A tackle box in the barn had these gems (and more), from years ago...I'll ID them in a followup post.


Edited with names/descriptions:
TL-"Brylcreem's Royal Spoon"--TM-"Heddon Tadpolly Spook" -- TR-"Miracle Minnow"

BL-"Hula Dancer" --- BM-unknown, marked "Japan", wicked midmount double treble hooks - BR-"Jitterbug" bt Fred Arbogast

docb nailed the famous "Jitterbug"

Maybe the current generation of bass will go crazy chasing them...they have never seen such a fake bait!

That bug eye one on the bottom left looks legit. What is it?

Sputterbug (bottom right)

jitterbug

I believe the BM is Lazy Ike.

Gulf Coast Aggie said:

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I believe the BM is Lazy Ike.

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The Interweb agrees, with the exception of the "double treble hooks".

Are those things considered collectible?

believe the hula dancer had a skirt around the treble hook shaft, which obviously melted and stuck to the tray in a tackle box at some point, like mine...

I caught bass on that Arbogast last fall in Ohio where Fred is from.

TX AG 88 said:

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believe the hula dancer had a skirt around the treble hook shaft, which obviously melted and stuck to the tray in a tackle box at some point, like mine...

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The pic does not show it clearly, but just above the rear treble hook of the Hula Dancer is a separate piece, with "jags" in it, to likely be a holder for the skirt.

I think I have 3-4 of those in rotation in my current tackle box ... I didn't know I was fishing with relics!

Are these worth any money? Ive got a tacklebox with 6 or 7 of similar models and have no room for it anymore.

Man, The Tad, the Lazy Ike and the Jitterbug make me think of fishing with my grandpa. We absolutely killed the bass on Ikes.

The thing is... that's either a really, really old Ike or it's somebody else's version of the Ike because there looks to be a bit of a lip. The ike was tapered to a straight edge.

I still have a couple of Devil Horses from my dad's tacklebox. All wood and look hand painted.

Quote:

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jitterbug

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Yes, Sputterbug had a turning propeller.

Just yesterday I caught two 2 pound black bass with my Red & White Split Tail Jitterbug!

Yes I'm old!

Used to catch a boatload of big bass at Gibbons Creek when it first opened up using a Jitterbug. Would ease along the damn and reel just slow enough to make the bubble sound. Vicious strikes.

I have my dad's tackle boxes in a closet and keep meaning to sort out what's in it. I'm sure every one of those reside somewhere in one of three tackle boxes, along with about 200 more, the newest of which is an early Rapala. There were at least 2 sizes of Lazy Ike, the ones my dad liked were the run of the mill red and white ones. Back in the day w. ]hen I used to fish, I favored a Hula Popper until the Rapala came along. I haven't put a line in the water since I took 4 crews to the Boundary Waters in 2001.

Always heard the Ike called a flatfish but maybe I'm thinking of something similar.

They don't make jitterbugs anymore? Just threw mine this weekend? What the heck?

The jitterbug is an old time favorite .. love when the bass used to hit that lure

Oh man, Black Jitterbug at night, blub, blub, blub, WHAM!!! Cannot see it only hear it and fell the weight, what a rush!!!!

dr_boogs said:

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They don't make jitterbugs anymore? Just threw mine this weekend? What the heck?

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Yes they do. WalMart sells them. They're made by Arbogast. You can get jitterbugs, lazy ikes AND hula poppers at WalMart for $3-4 ea.

fullback44 said:

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The jitterbug is an old time favorite .. love when the bass used to hit that lure

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No **** story here... I caught a 20" rainbow on a jitterbug. Absolutely violent topwater eat.

Was awesome.

10/10 would do again.

4stringAg said:

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Always heard the Ike called a flatfish but maybe I'm thinking of something similar.

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Yes...that's what we called them up north. Used mostly to target pike.

From a 2010 post on "B*******s"...

"There's many lures that the Arbogast company has put out over the years that are highly collectible.

One of them is the Jitterbug. According to the company's 50th Anniversary History booklet, the Jitterbug was 1st brought out on the market in 1938.

And they are still made today.

Probably THE most important thing about collecting is being able to identify lures as to their approximate vintage, and Jitterbugs are especially true of this fact.

If you were to start on this catalog page for Arbogast 1941...and work your way through the colors on this website over the years shown, you will see just how many times the "perch" pattern has changed over the years.

That said, there are other ways to also identify / date Jitterbugs. First off, the earliest Jitterbugs had no "stamped" name on them, and the metal lips don't have patent #'s on them. At some point in the mid-1940's Arbogast started stamping them as "Jitterbug".

The next major change was the patent numbers on the metal lips...mid to late 1950's I believe.

Hook hardware changed many times in the early years.

Yet another way to help in dating these is by the detail (or lack of) around the eyes."

Wow.

Dad had a handful of brylcreem royal spoons he gave me when I was but ten years old on our first fishing trip to Colorado. he was a fly fisherman, i was a novice with a Zebco 404, fishing fast water for the first time, having only fished Texas ponds and lakes.

those spoons were bronze colored and dimpled to reflect light. 12-14" rainbows on the upper rio grande wouldn't touch Mepps or anything else, but they slammed those brylcreem spoons.

i made it three days on four spoons and was sick when the last one snagged ten foot up in a spruce across the river on a bad cast. didn't catch a thing for the final day up there.

I fell in love with trout fishing on that trip.

haven't seen nor thought of one of those spoons in many years.

have fly-fished many great trout streams, east and west, around the US and Canada. but I have no better memories than of wading that river with my now departed Dad - such good times.

thanks OP!