Connecticut fishing gear and plug makers: A History

Some of the best Custom plugbuilders on the East Coast came from, or live near, Connecticut. In this thread you'll get to meet and hear about them, from the smallest to the largest.

Let's hear what you've got. Even if the guy built a few plugs and never really wanted to become commercial, it's still part of fishing history and merits talking about.

Or, any posts about tackle or gear makers centered in Connecticut.

So don't feel your entry or post is not significant if the person you're posting about isn't nationally known. Post up and let's see it, anything you want to post from 1900 to present day.

Please if you use info from a copyrighted source, cite the source. I do reserve the right to edit where I feel it's appropriate.

Articles, pics, comments, all are welcome within the above parameters.

To promote harmony here, there will be no critiquing or bashing of a guy's plugs. :argue: If you don't like them, that's fine, but this is not a review thread. It's an attempt to document a history of plugbuilding in Connecticut, and I appreciate any help you guys can offer. Thanks guys and girls. :HappyWave:

It's gonna be a long winter, I think this could be an informative thread. :thumbsup:

L Cooper and Co

They were out of Stamford Conn, and were known for goo goo eyes plugs. I read they were also called jac-pot lure company. Some really neat stuff.

The history lesson below came from e-bay.

" At the turn of the century in New England, there were a very limited number of saltwater surf fishermen. Most striped bass fishermen at this time believed the fish were strictly bottom feeders and could only be caught on "bait". There were those though who knew better, they started making and fishing with tin squids [metal lures] and doodle bugs [lead bucktails]. But, still in keeping with the thought that striped bass were solely bottom feeders; they fished them deep or as close to the bottom as possible.

During this same time period in Florida there was something very special going on. Saltwater fishermen were using freshwater lures to catch spotted trout, tarpon, barracuda, etc. Casting east with lures was considered the only way to fish by many of the southern sharpies of the time. By the 1920's many of the freshwater lure makers were now also manufacturing saltwater models.

The word spread up the coast to "New England's" striped bass fishermen and they started experimenting with the lures being produced at the time. Many found they could catch fish in all levels of the water column while using these baits. By the mid 1930's there were individuals making their own versions of the freshwater and saltwater lures in larger sizes, with stronger hooks and hardware. Some even started to "thru" wire their lures for added strength.

A new era in surf fishing had begun. But, it was short lived. The country was being thrown into the turmoil of World War II and saltwater fishing had taken a back seat.

With the war now over, there was a great surge of people looking for new recreational activities. There was great interest and participation in surf fishing, especially for striped bass. Up and down the coast of New England, bait & tackle shops opened, sometimes two or three in a town. With the great influx of people striper fishing, it didn't take long before those few ingenious individuals who started making lures before the war, and others, capitalized on the situation. The "Golden Age of Surf Fishing", had begun, and lasted until the early 1960's."


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A newer one
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Here is some info you folks might like to know, about the origins of the diamond or ava jig.



Company Information
Just before World War II, Gus Bahr of the Bead Chain Manufacturing Company located in Bridgeport CT, developed a line of popular fishing tackle utilizing the natural ability of bead chain. One of their most popular items was a sinker with bead chain cast through it. This gave their product the unique ability to be trolled or pulled through the water column without twisting or kinking the fishing line. Mr. Bahr outsourced the casting of this product line to John Schmuke of the Bridgeport Silverware Manufacturing Company, also of Bridgeport, CT.

Mr. Schmuke, an avid saltwater fisherman himself, invented a very popular fishing lure in 1929. He called his product the Bridgeport Diamond Jig. His lure has become the standard that all plated jigs have tried to emulate.

Bridgeport Silverware did a great deal of contract work for Bead Chain Manufacturing and was their primary manufacturing source for their line cast sinkers. In 1955 Bead Tackle Manufacturing purchased Bridgeport Silverware and Mr. Schmuke stayed on as its director of manufacturing. The Bridgeport Jig and Bead Chain fishing lines have become staple items with fishing tackle retailers worldwide for over seventy years. In May of 2000 Larry Razza and Greg Metcalf of Atom Manufacturing acquired the assets of these two fine product lines and added them to their already great family of Atom fishing products.

Sent in by Rip-plugger, thanks!

This confirms Jac-Pot Lures and L Cooper and Co as coming to be one of the premier plug manufacturers of their time.


Many of these images and descriptions have been collected over the years by Tom Clayton of

www.shorelinebt.com in NJ

He has put in thousands of hours into maintaining and growing his collections. In addition, he is most generous in identifying and defining unknown plugs from that era. So if anyone posts up things that came from his site, he has graciously asked that we post the link up instead so the traffic will be directed to his site.

I thank all members here for your cooperation.

Rip-Plugger sent me the page and a few pics, but instead I'm posting the link below to the informative page Tom has prepared on Goo Goo eyes plugs. Great stuff! When you go to his site be sure to check out the other pages, you could spend hours wandering through there. Make sure you have a napkin to catch the drool coming out of your mouth. :drool:

http://shorelinebt.com/id33.html

This auction was thought to range from $100-150, and featured the 7 plugs below. From liveauctioneers.com

Attachment 13020

I went to that shoreline site, dark. It's like the Encyclopedia Britannica for the plug making world, amazing! Good deal, thanks for the link.

Albie, as far as collectors go, Tom of Shoreline is an avid collector, maybe bordering on obsessive, even. ;)
The thing that has impressed me the most is his passion for fishing, and memories of how good things used to be. You can't fake a passion like that. :fishing:


**************
Rip-Plugger and Monty also put a thread together called the Glory Daze... where they talked about the old times fishing, and posted some nice pics of older goo goo eyes and some other L Cooper plugs.

I think the pics are posts 4, 5, 15 and 16, something like that. Check it out for some good stories.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ght=glory+daze

Roddy doesn't seem to be able to post right now, so until we get it straightened out I'll try to post a few things for him. He e-mailed me this.....

Quote:

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[wow,this is great seeing these lures here,brings back some wonderful
memories.

I remember slinging the Big Daddy goo-goo's across the rips and riding
the surface back and having them get smashed by some of the worst
alligator choppers I have seen.

I have taken choppers on the big mackeral goo-goo eyes plug all of 45
inches and over 20 pounds.

my personal best was 22.5 pounds inside of 100 yards of where my
friend[like a brother] Steven J. Franco took the Ct. state record bass.
there were no bass around in those days.

there were not many kinds of wood around then.

we knew about dannys,goo-goo's and atoms,that was pretty much it.

there were some custom guys around but,just 3 or 4.
funny thing too because the very few custom guys used scew eyes and not
through wires,never really made a difference to anyone back then.

maybe thats why I like using them myself,one thing thats very important,I
NEVER saw one or heard of one pulling out,thats a fallacy,if the correct
type is used,just FYI.

man,those were the days for real.if you didn't have some strong gear you
lost!]

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Goo Goo eyes in mint condition for $20.....(smaller one)

The original Goo Goo eye plugs were created by Leo Cooper, a Stamford, Ct tool and die maker who couldn't find plugs big enough at the time to suit him, so he did his own thing until they came out the way he wanted. American fishing innovation at it's best. Goo goo eye plugs still have a fanatical following to this day.

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Nice pic of an vintage goo goo eye dark!
I heard they are making them again. I think rip plugger mentioned it in another thread.

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...id=19480&stc=1
gibbs goo-goo eyes swimmers.

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...id=20653&stc=1http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...id=20654&stc=1
a couple taken on a a big daddy goo-goo eyes swimmer,actually the silver one in the previous post.

Interesting read thanks for sharing.