The Art And Skill Of Hand Making Wood Fishing Lures.

10/7/2026

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I came across this excellent video on YouTube and wanted to pass it along. It gave me a fresh appreciation for the craftsmanship behind these little fish-catching masterpieces. The tools available when antique fishing lures were made were far more primitive, which makes the volume of production achieved back in the old days even more impressive to me.

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TheEvolution of a Vintage Fishing Tackle Dealer: Curiosity and Obsession by Kris Aguilar

10/4/2026

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For some it begins in a grandfather’s basement; for others it’s an old lure discovered in an auction box lot. However it starts, once people come across their first piece of vintage fishing tackle, many find themselves moving from simple curiosity to a full-blown obsession.

Why Do People Collect Lures?
I suspect few collectors can truly explain why they collect antique or vintage lures. Maybe it’s a broad interest in everything fishing, or everything old, or the two combined. For a collector, old lures — especially those made before the 1940s — may carry a special pull, a kind of tangible
memory of a simpler time.

Whatever draws a person into collecting, it certainly isn’t the money. Antique lures can be extremely valuable, but a hobbyist needs real passion and dedication to grow into a successful collector or dealer.

Curiosity Inspired Obsession:
When someone with no knowledge of collectible antique fishing tackle buys a box lot at an auction and finds an antique wooden lure inside, chances are they go straight to Google to learn about it.

They may be surprised when Google’s search engine returns over 750,000 results for the term “old red and white wood lure”. Trying to identify which lure they have, they follow various links and image results. For some people, uncovering the previously unknown variations of colors,
manufacturers and value of such lures sparks an obsession for more discovery and more old lures.

From Collector to Dealer:
A collector may start looking at antique malls, or Ebay.com to purchase antique lures and fishing tackle. They soon find that paying retail price for some of these lures is simply unfeasible on a regular basis. They begin negotiating trades with other collectors for items they want. The more they learn about vintage fishing tackle, the more items they covet for their own collections.

To support the growing desire for rarer and more expensive lures, a collector may start selling other items. They soon find themselves buying old tackle boxes at garage sales and auctions for the sole purpose of re-selling.

Before they really realize exactly where their original curiosity has led them, a casual collector has also become a dealer of antique fishing tackle, as well as an avid collector.

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Check Your Basement – Old Fishing Lures May be Valuable By Kris Aguilar

10/3/2026

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There’s an old wooden box in my dad’s basement. It’s full of rubber worm fishing lures that I refuse to let my father throw away. I don’t know if anyone has even used them, ever. Essentially, they’re worthless to anyone but me.

Every time I open the box, I remember sitting on the basement stairs, sometime around the age of 5 -6. I’d play with those fake worms for what seemed like hours while my dad, brother and uncle reloaded shotgun shells and tinkered in the basement. That old box full of old lures holds only sentimental value, but that isn’t always the case.

Antique Fishing Lures
Many people keep their grandfather’s or father’s tackle boxes for years for the same reason I refuse to dispose of those rubber worms. You may have an antique tackle box in some corner of your basement or garage that you haven’t looked inside of for years. Of course memories aren’t only accessible through items and usually people eventually let go of such objects. Before you decide to go on some manic cleaning spree and sell everything at a garage sale though, you’ll
want to take a look inside of that box.

Valuable Antique Lures
Some antique lures, like my rubber worms, aren’t worth a penny. Some, however, can be incredibly valuable. There’s a community of collectors and hobbyists who collect antique tackle, from lures to reels. Values can range from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars!

If you were to open that forgotten tackle box and discover that your grandfather had kept an original Heddon frog, you’d have found one of the rarest and most valuable lures. This was a hand-carved, wooden lure made by James Heddon in 1898 and it’s valued at up to $30,000 today!

Ethics Matter
If you’ve decided to take a look in that old box and see what you may have, it is imperative to find an ethical collector or dealer. You’ll want to find a dealer or collector who is a member of the NFLCC, or National Fishing Lure Collector’s Club. This is a paid membership that offers education and assistance to its members in regards to locating and identifying collectable fishing tackle.

Make sure you’re dealing with a collector that won’t low-ball a price because they know you don’t know the value of your item! Fortunately, the collector and dealer community is relatively small, and it’s difficult for a person to operate unethically in secret for very long. Still, do some research
and read some reviews or talk to a few people in the community before choosing a collector or dealer to work with.

Some collectors deal only in niche markets of the vintage lure industry, such as specific items or brands. If you have any questions about antique lures and tackle boxes or anything related to vintage American fishing history, you can contact Randy Nelson through his website, Randy’s Antique Fishing Lures.

Randy has been collecting lures for over 25 years and has a reputation of an ethical collector, always paying fair prices for antique fishing tackle. He is always interested in new items, and will offer to buy single items as well as entire collections.

Go on down to the basement and open that tackle box. You could be pleasantly surprised by the valuable items you didn’t know you had.

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Haskell Minnow sells for big bucks!!!

12/15/2012

1 Comment

This little beauty brought $8,744.48 on the big auction site. Not exactly a lure you will find every day, but wish you could. I guess ya never know what ya might find laying around if ya get lucky, and I bet these folks have a nice Christmas!!!

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Progress report...

12/2/2026

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I’ve added plenty of new updates to my website, with many more still to come. I’m looking for links and any suggestions about what content I should add next. www.randysantiquefishinglures.com

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The Art And Skill Of Hand Making Wood Fishing Lures.

TheEvolution of a Vintage Fishing Tackle Dealer: Curiosity and Obsession by Kris Aguilar

Check Your Basement – Old Fishing Lures May be Valuable By Kris Aguilar

Haskell Minnow sells for big bucks!!!

Progress report...

I’ve added plenty of new updates to my website, with many more still to come. I’m looking for links and any suggestions about what content I should add next. www.randysantiquefishinglures.com

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