James Heddon's Sons Lures - Dowagiac, MI
James Heddon's first commercially available lure was the "Dowagiac" Casting Bait. It was a white lure with a blue sloped nose and a red metal color. He received a patent for the lure on April 1, 1902. By 1905, Heddon was producing a number of different underwater minnow designs. You can tell the oldest models because they had three long flowing gill marks painted under the large glass eyes. The lures became famous because of their high quality and they caught fish. Early Heddon catalogs state that their minnows have 7 to 12 coats of special porcelain enamel and were guaranteed not to peel off or crack. Heddon continued to make glass-eyed wooden lures up until World War II. In the 1950's and later, plastic lures were the most common design. The first lures pictured below are all very early models. The earliest lures had cup hardware and screw eyes for the hooks. Then came what is called L-rig, then 2-piece and finally surface rigged hook hardware. The following photos show some of the basic color patterns and the wide variety of body styles. Early Heddon lures are very collectable.
After World War II, all lure manufacturers realized there was no need to continue to incorporate the little glass eyes into their wooden lures. First came little tack eyes and then simple painted eyes. In the 1950's, plastic lures started to be the predominate lure type. Heddon's venture into plastic lures started with what they called "Spook" lures. They were called "Spook" lures because you could see through them like a ghost.
Uncommon HEDDON Lures
HEDDON DOWAGIAC MINNOWS
More HEDDON DOWAGIAC MINNOWS
HEDDON No. 150 in Bar Perch Finish
HEDDON DOWAGIAC No. 150 and No. 200 Lures
HEDDON DOWAGIAC No. 150 Lure
HEDDON Lures in Strawberry Spot Color Pattern
HEDDON Rainbow Pattern Lures
HEDDON Shiner Scale Pattern Lures
HEDDON Green Scale Pattern Lures
Heddon color pattern lures are from the collection of Mark Hostetler
HEDDON No. 00 Lure
HEDDON No. 1001 Lure
Abbey & Imbrie 1907 Catalog Pages Showing HEDDON MINNOWS
HEDDON Punkinseed Lure
HEDDON Vamp Lures
HEDDON Laguna Runt Lures
HEDDON Lucky 13 Lure
HEDDON Zara Spook Color Variations
1905 HEDDON Magazine Ad
1921 HEDDON Field & Stream Magazine Ad
1922 HEDDON Field & Stream Magazine Ads
1922 HEDDON Field & Stream Magazine Ads
HEDDON Lure Collection
HEDDON Lure Collection
Lures are from the collection of Bill Premaza