A collector sent me some of the plastic Bob Pond atom 40's and some of those old musso darters.
I had sold him some Russo flaptails that came into my possession. Russo made the flaptails
from 1946 to 57. Bob Pond made wooden atom swimmers only for a couple of years from 1946 to 48.
Then went to plastic. I also have some hellcats from the 70's.
The first is an atom 40 with the groove for tying an eel skin
and a modified rotary head of some kind on a popper body
The 1973 book written by George Reiger called Profiles in
Saltwater Angling has information on the birth of saltwater lures, and New England surf fishing around WWII.
Jim what's the deal with that link? I tried clicking on the same link(I think) from a different thread but it didn't work. Anyways I remember seeing this article about a year ago and I love it......
His site was down yesterday. It should be working ok now.
It was in the thread from surf and shore stripers but that article is no longer on the web. Unfortunately.
StriperJim - Those plugs you have there in the second post, have you used the ones with the spinner tail? How well did those work? They look nice!! I would think the spinner would interfer with hook ups though...
Those are Russo Flaptails Straw.
Worth nearly $1000 bucks a piece. I sold or gave most of mine away.
I still have one but havent swam it just yet. Maybe Ill put hooks on it and see tomorrow
thats if theres no bluefish around.
Update. Used the russo with offcenter custom and tailweight modification last fall at M. Big fun - blasted on almost every cast riding the back of the wave. Too many bluefish made me nervous enough to switch to a more bearable plug if lost.
Striperjim,
What a great inciteful article about those vintage plugs. I am from Long Island, and now live in St.Augustine Florida. Many of the same type of topwater plugs are used here for redfish and trout in early morning and evening fishing. Growing up, we used to spend summers out in Montauk camping in Ditch Plains trialer park, and we fished day in and day out. I used to bug my DAD to borrow his pole to give the surf a try. Most of the time is was a "no", but one time I think I wore him out asking and he gave in ...I went down to the beach only to drag a 17lb striper back. I think the entire park knew I caught that fish, and soon the beach was crowded with fishermen, but noone caught anything that I can remember. Those were great times, thanks for article which really jogged my memory, I think the striper swiper, and the Hopkins were the ultimate for catching blues and bass in the suds...Great job from the sunshine state..wish we had linesiders here in St.Auggie....furthest south I have ever heard them coming is Jacksonville..at the Shands bridge...Tight lines
thanks for that history lesson.Dan Pinchney is the reason i started building.
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