Steve White, a St. Louis McDonnell Douglas tool-and-die machinist, collects old fishing tackle. He once paid $500 for an antique fishing lure. No, he does not intend to sell it. It hangs on a wall with approximately 1200 more pieces of authentic antique fishing tackle in an 11-foot-square ”trophy” room in his home.
White envisions himself as a historian. His education in an avocation that he pursues passionately, started as he grew up playing in his grandfather’s tackle store. Emil “Worms” Huessmann, was 91-years-old and still fishing as this article was written. He ran his sporting goods shop from 1927 till 1973. He took his grandson fishing often. In the process, he showed White how to scavenge drawn-down shore lines at Lake of the Ozarks each winter for snagged lures that Bagnell Dam’s drawn-down winter water levels left high and dry.
White got a first hand education in the tackle industry while frequenting Huessmann’s shop as a youth.
“When they closed grandad’s shop, there were literally buckets (five gallon size) of old lures scavenged from Lake of the Ozark’s shore line over the years. Nobody wanted them! They were scrapped! I would give anything to have that opportunity back today. Who knows how many priceless old lures were destroyed because nobody knew their value?” lamented White.
White estimates he spends about 10-hours a week at his avocation plus four-weeks vacation every year. In fact he is preparing to attend the National Fishing Lure Collector’s Club annual convention at Pheasant Run Convention Hall in St. Charles, Illinois at this writing. Members from Japan and England are expected to attend.
“I have a display booth at the St. Louis Boat Show every year, I do a lot of promotional tours for “Grandpa’s” stores in the St. Louis area throughout the year at their “Meet The Pros” series and I maintain a perpetual classified ad in the St. Louis Post Dispatch inquiring about old tackle,” White stated.
He doesn’t attend these functions focused on selling merchandise. He prospects for attics, estates, garages with unwanted old tackle that might be accumulated in an obscure corner. He takes up to 10-feet of glass display cases of antique lures and old fishing rods to show the public at promotional functions.
“People wander up to the booth from nostalgia when they see my displays. So many times idle conversation leads to piles of dusty lures or rods thrown into an attic or basement somewhere. Most prospects are widows that don’t know what to do with the stuff,” exclaimed White.
While White does not view this hobby as self-sustaining, a neighbor recently made him reflect on the potential value of his collection. The neighbor sold his for $110,000. “That really bothered him and me, “stated White. “Both of us commiserated later that we did this for the fun of it. To find out it’s worth those kind of bucks is kind of self deflating. Money is not why most of us do this,” the collector mused.
White feels he is a keeper of history. He preserves that which gave his grandfather so much joy and his father before him. After his grandfather’s retirement, he went so far as to peruse his discarded business records and kept certain documents related to now defunct merchandise.
“I’m nostalgic by nature. My great-grandfather was quite a tarpon fly-fishing-tournament contestant in Florida at the turn of the 20th century. He held all kinds of saltwater angling records at that time. He drove to Florida from St. Louis over dirt and gravel roads in order to compete there. I’m sure that dedication helped propel his son, my grandfather, into the tackle shop business,” rationalized White.
Many lures White collected came from people who knew they were going into a collection and would be preserved. “It meant something to them that such an item from somebody they loved would be perpetuated and not thrown away,” he said.
White stated that the first bait casting reels were made by watchmakers who also were fishing aficionados. They handcrafted their reels and those designs were eventually handed over to engineers for mass production. With a tool and die background reinforcing skills accompanied by a deep nostalgia for the sport of fishing, White recently completed crafting a bait casting reel from stainless steel; trimmed out with authentic steer’s horn and burnished walnut.
He stated, “I made that reel just to show people visiting my booths these items can still be built just like the original craftsmen did it. Evidence of that old time craftsmanship is part of the drive in this hobby.”
He refers to an extensive collection of reference books to identify the antique objects he seeks. “Streeter’s Reference Catalogue of Old Fishing Lures” is his main Bible and there are many others.
He does not just concentrate on terminal tackle. Old rods also fascinate him, especially old-split-bamboo fly rods. That trail then leads to collecting old bamboo casting rods. The collectibles acquired from estates that do not fit his collection, he sells at various St. Louis area weekend-flea-markets.
White summarized, “It is a lot like collecting baseball cards. Certain lures, I want every color they were made in. Others, I just want one of every style the manufacturer made. They represent pieces of history that are gone forever if people like myself don’t preserve them.”