San Antonio

San Antonio Area Fishing Lures

Aquasonic Lures, Universal City & Cibolo, Texas

Aquasonic lures
Water inlet and outlet holes
Aquasonic box inserts
Aquasonic models and color chart (courtesy of Colby Sorrells)

Barbera Rat and Barbera Mouse, made by Shakespeare Co., Kalamazoo, MI, for Barbera Sporting Goods Co., San Antonio, Texas. (A Texas Bait: The History of the Barbera Rat: article in the NFLCC Magazine, winter 2015, Vol. 25, No. 2)

Barbera Rat with box
Barbera Rat label on box end
Old style box on left, newer style box on right
Barbera Rat returns to production after WW2. San Antonio Light, Mar 12, 1948
Barbera Rat “A bass getter for 20 years” (back to 1932). San Antonio Express News, May 25, 1952
One of the last ads for the Barbera Rat. San Antonio Express News, Mar 8, 1956.
Group of Barbera Rats

Demon Lure Company, San Antonio, Texas – maker of the Sail Shark and the Bat: http://sailshark.com

DooDad Baits, Kerrville, Texas. Made by Winston C. “Windy” Gray.

DooDad lures

The source for these lures pictured above was reasonably certain the lures were in their correct boxes: 101-green scale, yellow belly: 102-brown scale: 103-gray scale: 104-black, white belly, white wings: 105-black, yellow belly, yellow wings; 106-red head, white body, black wings; 107-unknown; 108-unknown (box only); 109-unknown; 110-all black body, yellow bill, white wings. Update – recently a Doo Dad box insert has been found which lists the Doo Dad colors as follows: 101 Green Perch, 102 Minnow, 103 Gray Mouse, 104 Black Nite, 105 Black Boy, 106 Red Head, 107 Doo Dad, 108 Black Widow, 109 Frogie, 110 Black Girl, 111 White Nite, 112 Yellow Perch. (Insert pictures courtesy of Glenn Harris)

Box insert
Reverse side of box insert

A current Kerrville resident, whose father knew Windy Gray, said that DooDad lures were at Gray’s Radiator Shop at 201 Water St. in Kerrville. Whether the lures were made at this site remains to be determined. The Kerrville City Directory didn’t list Gray’s shop at this location until the 1954-55 edition. The DooDad box insert has the address for the DooDad bait company as 512 1/2 Jefferson St., Kerrville, Texas. This was the site of a radiator shop/automotive shop that Windy Gray was associated with from the mid 40s to the early 50s. This would indicate that the lures were already in production prior to opening his radiator shop at 201 Water St.

DooDad color variation
DooDad color variation
DooDad color variation
Note: no scale on head of darker one
DooDad lures
Both single and double hook versions
Painted yellow diving bill on #110
New addition #107

Finmaster Lures, San Antonio, Texas – maker of the Finmaster III.

Finmaster lures
Field & Stream ad – July, 1969
Robert “Bobby” Blunt Jr.
Creator of the Finmaster

Bobby lived in San Antonio and was a plumber and pipefitter and longtime members of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union #142 in San Antonio. He gave a couple of his lures to another plumber he worked with when he found out that they were a lure collector.

Lovelace Mfg. Co., San Antonio & Bandera, Texas – maker of the Breathing Minnow and Winny-Dink.

Two sizes of Breathing Minnow. The top one is about 1/2 inch shorter.
Replacement silk body socks were available. According to local lore, these were hand made by Claribel Lovelace.
More Breathing Minnows (patent #2,183,816 filed 1938)
Orange Breathing Minnow with color coordinated skirt
Faded stamp at end of the box that the
smaller size Breathing Minnow came in
Back side of Breathing Minnow cards
Listing from the San Antonio Express newspaper, May 31, 1938. Also, 1938 was the only year Lovelace was listed at this address in the San Antonio phone book.
Winny-Dink lure (Patent #2,516,399 filed 1946)
Lovelace metal lures
Lovelace dragon-like lure

Mack’s Tackle Workshop, San Antonio, Texas – maker of various baits including the minno-bug, flyrod bugs, cork bugs, etc. (Listed in the San Antonio phone book from 1944-1955 at 513 1/2 Dolorosa.)

Assortment of Mack bugs

Mack Crawdad
Mack Mice
More Mack bugs on cards
Ad in Fredericksburg Standard Oct 21, 1932
Minnow Bugs in box
More Minnow Bugs including 4 of the earlier version.
Minnow Bug patent filed in 1931
Macks listed in 1937
Shakespeare catalog (37-A)
Macks listed in 1938 (38 A) Shakespeare catalog (not listed in the 39-A catalog)
Addition of Crawdad and Sunshine Special
Addition of Bucktail Minnow

Medina Mouse, made by Shakespeare Co., Kalamazoo, MI, for San Antonio Fishing Tackle Co.

Medina Mouse label on end of box

Pico Lures (Padre Island Co.), moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1962 – maker of various lures including Pico Chico, Pico Perch, Mullet, Pico Pop & Lil Pop, Side Shad, Piggy Boat, and others. https://www.mybaitshop.com/blogs/blogging-at-the-bait-shop/pico-lures-a-short-history-of-the-company

Pico Chico
Pico Perch
Mullet
Lil Pop
Side Shad
Piggy Boat

Schoolmaster Boat & Tackle Company,  San Antonio, Texas – maker of the Schoolmaster Lure, Schoolmaster Perch Lure, and Schoolmaster Shrimp. Robert P. Nelson was the owner of this company. (1960 is the only year the company was listed in the San Antonio phone book.)

Schoolmaster lures
Schoolmaster perch
Schoolmaster Shrimp
Top portion of Schoolmaster Insert
Bottom portion of Schoolmaster insert
SEMCO version of the Schoolmaster lure
Front of box insert
Back of box insert

Southwestern Fishing Tackle Co., San Antonio, Texas

Bingo Mouse.
Box was made by Crown Paper Box & Label Co. of San Antonio in operation from 1923 to 1954.
Dingbat Wiggler (top, missing hair tail) and 3 roundnose runt-type lures. These lures have been attributed to SFTCo., however this remains to be verified.
Bingo Mouse (courtesy of Steve Hollingsworth)
Nice group of Bingo Mice (photo courtesy of Cathy Jorgenson)

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