Hair Jigs And Black Pork Eels

[Chief Grey Bear]

I also refurbish old crankbaits and plugs that I get from Dad or buy "vintage" on Ebay.

My love affair with old style or "throwback" baits has become an obsession.

Its like re-inventing the wheel when it comes to catching bass on ancient tackle.

Right on!!! I have been doing the same for about the last ten years. Thank goodness for yard sales and auctions. To me there is nothing like catching bass on the same plugs that were the hot item 40-50 years ago. Nothing like floating the same rivers your dad and grandpa did and use the same tackle they did. Even to include the rods of the era.

And although some or those plug are still made today, you can't find them in those old classic paint schemes. Plus I like it when who you are fishing with asks what you are catching all those fish on. And then the next question is "What the hell is that"????

Some of my favs are:

Tadpolly

River Runt

Crazy Crawler

Spence Scout

Midge Oreno

Lucky 13

[Quillback]

Ahh yes, the River Runt, that was my go to bait back around 1970 (I was 13 then) when we lived in Michigan and had some bass ponds within walking distance of my house. I might still have one in my old tackle box, I'll have to dig it out and check. I think I have a Lucky 13 or two that belonged to my grandpa. My grandpa and dad used to make a road trip every year to Table Rock back in the early 60's. The way they talked about it, it sounded like it was as close to a fishing paradise as any you could find on this earth. Lots of crappie and big, stupid bass.