The birth of surfcasting plugs
Got this from tattoos tackle web site, awesome read, suggested by surfstix.
Surfcasting before the turn of the 20th century was limited to
a privileged few. Gear of the day, especially reels which were
essentially hand built works of art, were expensive enough to be out
of reach for the average person. These affluent surfcasters founded
some of the legendary surf clubs such as the Cuttyhunk Club and were
noted for building some of the famous bass stands throughout some of
the best bass water in New England.
In the early 1900’s, the striper population went into a serious
decline, and eventually all but disappeared from their usual haunts.
With the bass gone, the clubs soon followed.
By the mid 30’s the bass stocks were on the rebound. Interest
in surfcasting was on the rise as well. Modern mass production had
put good equipment at reasonable prices in the market place. Bait
fishing was still the most common method employed, but the use of
eel skin jigs, tin squids, lead head jigs and the occasional
freshwater musky plug was becoming more and more popular with the
better casting gear available.
The success of the musky plugs and their lack of availability,
led to many surfcasters experimenting with building their own or
improving on what was available from the freshwater market. Some
eventually put their creations into production, such as Jerry
Sylvester from Rhode Island and Jerry Ferrone from New York. By the
time World War II came about, there were several manufacturers
dedicated to building plugs for the striper fisherman.
The war put a damper on lure production. With the wartime
production in full swing, material shortages, particularly metal,
made it difficult to produce lure components. Some builders
continued through the war and a few others sprang up making due with
what materials were available. Bob Pond, soon to be famous for his
Atom lures released his first batch of plugs just before the end of
the war.
Once our servicemen returned from overseas, interest in surf
fishing exploded. With a strong economy people had leisure time and
unlike the depression era, money to enjoy it. The demand for quality
lures that would hold up to the rigors of surfcasting was at an all
time high. During the post war years lure manufacturers sprang up
all along the striper coast. Most of these companies were small
garage operations, some growing over time and others disappearing
after a fairly short production run.
By the early 50’s, striper fishing had become big business. The
equipment continued to become more user friendly especially with the
introduction and wide spread use of the spinning reel. The fishing
industry’s heavy hitters took notice. Creek Chub Bait Co. for
example introduced the Striper Pikie and followed up with the
Surfster and continued to introduce saltwater specific plugs for the
next several years. Most companies introduced smaller versions of
popular plugs just for the spinning reel market. These pint sized
lures proved to be some of the best sellers in the line up.
By the 60’s, what often referred to as the “Golden Age” of surf
plugs was essentially over. Competition forced most companies that
still remained to examine the way they were building plugs.
Shortages of eastern white cedar, the choice of wood for several
manufacturers, had companies searching for an alternative material.
Plastic was the obvious choice.
Little is known about many of the “Golden Age” builders,
particularly the smaller garage operations. I urge anyone reading
this that has any information to please share what they know. Much
of the information known today is from people who knew the builders
or their relatives.
Adam Romagna
Creek Chub’s offerings up to 1950 consisted mainly of
freshwater lures. Their largest plugs, designed for musky and
Southern saltwater species began to make an appearance on the
striper coast well before World War II. The lack of heavy duty,
corrosion resistant hardware and hooks along with light lure weight
made these lures less than ideal for surfcasting. In spite of the
shortcomings of these lures, they proved to be hard for the stripers
to resist.
Seeing the success of the post World War II companies
specializing in surfcasting plugs, Creek Chub introduced the
“Striper Pikie” in jointed (#6800) and straight (#6900) models in
1950. Weighing in at 3.25 ounces, through wired and equipped with
the best hardware of the time, they were an instant hit with the
surf crowd. Sales of Creek Chub’s first entry into the surfcasting
market far exceeded expectations. As a result, in 1953, the
“Surfster” was released in 3 sizes ranging from the 4 1/2 inch, 3/4
ounce #7200 to the 7 1/4 inch 2 1/2 ounce #7400. 3 new saltwater
colors (blue flash, yellow flash and purple eel) were also added to
the line up.
With sales still on the rise, 3 new plugs were added in 1955.
The #7500 “Surf Popper” was a 4 ounce, 7 1/4 inch version of the
popular “Plunker” series of freshwater baits. The #7600 “Surf
Darter” and the #7700 “Salt Spin Darter” rounded out the new models.
They were also based on a successful freshwater plug already on the
market for 30 years, the #2000 “Darter”.
Creek Chub continued their quest for the lion’s share of the
saltwater market in 1957. The #800 “Giant Jointed Pikie” was added
along with beefed up versions of the #700 Pikie (#700SW), 2000
Darter (200SW) and the 2300 Husky Pikie (2300L). The new versions
differed from their freshwater counterparts with through wire
construction instead of screw eyes, one belly hook was removed and
weight was added for distance.
Unfortunately, many of the saltwater models added over the
previous few years were discontinued in 1958. A serious shortage of
eastern white cedar was cited as the reason for the demise of these
plugs. Creek Chub was forced to utilize the available cedar on their
best selling models. While the big surf plugs were very popular in
the Northeast, they had little demand in the rest of the country.
Dropped from production were: #7300 Husky Surfster, #7400 Salt
Surfster, #7500 Surf Popper, #7600 Surf Darter and the #7700 Salt
Spin Darter. Production continued on the 2 Striper Pikies and the
Jointed Giant Pikie. Surprisingly, in 1960, another huge plug was
introduced, the #6000 Giant Straight Pikie. These 4 plugs remained
in production until 1978.
In the late 50’s, like most other manufacturers, Creek Chub
began to build plugs from plastic. 1959 saw the introduction of the
#1900 “Striper Striker” (later shortened to the “Striper Strike”)
popper. This, as it turned out, was to be one of the most famous and
best selling striper plugs of all time, and is still currently in
production. In 1978, Creek Chub Bait Company was sold and the
Garrett, Indiana factory closed, ending a 60-year run of some of the
most innovative and successful lures ever built. Production
continues today on a limited few models under the current owner.
As legend has it, Bob Pond while fishing the Cape Cod Canal,
witnessed another fisherman slaughtering bass while others failed to
connect. The fisherman was doing things different from the others,
he was using a surface swimmer. Very few companies were producing
large swimmers, most were musky plugs and were not well suited to
the salt water scene. As luck would have it, the unknown fisherman
lost his plug and Mr. Pond was able to recover it. The rest is
history!
In 1944 Bob released his first batch of wooden swimmers
designed for surfcasting based on what he learned from his “found“
plug. This first lot was sold out of the trunk of his car, each
wrapped in newspaper. They had hand cut swimming plates and very
plain paint when compared to his later models. Only around 400 were
made this first year.
By the fall of ‘45 Bob’s plug had a machined (stamped) lip,
better paint and a name...”the Striper Atom” after the recently
dropped atomic bombs. Soon 3 colors were available and also a
smaller version known as the Junior found in 2 hook and 3 hook
models.
1948 saw the introduction of the plastic Atom 40”, and the
phase out of the wooden Atom plugs. By ‘49 the wooden Striper Atoms
were no more. Bob had switched completely to plastic. The transition
to plastic was initially met with resistance from surfcasters and
shop owners who preferred a wooden plug and thought the plastic
models were inferior.
The Atom had started to become a style of plug rather than a
brand identification. Other manufacturers such as Masterlure and
Russo out of New York were also marketing swimming plugs as Atoms or
Atomic swimmers. Bob wanted to do something to set his Atom apart
from the rest. Competition from the numerous other companies made
Bob realize he had to produce a quality lure and cut his costs if he
was going to stay afloat. Plastic retained it’s color season after
season, never absorbed water, each plug was exactly the same and it
was much less expensive to produce. Once he made his decision, he
never looked back.
The new plastic lure received a new name, “the Forty”. Bob
claimed it was designed for bass over 40 inches. Word about some
notable catches on his new plug soon got out and even hard core
wooden plug fisherman took notice.
Pond made many variations of the 40 over the years including
the “51” which was a 40 painted in several colors, the “52” also
referred to as the skunk which had a white belly section and various
colored back sections and one of my favorites the “Stinky Atom”
which had a removable plug in the belly allowing the angler to fill
the plug with liquid scent that would slowly leech out as it was
fished. A “Reverse” model and a popper were also built based on the
“40”.
Stan Gibbs got his start in the lure business by making poppers
for his own use in the mid 40’s. Others began to notice how
effective they were and requested Stan sell them a few. By ‘47 his
production was well in excess of 1000 lures and Stan was on his way
to a new career.
Gibbs was constantly experimenting with new designs and soon
introduced the darter and casting swimmer. New models and sizes came
out just about every year. Some were very short lived, others are
still in production today.
Sales and production steadily rose when in 1972 Stan sold the
company. John Gibbs, his son, bought the company in 1982. John sold
the company a few years later.
The pre-’72 lures are the most important to the collector.
Enough examples exist to keep the price of common models, sizes and
colors reasonable to the beginner. Short production lures,
experimental models and rare colors can be very expensive.
http://www.tattoostackle.com/yestery...lughistory.php
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Cranky Old Bassturd.
Originally Posted by surfstix1963
