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 in the old days even more remarkable 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 tucked inside 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 gather antique or vintage lures. Maybe they simply love everything about fishing, or everything old, or both. For a collector, old lures — especially those made before the 1940s — can carry a special pull, a kind of tangible
memory of a simpler time.

Whatever sparks the interest, people rarely start collecting to make money. Antique lures can be very valuable, but it takes real passion and dedication for a hobbyist to grow into a successful collector or dealer.

Curiosity Inspired Obsession:
When someone with no background in collectible antique fishing tackle buys a box lot at auction and spots an antique wooden lure inside, chances are they go straight to Google to learn more.

They may be startled when the search returns over 750,000 results for “old red and white wood lure.” Trying to identify what they have, they follow links and image results. For some, discovering the many color variations,
manufacturers and values of such lures sparks a hunger for more discovery and more old lures.

From Collector to Dealer:
A collector might begin browsing antique malls or Ebay.com to buy antique lures and fishing tackle. They quickly learn that paying retail for some of these lures is simply not practical on a regular basis. They start working out trades with other collectors for pieces they want. The more they learn about vintage fishing tackle, the more items they want for their own collections.

To fund the growing taste for rarer and pricier lures, a collector may begin selling other items. Soon they’re buying old tackle boxes at garage sales and auctions purely to resell.

Before they quite realize where that first curiosity has taken them, a casual collector has also become a dealer of antique fishing tackle — and 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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An old wooden box sits in my dad’s basement, filled with rubber worm fishing lures I won’t let my father toss out. I doubt anyone has ever used them. To anyone but me, they’re essentially worthless.

Each time I open that box, I picture myself on the basement stairs at about age 5 or 6, playing with those fake worms for what felt like hours while my dad, brother and uncle reloaded shotgun shells and tinkered nearby. That old box of lures holds only sentimental value — but that isn’t always the case.

Antique Fishing Lures
Plenty of people hold onto a grandfather’s or father’s tackle box for years, for the same reason I keep those rubber worms. You may have an antique tackle box in a corner of your basement or garage that you haven’t opened in years. Memories aren’t tied only to objects, of course, and most people eventually let such things go. Before you launch a cleaning spree and sell everything at a garage sale, though, you’ll
want to look inside that box.

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

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

Ethics Matter
If you’ve decided to look through that old box and see what you have, it’s essential to find an ethical collector or dealer. Look for a dealer or collector who belongs to the NFLCC, the National Fishing Lure Collector’s Club. This paid membership offers education and assistance to members in locating and identifying collectable fishing tackle.

Make sure you’re working with a collector who won’t low-ball a price because they know you don’t know your item’s value! Fortunately, the collector and dealer community is fairly small, and it’s hard for anyone to operate unethically in secret for long. Even so, do some research
and read 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 areas of the vintage lure industry, such as specific items or brands. If you have questions about antique lures and tackle boxes or anything related to vintage American fishing history, you can reach Randy Nelson through his website, Randy’s Antique Fishing Lures.

Randy has collected lures for over 25 years and has a reputation as an ethical collector who always pays fair prices for antique fishing tackle. He is always interested in new items and will offer to buy single pieces as well as entire collections.

Head down to the basement and open that tackle box. You might 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

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This little beauty sold for $8,744.48 on the big auction site. It’s not exactly a lure you come across every day — though you wish you could. I suppose you never know what might turn up if you get lucky, and I’d bet these folks had a very merry 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 ideas 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 ideas about what content I should add next. www.randysantiquefishinglures.com

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