Bomber Baits 1975 Catalog

The Bomber Pinfish was a vibration bait that competed with the Bill Lewis Rattle Trap, the Whopper Stopper Bayou Boogie, and the Cordell Spot, to name a few. 1975 Bomber Baits Catalog.

This will be the third Bomber catalog we’ve published, the first being the 1953 catalog and the second, the 1971 catalog. Today in Bomber Baits 1975 Catalog, we’ll delve into this year’s offerings by the famed Gainesville, TX company.

First off, I would like to thank Bass Fishing Archives supporter Al Hustosky for this awesome catalog. Al contacted us and let us know he had a bunch of catalogs he wanted to share. He scanned these images and sent them in along with 12 other catalogs that we’ll be sharing over the course of the next few months. It’s people like Al that make this site so awesome.

Anyway, on to the 1975 Bomber catalog.

This catalog, like the ones we’ve posted before, was printed on 17-inch by 11-inch paper folded once to make the individual pages and then folded again to make the 5-1/2-inch by 8-1/2-inch mailer. The cover was printed with the same text as in the 1953 and 1971 version. I guess you don’t mess with success, and Bomber sure had that.

Pages 1 and 2 followed suit with the color and size charts for the Original Bomber. There wasn’t any difference in the sizes offered between 1971 and 1975 but looking at the color chart, there were some discontinued colors, or it’s possible they were omitted due to space constraints. Maybe Blake Taylor will see this and give us his expert opinion. Colors that were left out were 09 (Pearl Spots – the color David Hayes caught the record smallmouth on), 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 33, 36, 38, 39, 44, and 56. New colors since 1971 were 80, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88, SC, YSC, FYSC, FO, FY, and BN.

The next two pages featured the Pinfish. Pinfish was a popular name with bait companies for what was essentially a vibration bait, and Bomber’s was no different. This bait was missing in the 1971 catalog so it must have been added prior to 1975, since it’s not introduced here as “New”. Bomber offered the bait in nine solid colors and 12 Metaflash colors, which took advantage of their plastic construction with a foil insert in the bait. The Pinfish was offered in three sizes, 1/4-oz (2 inches), 3/8-oz (2-1/1-inches), and 1/2-oz (3-inches).

Sharing the Pinfish size chart page was the size chart for the Speed Shad. For the 1975 offerings, they added several colors including S1 (Silver), BL (Blue), RD (Red), GO (Gold), CH (Chartreuse), GR (Green), and PR (Purple). These colors again took advantage of the clear plastic with colored foil inserts. The Speed Shad was offered in three unique sizes, 1/5-oz (2-inches), 1/3-oz (2-1/1-inches), and 2/5-oz (3-inches).

Page 6 was the Bomber Waterdog. From 1971 Bomber had increased the color chart from 20 to 33 with three sizes still offered in 1/4-oz, 1/2-oz and 5/8-oz. This bait was originally designed to compete with the Whopper Stopper Hellbender and found a lot of success over the years in that capacity.

If spinnerbaits are your thing, then page 7 is your page. Different from the 1971 catalog, the Bomber Bushwhacker was not just offered in the Twin Spin, Single Spin, and Tandem Spin, there were two new versions. Dubbed the Big John, it looks to me as if this configuration had a longer arm than the standard Bushwhacker.

The Bushwhacker Big John single spin and tandem spin, along with the standard Bushwhacker Twin Spin and Tandem Spin came in two sizes, 1/4-oz and 1/2-oz. The Standard Bushwhacker single spin came in three sizes adding a 3/4-oz option to the mix.

The spinnerbaits came in 15 colors with vinyl skirts (rigged straight). But they also offered the Standard single spin Bushwhacker in a hand-tyed fly skirt in 9 color variations.

Next on the list was the Gimmick and Midget Bomberette on page 8. The Gimmick has always been a weird bait to me. It isn’t something I’d use but it’d been out since the 1953 catalog and obviously caught fish and sold over the 22 years Bomber had been making it.

The Midget Bomberette shown on the same page was the same display from the 1971 catalog, in fact, the entire page hadn’t changed in that time.

Metachrome colors were new in 1971 but the pages in this 1975 catalog really showed them off well compared to the earlier catalog. Metachrome was exactly what it sounds like. A chrome-like plating on the plastic bait that gave off a bright, reflective finish. In 1971 they offered 10 to 11 Metachrome colors depending on the bait but in 1975 they dialed it back to 9 colors.

Page 11 featured four different baits, the Spinstick, the Stick, the Jerk Bait, and the Jig. The Spinstick had become famous as the bait that won the first Ray Scott event on Beaver Lake in June 1967. Offered in two sizes. The 7200 series was 2-1/1-inch es long and weighed 1/4-oz and came in 17 colors. The 7300 series was 3-1/2-inches long and came in 21 colors.

The Stick was the same size as the 7300 series but had no spinner for or aft. It too came in 21 colors.

The Jerk bait is a bait I have zero experience with – either fishing or seeing. The description says that the bait is a walking type bait when jerked on the surface but will swim on a straight retrieve. It came in three sizes from 1/2-oz (3-inches long) to 7/8-oz (4-1/8-inches long).

The Jig is a bait I have experience with but not in the freshwater. We sold the crap out of these jigs at the shop I worked at as a kid for saltwater Calico Bass. Fished with a strip of squid pinned to the hook, it flat out caught fish. The Jig was offered in four sizes from 1/4-oz to 1-oz.

The next page features two more baits, the Gumpy Jig and the Bomber Slab Spoon. The Gumpy Jig looks as if it would compete with today’s hair jigs used on the Tennessee River lakes. This jig had a sturdy paint job and had the option of a stout cadmium plated hook. It came in four sizes from 1/8-oz to 3/8-oz and seven colors.

The Slab Spoon is another old Bomber standby that caught tons of fish over the years. A simple hunk of lead with an amazing finish. This bait came in three sizes from 5/8-oz to 1-1/4-oz and 20 colors. Up from the 12 colors offered in the 1971 catalog.

A lure company that sells lubricants puzzled me in the 1971 edition of this catalog and here it is again on page 13 of this catalog. Bomber’s Sports Lube was said to bond to metal surfaces and last 8-10 time longer than regular oil. Touted as the perfect lube for reels and an anti-rust agent for all metals, I guess it makes sense for someone to sell it to anglers. Where they overstep the line, though, is their suggestion to use it on hooks. Personally, I don’t want oil near my baits but then I think of all the salmon anglers in the Pacific Northwest who swear by WD-40 as a fish attractant.

Page 14 is the conclusion of the catalog and hosts some pictures of anglers with their catches on Bomber Lures. That sting of fish from “Turkey” Johnston is a heck of a mess of bass. I count 11 fish on that stringer and it looks like nearly all of them are pushing the 5-pound mark.

That’s it for the 1975 Bomber Bait Company catalog. Again, I’d like to thank Al Hustosky for scanning the catalog and sending it to us to share. If any of you readers have catalogs that you would like to share with us here, please drop a comment below or email me at terry@bass-archives.com and we’ll be in touch!

For the full catalog, please view the gallery below. Click on the first image and use the arrows to scroll through the catalog.