. / c. 1920
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Bite-Em Water Mole and Box. / c. 1920
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Bite-Em Wiggler in Yellow "Warsaw" Box. / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate. Color T-411 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-21 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate Paper insert showing 14 color variations.
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-51 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-811 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-321 (variation) / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-321 / c. 1920
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First version Intro Bite-Em-Bate. / c. 1917
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-12 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-724 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-514 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate in Uncataloged Color / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-81 / c. 1920
Early Bite Em Box Insert. / c. 1917
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Bite-Em-Bate in Uncataloged Color / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate / Color T-41 / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate and Box / c. 1920
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Bite-Em Bug / c. 1920
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Bite-Em-Bate in Uncataloged Color / c. 1920
Bite-Em-Bate with Rare Brown Box and Paper Insert / c. 1917
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Bite-Em Lipped Wiggler / c. 1922
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Bite-Em-Bate with "Fort Wayne" Box / c. 1920
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Bass Enticer and Box / Wenger Mfg. Company / c. 1920
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Wenger Adjustable Minnow and Box / c. 1922
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Bite-Em Floating Minnow / c. 1922
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Bass Enticer and Box / Wenger Mfg. Company / c. 1920
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Bite-Em Lipped Wiggler and "Diamond" Box / c. 1922
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William Jamison Company / Chicago, Illinois
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The William Jamison Company came into existence around 1905 and continued through the next half century. Early production started with his "Coaxer" baits that were made of cork with felt wings and eventually evolved into many different types of other unusual varieties of lures, including wood bass lures, rubber frogs, fly rod baits, metal spinners, and even some very unusual plastic lures in the later years. Some examples of these lures and boxes are shown below.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Hasting's Weedless Rubber Frog and early Box. / c. 1909
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Hasting's Weedless Rubber Frog and Pink Box. / c. 1909
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Hasting's Weedless Rubber Frog and White Box. / c. 1909
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Wig-Wag or GEP Bait and Box. / c. 1934.
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Jamison #1 Convertible Coaxer and Box. / c. 1905
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Hasting's Nemo Bass Bait. / c. 1910
Jamison Bucktail Coaxer Box. / c. 1905
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Jamison #2 Coaxer and Box. / c. 1905
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Wig-Wag or GEP Bait and Box. / c. 1934.
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Wilson / Hastings Sporting Goods Company / Hastings, Michigan
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The Hasting's Sporting Goods Company began around 1911 and continued through the mid 1920's. Not a long lived company by any means, but they managed to produce some very interesting and successful fishing lures in the their brief existence. They are most well know for the Wilson Fluted Wobbler wich was invented by Richard T. Wilson of Hastings, Michigan, which was also the lure that started the business. They are a very desirable company among antique fishing lure collectors. A few examples of their very interesting lures and boxes are shown below.
(Click On Images To Enlarge)
Wilson's Fluted Wobbler 2-hook and Box. / c. 1911
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Wilson's Fluted Wobbler 3-hook and Box. / c. 1911
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Group of Wilson's Fluted Wobblers in different colors and variations. / c. 1911
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Wilson's Fluted Wobbler in Cat-Tail Box. / c. 1911
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Wilson's Flanged Wobbler in Box. / c. 1914
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