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More Fishing and Boating

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• Seaworthy: Start the season right

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I have already received questions about how last week’s Florida Antique Tackle Collectors winter show in Daytona went. I will try to have some news about it in next week’s article as it is too early to get anything about it due to our deadline.

It is a good bet it went well with a great turnout and I hope some interesting stories will surface from the show.

The next two FATC shows are set. The Spring show, open to the public May 4 at Mark W. Lance National Guard Armory, St. Augustine, FL. You may contact the show host Mike Hall at (904)725-0785 or (904)727-5011 or e-mail him at flalake@aold.com for more information.

The Summer show, open to the public August 23 at Dolphin Beach Resort, St. Petersburg, FL. You may contact the show host Ron Gast at (407)933-7435 or e-mail rkgast@cfl.rr.com for more information. To see what they are all about and join the club to FATC website www.fatc.net.

I did get a response about my old card/checker table that came from my grandparents’ home in Greensburg, IN. featured in last week’s article. BH of Marco Island writes, “I have a card table with the checker board on it. It was passed on to me by my mother-in-law over 30 years ago. It does not have the two ashtrays however and no name on it.”

This is the first time I have come so close to finding one exactly like mine. It is a good bet the same company might have made it. Please let me know if you can shed any light on the tables.

The first lure featured this week is a Heddon Dying Flutter. It is 4 inches long with two spinners, one at the head another at the tail. It could date back to the 1950’s. Heddon was out of MI and was known best for their honey before they began their lure building company.

Mr. Heddon was also one of the first to deliver his honey in his airplane. Then they evolved into a very successful lure company that included a large selection of sizes and models. The family visited and fished Southwest Florida for several years.

Great grandson Chuck Heddon is a member of the Florida Antique Collectors club. He says he has very fond memories of them staying at Bud Houge’s Fish Camp where Bud has some cabins and rental boats. It was located where Wiggins Pass Marina used to be.

There were no condos from Doctor’s Pass in Naples north o Fort Myers and only one dirt road from US 41 to the fish camp. The Naples Dump was located where the entrance to the Moorings is now. You just drove on the dirt road, dumped your trash and tried not to get stuck leaving.

Heddon also remembers the otters that would be waiting at the dock for a free meal when they arrived with heir catch. The fishing was fantastic for several species including snook, trout, mangrove snapper and sheepshead.

Several years ago some of the Heddon family visited Fort Myers Beach. Chuck told me he got a tear in his eye when he looked south from the condo and realized how many condos there were south towards Wiggins Pass.

I have been told Bud Houge donated the dirt road to the county so they could pave it for the school bus to pick up the children so they would not have to walk to US 41 to be picked up. I understand a friend of the Houge family tried to get the road named after the family but it fell on deaf ears.

Guess what, I have some antique globes. No, not the ones on my ceiling, they are old lures. I am not sure who was the first one to make them but one thing is for sure it spawned several other lure builders to make more of them.

Of course they modified the sizes, colors and shapes, some to avoid a lawsuit. The first two are called Pflueger Globe lures. Both are the same length but one of them is slightly larger in diameter with three larger triple hooks. If they were one of the first made which I doubt they could date as far back as 1905.

The third lure is a Helin Fish Cake spinner which is very close to the same design as the Globe. It looks a lot older but is not as it was introduced around 1956. The wood part of the lure is 2 ½ inches, total length 3 ½ inches.

All three lures are in fair condition for their age. Helin also made the Flatfish lures and Swimmer spoons which came in several sizes.

Always remember to be very careful when handling old lures. Of course, I always had to learn the hard way and this tip was no exception.

Several years ago I noticed one of the propellers of the larger Globe lure was bent so I tried to bend it back and it broke off making the value about half of what it would be worth.

I might have found the answer to the ID of the lure with Joe Fish stamped on the back and will try to let you and the lady that sent me the picture know what I came up with in next week’s article.

Let me know if you have any Globe or Fish Cakes lures.

Good hunting!

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Red Stier is a weekly contributor to the Marco Island Eagle. Questions or comments may be directed to redstier@aol.com or 172 Trinidad St., Naples, FL 34113.