June 2016
“Trolling Spoon”
John R. Harlow
Auburn, NY
1894
Quite a few years ago, I come across a “spoon” fishing lure in an old tackle box that I acquired. It looked like nearly every other spoon out there except for one thing. It was stamped with “May 29 1894”.
Now there are a lot of spoons out there with dates on them that are quite common. The most common is the “G M Skinner” spoon…which was stamped with the patent date of 1874 for nearly 100 years! And MILLIONS of these were sold, making most of them worth under $5 each.
But, this one was different. No name was stamped on the bait and a different patent date.
This lure sat in my collection for years, even decades. I searched for information on it many times, and even brought it to other collector’s attention. No luck.
Even more years go by, and I thought about this lure again. I type into Google “Spoon May 29 1894”, and there it is!! The 120+ year old lure finally is identified!
The patent for this lure was filed on October 23, 1893 and granted seven months later. The patent spells out that it is for new improvements made to the spoon and centers around the snap or spring clip used to attach the spoon to the stem or shaft. The principal object of Harlow’s invention is to enable the spoon to be used either side out and thus enable the user to secure two different surfaces with each spoon.
I am just glad that I can add another one of my “unknown” lures to the identified list.
