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Thread: The birth of surfcasting plugs

  1. #1
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    Default 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

  2. #2
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    Default

    excellent read if you ever wanted to know how it started and now look at what the plug mfg. has grown to be once again,but you never know with bait species declining, commercial fishing taking its toll on the fish,and the poor economy it could possibly wipe out many companies once again.I guess it 's history in the making for some others to read about after we become history.
    Cranky Old Bassturd.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: The birth of surfcasting plugs

    Quote Originally Posted by surfstix1963 View Post
    .I guess it 's history in the making for some others to read about after we become history.
    Nice read, vsdreams. I agree with your comment surfstix. Some day this may all be just a history lesson.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Default Re: The birth of surfcasting plugs

    Wow very informative thanks for sharing. Went to tattoos tackle website and that is a cool one too thanks.
    There is an article there called cows and conscience by Charlie Soares, great read too.
    http://www.tattoostackle.com/

  5. #5
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    Default Re: The birth of surfcasting plugs

    Great article, VS! Thank you for posting.

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