Thursday, January 17, 2013

Insight Of Antique Fishing Lures

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By Annabelle Newton


Since the dawn of man, humans have been catching fish for food. As our minds became more intellectual and we began designing tools, we learned that fish like going for bait. This whole niche of sportsmanship has led to a lot antique fishing lures. These old lures can also be referred to as baits and they are highly collectible.

Something similar to baits was something called fish decoys which actually do still last today. They were used for catching fish in frozen over bodies of water, most commonly in lakes. A hole is cut into the ice, a fish comes and it is hopefully caught by the fisherman with a spear.

These were commonly hand crafted from wood and can be worth hundreds today in good condition. They were normally painted to mimic the look of real fish and attached was something called a jig stick. The jig stick was basically a cross section of two wooden sticks attached with a string to the decoy that was used to move the fish around as if it were alive.

Things that will determine the value of one of these old decoys would be things such as materials used and present signatures indicating the identity of the crafter. Even though most people use a simply rod and lure these days, some still keep to the old ways. In some situations it may be easier to use this tool because different species of fish react in their own unique ways to things and may not bite on traditional bait.

The more mainstream way to fish however has always been with bait and a rod. In the past, people were highly skilled in their trades taking great pride in their work. This produced many quality items that have become rare and highly collectible today. Most of them came painted, but sometimes they were left alone with the original medium showing.

Aluminum used to be hard to produce and was considered to be a precious metal. Knowing this, many tradesmen used it in their work and make high quality products. It was so widely used in this trade that governments began to ban the usage of it with fisherman items because they were running low on supply.

The first people who began making baits primarily consisted of jewelers, believe it or not. That is an interesting fact of history to know about. Other commonly used materials used in the trade were cork, wood, plastics and animal fur. Generally, the craftsmen were proud of their work and usually branded their work with their company name or a personal signature.

The higher end models known back in the day are now worth thousands of dollars. Something to keep in mind when collecting these is that a lure by itself is essentially only half of the item. If the original box accompanies the lure, it is like having a complete item and is worth much more all together. Collecting antique fishing lures can be a very fulfilling hobby because there are so many things to take into consideration as we as having items crafted with utmost care and skill.




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