by Ron Welch

The need to provide food led early man to invent ways of enticing wild game within range of his weapons.   Archaeologists have discovered 10,000 year old duck decoys made of reeds and duck skins in a cave in Arizona.

 

In the 1850’s, the first fishing lure was patented in America, it was made of metal in the shape of a spoon.
Around 1900, the first wooden lure and sold commercially.  Over the next 100 years, there were many companies, large and small, producing a wide variety of metal, wood and plastic lures.

 

Michigan and northern Indiana were at the center of this activity.  Companies such as Shakespeare, Heddon and Paw Paw were located in Michigan The Creek Chub company was in Indiana.   There were  also numerous small companies manufacturing a wide variety of lures in this same area. 

 

We don’t know when the first lure was collected, but in the 1970’s, the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club was formed and it now has a membership of about 5,000.

 

There are a lot of factors that make a lure collectible, value being only one of them.  Although some lures are extremely valuable, some are very reasonable.  Value is generally determined by rarity, condition, quality and, to some extent, age.

 

Some people collect all types of fishing equipment, some prefer certain companies and others collect lures of a certain color.

 

Along with lures, a wide variety of other fishing equipment is also collected, including rods, reels, nets, bobbers, tackle boxes, minnow buckets, ice fishing lures and spears..  If it was made for fishing, someone collects it! 

 

I hope to have a display of collectibles, along with free appraisals at a future meeting, so watch the Eye Catcher for the date.  Bring your old lures and decoys, or call me at 734-283-2329 if you have items for sale.