The use of plastics in fishing over the last few decades has been just incredible. Today’s fishing lures have gotten so realistic that from a distance, it may be hard to tell the real thing from a man made plastic lure. The cost of certain types of lures has also risen. Some lures can approach $100.00 and there are a couple that have exceeded the century mark in price.
The use of plastic lures started in the 50’s right after WWII. The evolution began with the use of hard plastic in lures. They were mostly surface floating jerk bait type of lures that came on the market. But crankbaits also became the next hot thing available to anglers both for bass, trout, and salmon fisherman and many saltwater species.
In the 70’s, a gentleman by the name of Tom Mann, a well-known tournament bass fisherman from the south and Florida's Roland Martin started telling anglers that a soft plastic worm could catch a lot of bass and a new era in bass fishing came about. Companies sprouted up with plastic worms in all colors, shapes and sizes. Then plastic frogs, salamanders, crawdads, mice, and other assorted critters came onto the marketplace. Hard plastic baits became a little more realistic to minnow imitations and wiggle actions. Now manufacturers were putting rattle beads inside their lures for added fish catching appeal. The list of novelties in fishing lure designs was changing every fishing season.
The next generation of plastic lures were designer types for certain species of fish. Lure designers like Castaic, Rapala, and Storm were making large swim baits and catching record size Brown Trout and huge stripers out on the west coast. Several of these lures were 12” inches in length and required heavy fishing line and beefy fishing rods to cast and troll with. Out in the Midwest, anglers were fishing for Muskies, Pike, and Walleye with large plastic lures as well. Plastics were common place in saltwater venues as well with Mojos, Bombers and other swimbaits imitating anchovies, sardines and an assortment of lures that didn’t imitate any living creature but could catch fish. Isn’t that the most important thing about fishing lures? Do they catch fish?
Aside from soft plastic baits is a new generation of hard baits. These hard baits resemble small baitfish but have segmented bodies to enhance the swimming action of the bait. On the plastic bodies are lifelike representations of fish and some with holistic paint jobs. If they don't catch fish then they'll catch fisherman with their flashy looking appeal. Some lures today glow in the dark and then there are lures in which button batteries are used for internal lights inside the lure. All of these improvements to the plastic lure makes you wonder if a 1950's lure can still catch a fish today? It might be worth giving an old lure a cast or two on your next outing just to see if the lure is catching the fish or is it the way the angler uses (presents) t
he lure that catches the fish? I think I'm going to look into some old tackleboxes and find out.
