Heddon (brand)


Heddon is a brand of artificial fishing lures created by James Heddon, who is credited with the invention of the first artificial fishing lures made of wood in the late 1890s.
The Heddon Company was founded in 1902 to sell the lures, originally made by hand in the Heddon family kitchen in Dowagiac, Michigan. By 1904 they had a sales distributor in Canada and a new factory in Dowagiac. By 1950 the Heddon brand name was well known. In their growth years, the company also made rods, reels and other peripheral fishing gear.
Citing increased competition and wanting to quit during a profitable time, the Heddon family sold their business to the Murchinson family in 1955. Since then the company has been sold multiple times, finally ending up as part of EBSCO Industries. Many of the company's original lures are still made by EBSCO under their original names, though the list below shows the original run of the named lures in the company's catalog. Many of these lures have been resurrected by later owners, and are still made, such as the "Lucky 13", the "Zara Spook", the "Meadow Mouse" and the "River Runt" all of which remain popular with fisherman more than a century after their introduction. Many Heddon lures were copied by other firms, often with some subtle changes to avoid legal conflict.

History

  • 1898 – The original fishing lures were frogs carved from broomsticks by James Heddon. He came upon the idea when he threw a stick he had whittled into a local lake known as the Mill Pond, and watched as a bass hit it.
  • 1902 – The first manufactured fishing lures were created by James and his son Will. Will moved to Florida to test and develop new plugs, as the wooden lures became known.
  • 1932 – The first plastic fishing lures were introduced. They gained the name "Spook" because of their transparent color appearance. These early lures were susceptible to decay from poor early plastic mixtures. Few examples remain, and the examples that have survived usually are distorted by bubbling. Because of their scarcity, they are premium-priced collector's items today.

    Models and series of lures

All models and series from Old Fishing Lures and Tackle 6th Ed.
  • 1898 – Heddon Frog
  • 1902 – Slopenose Dowagiac Expert
  • 1904 – Dowagiac Underwater Expert, Sea Runt 610
  • 1905 – Dowagiac Minnow 100, Killer 400 and Killer 450, Surface Minnow 300
  • 1907 – Artistic Minnow 50
  • 1908 – Night-Radiant Moonlight Bait, Surface Minnow 402
  • 1909 – Baby Dowagiac 20, Multiple Metal Minnow 500, Musky Minnow 5 Hook 700
  • 1910 – Woodpecker 1001
  • 1911 – Swimming Minnow 800
  • 1912 – Dowagiac Minnow "0" and Dowagiac Minnow '00', Light Casting Minnow 10
  • 1913 – Black Sucker 1300 and Ice Decoy 400, Coast Minnow, Dummy Double 1500
  • 1915 – Deep Diving Wiggler 1600 and Near Surface Wiggler 1700, Crab Wiggler 1800
  • 1916 – Baby Crab Wiggler 1900
  • 1918 – Spin Diver 3000
  • 1920 – Midget Crab Wiggler 1950
  • 1921 – Florida Special 10B and Florida Special 10S
  • 1922 – Zaragosa 6500
  • 1923 – Walton Feather Tail 40
  • 1924 – Salt Water Special 500 and Salt Water Special 600
  • 1925 – Torpedo 120, Torpedo 130
  • 1926 – Salt Water Special 800, Surface Minnow 260
  • 1927 – Flipper 140
  • 1929 – Dowagiac Minnow 150, River Runt 110, MEADOW MOUSE 4000
  • 1933 – River-Runt Spook
  • 1934 – Musky Surfacer 350
  • 1937 – SOS 140
  • 1939 – Laguna Runt 10, Zara Spook 9260
  • Unknown – Salt Water Special 900