interesting find

[BilletHead]

   Two pretty cool items. These were found cleaning up our mom's stuff after she passed. I am sure these came from my Grandpa Horn. The crow hunting recore is dated 1953 and when I tried to find out about the Herter's Famous quail calling record it is about the same date. 

  Now I have found out much more about Toad Woodward and crow calling. This is from a town not far from me, Lamar Mo. I have a good friend down there and was born there. He has a bunch of brothers and a sister.  Toad and his brother were still around when he was a kid. They were married to sisters Nan and Fran which my friend Doug knew. The Woodward brothers were local characters known by about everyone back in the day. Doug asked me what I was doing with that record and if he could buy it. Of course, I said no he could have it. He wants to give it to his brother who remolded Toad's house for his wife. Doug's Brother Stan also knew Fran and Nan. I couldn't think of a better place for it. Funny how things come together. 

    I have no place to display the herter's quail calling record so if anyone wants it for their man cave or hunting cabin you can have it. Both are in good shape and playable. 

[jdmidwest]

Outdoor Life did an article on George Leonard Herter many years ago and I started collecting more of his stuff.  I have a collection of his books, some lures, some reloading equipment, fly vises, and a Herter Single Action Revolver in 22 lr.

He was the sportsman of the past.

[rps]

About the time I started to fish with my father seriously, 1960? 1961?, I read every page of the Herter,s catalogue that came to the house. The first time he took me to Canada with him, 1962?, we stopped in Minnesota before we crossed the border. The place had an entire isle of Herter products. When he passed, I found several Herter lures in the very old metal tackle box.

[rps]

Does anyone still fish with the Daredevil  or the Eppinger Red Eye Spoons anymore? How about the Creme worm with the spinner? The Shannon twin spin? Heddon Crazy Crawler? Heddon River Runt? A Cisco Kid? A Heddon Lucky 13? How about a Uncle Josh frog or eel? A Hawaiian Wiggler? A Lazy Ike? A Pico Perch or Swimming Minnow?

Think on this: If we put a good angler in a boat with these ancient lures, what could he weigh in a tournament? That which is old will become new. That which is new will become old.

Somebody sing Circle of Life.

 

 

 

[kjackson]

Oh, Herter's-- used to spend hours with that catalog.  I think I still have an ultralight spinning rod bought back in the day.  Still have some boxes of hooks from Herter's-- English bait hooks or something like that--think they are close to the extreme bend caddis hooks. My father bought them to tie some mink nymphs that one of his friends swore by.  That started us tying flies... I was super excited when Herter's opened a store in Olympia.

As for the red-and-white Daredevles, we generally couldn't afford them, but did use a bunch of Japanese knockoffs in that color pattern. My favorite was a thin-bladed spoon that was a killer on trout. It was light enough that I could cast it with a fly rod. 

 

[jdmidwest]

My favorite was the minnow harness, a wire snap pin looking thing that has a blade in front.  You stabbed a minnow on the wire and closed and it made a swim bait with trebles off the thing.  If I can find it I will post a pic.

One of his guide books had a way of preventing bed bugs at camp.  Put the legs of the bed into coffee cans filled with DDT, that would take care of the bed bug problem.  I collected the whole series and they set in my library of outdoor books.  I took the time to read them all.  

[fishinwrench]

Have you ever seen one of these contraptions ? 

 

Here it is cocked and loaded 

 

[jdmidwest]

8 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Have you ever seen one of these contraptions ? 

 

Here it is cocked and loaded 

 

Is that a tree hook for a boat?

[Foghorn]

So Susie's Mom lived with us for 10.5 years after she had a stroke. I told her it was the longest 20 years in my life. We eventually had to put her in a nursing home and she passed away a couple years later. Nellie Jo was an extremely talented lady and her list of accomplishments filled up the pages of her obituary. We were going thru the overwhelming items she had collected over the years and found what looked like a hat box in her closet. Much to our surprise, the box had family photos and a letter dated 1864. It was a letter written by a relative heading off to fight in the Civil War. The pictures were framed in these little intricate boxes several had latches to keep them close. It is some very interesting family history.

We will be married 45 years this June and in the early years of our marriage, my father in law Bob , pulls this old gun out of a case from under his bed. His great grandfather was a Doctor who spent part of his years out West. This gun he had received as payment for some medical assistance at a trading post. The gun according to my extremely honest father in law was used in the "Battle of the Little Bighorn". It was in really good shape and sadly I only saw it one more time before he gave it to his non hunting son Mike. Mike divorced his wife later and somehow she got the gun .Maybe because he lives in California? 

[tjm]

Funny that I never heard of Herter until probably ten years after he bankrupted. Ward's and Sears catalogs, local hardware or the Western Auto were where any new  sporting goods came from, and not much from those places. Dad"s fishing was mostly grabbing or gigging and for the trout in Idaho, a willow patch was usually handy. 

After reading about the man on the internet in several of these nostalgic threads on various sites, I did buy a like new Herter's fiberglass fly rod that I thought was selling cheap.  Mostly from curiosity.  Nicer to look at than to fish with. IIRC it came with two tips like a bamboo rod might, I should dig that out and sell it to someone. I would like to collect some of his books, as a curiosity, rather than a reference; because I doubt he had experiance in all that he wrote about as an expert. 

@fishinwrench is that a gopher trap?