Today in Bill Norman 1979 we’re going to get into three ads from the period that should ring some bells. As you hopefully know by now, Bill Norman started his career in the lure making industry working for George Perrin of the Plastic Research and Development Company, known better today as PRADCO.
It has been written here several times that it was Norman who designed the Amazing Rebel Minnow along with the other Rebel lures from 1962 through 1967. Bill Norman and George Perrin then got into a payroll dispute and Norman walked out, went down the street three blocks and hung a shingle on the side of his new building and opened Rebel Manufacturing.
Lawsuits followed and by the end of the 1960s, both companies were held guilty of certain claims. That essentially ended the name of Norman’s Rebel Manufacturing and he renamed his company after himself. What he did win was his intellectual property, the rights to make the lures he designed, and his $18,000 in back pay.
Norman continued to make his original designs, the minnow, which changed names from the Reb to the Linebacker and then the Shiner. He also continued to make the Quarter Back, Half Back, and various other lures under the Bill Norman name. He also opened up another tackle company called Ranger MFG that produced the same baits and a line of plastics.
By 1974, though, Norman saw the ways of the Big-O and released two squarebills called the Big-N and the Little-N. These baits weren’t like any other that Norman had designed before in that their surface was smooth, not cross-hatched like every other bait he’d designed.
Then in 1975, Lee Sisson, working for Jim Bagley, designed the DB 3 Balsa B. This was the first contemporary deep diving crankbait to hit the market.
In 1976, Bill Norman took to redesigning his Little-N crankbait to become a deep diver, thusly naming it the Deep Little N. Along with the DB 3, the Deep Little-N would become synonymous with deep-water cranking.
That’s enough of the history lesson. Let’s get on with the ads.
The opening ad for this piece is powerful in that Norman is showing off his prostaff, which consisted of Jimmy Houston, Hank Parker, Harold Allen, and Woo Daves. Houston had sold the rights to Norman to produce the Redman Spinnerbait, one of the best spinnerbaits ever designed. Plus he was a hammer on the Bassmaster Trail and had won the 1978 American Angler Classic.
Hank Parker, on the other hand, was only a year into his career at B.A.S.S. Still, he’d been fishing the other circuits like National Bass and American Bass Fisherman, and had won three events on separate circuits in a row and qualified for two BASS Masters Classic to boot.
Harold Allen started fishing the Bassmaster circuit in 1974 but didn’t commit full-time until 1977. But Allen didn’t just fish the Bassmaster Trail. He fished Project Sports Inc., American Angler, and other circuits. He won an American Angler Texas national as well as the American Angler Grand Am, which was their version of the Classic.
Dave was a staple on the Bassmaster Trail since 1973 and won his first Invitational in 1975 on Buggs Island. He’d also qualified for two BASS Master Classics before 1979.
To say Bill Norman’s stable was full of thoroughbreds would be true and helped him bring his company to the forefront of great lure companies.
In this ad Norman concentrated on featuring his Redman Spinnerbait, the new Snatrix, and the Little-N squarebill. Little did he know at the time this ad was released that his Snatrix would win the 1979 BASS Masters Classic.
The next ad from 1979 featured Norman’s new CB series of crankbaits. This series utilized the same bodies of his “N” series baits but with a twist. The baits were molded of clear plastic and painted in order to keep the lips and bills clear. The CB series, which stood for Clear Bill, wasn’t the first deep diving crankbait with a clear bill, but it catered to the anglers who felt the clear bill was an asset.
The final ad from 1979 was another ad for the Snatrix. In this ad Norman states, “Proven to be FAR SUPERIOR to plastic worms because Bass PREFER WATERSNAKES*!”
He even referenced this claim as being said by Dr. Loren Hill, a leading ichthyologist at the time, and father of Kenyon Hill, the pro bass angler.
When I purchased my first pack of Snatrix baits from the tackle shop, I was disappointed. To me, and probably everyone else out there, the bait looked like a long curly-tail worm. Yes, the head of the bait was molded to look like a snake but could a bass really decipher all that minute detail? I never thought they could.
Norman states in the ad there was no way to fish the bait wrong. Use it Texas rigged, swim it on the surface, use it as a spinnerbait trailer, fish it on a jig. Hank Parker won the 1979 Classic on the bait, so he says, flipping. I’m sure people caught fish on the soft plastic snake but I had no confidence in it. Quickly it gained a spot in my box of tackle I never used.
The final thing I’d like to say about these ads is one of these three ads was in every issue of both Bassmaster Magazine and National Bassman. Norman wasn’t afraid to advertise and based on his sales, it mattered to his bottom line. Although they’re all black and white, they were strong ads that helped promote the business. Today they’re just fun to look back on. Plus, most importantly, they help document the history of this sport we all love.
