“Old 2000” – Darter or Wiggle King

A while back I wrote a Bass Fishing Archives article titled “It’s a Big Bass, Mrs. Sheffield,” about a nearly 12-pound largemouth caught in 1940 by a Mrs. Sheffield out of Citrus County, Florida. The story mentioned some uncertainty I had about the bait that Mrs. Sheffield used to catch her giant bass, which the news story that my article was based upon simply referred to as “a No. 2000 plug, frog color. Positively no live bait!” I assumed that the bait may have been the Heddon Wiggle King, which was designated No. 2000 in the Heddon line-up. In the comment section of my story, fishing historian Bill Sonnett confirmed that the Wiggle King was indeed given the series number 2000 in Heddon’s catalogue. So, I assumed that I had inferred correctly that the “No. 2000 plug” Mrs. Sheffield used was the Heddon Wiggle King.

However, Bill didn’t exactly confirm my assumption, he merely affirmed that 2000 was the series number given to the Heddon Wiggle King. I made my assumption about the Wiggle King being Sheffield’s plug too quickly. I should have pestered Bill for a little more information, particularly given that Sonnett had previously written a great piece on the Creek Chub Darter, which was also given the series number 2000 by the Creek Chub company. In Bill’s story, “CCBC’s ‘New Creek Darter,” he mentions that the Darter “…is also commonly called by its catalog number the ‘2000’.”

Coincidentally, Terry Battisti and I have been sharing ads of old lures between the two of us. Terry recently visited Bill Sonnett at his home in Michigan and after that visit he mentioned that Bill and he had talked about some of my BFA stories, and the question of what lure Mrs. Sheffield caught her bass on came up. Terry did a little digging and found several old ads for the Creek Chub Darter (or Creek Darter) that he forwarded to me and which I’m happy to share with you here. In these ads you can see that Creek Chub was promoting the success of the Darter, particularly in the frog pattern. Several ads show pictures of big bass (and one big walleye) caught on the lure.

Early on, in 1923, the ½-ounce, 3¾-inch Darter was offered in only three color patterns: 2000 – Frog Camouflage; 2001 – White with Red Head; 2002 – Yellow Spotted. Later on that color chart changed a bit and more colors were added. In 1931 the colors were: 2000 – Natural Frog; 2002 – White with Red Head; 2014 – Yellow Spotted; 2018 – Silver Flash. Fred Sweeney’s authoritative Creek Chub Bait Company book indicates that the No. 2000 signified the frog pattern that ran from 1923-1932. From 1933-1978 this color pattern was given the number 19, thus becoming the 2019, even though it was still popularly known as the 2000. Eventually, at least 15 different color patterns were offered, and the Darter was in production until 1978.

Clearly the natural frog pattern was the most popular, as that’s the one that earned the popular name as the “old 2000” or “two-thousand.” Creek Chub capitalized on the fame of the Darter by introducing variations of the lure, including the Spinnered Darter, Saltwater Darter, Jointed Darter, Surf Darter, and Midget Darter.

So, is the question of which bait caught Mrs. Sheffield’s big bass settled? Not exactly, but it is probably safe to assume that the “No. 2000 plug” mentioned in the original newspaper article was the Creek Chub Darter, and not the Wiggle King. The Wiggle King was a popular lure in the early 1920s and eventually morphed into the Lucky 13. Certainly some anglers would have still had Wiggle Kings in their tackle boxes in 1940 when Mrs. Sheffield caught her bass, possibly even Mrs. Sheffield herself. But the Creek Chub Darter was by that time much more popular and ubiquitous, and was commonly known as the “two-thousand.” Both baits were effective lures for catching big bass. But I’m correcting my initial assumption to say that it probably was a Creek Chub Darter – the “old 2000” – that was tied to the end of Mrs. Sheffield’s line and hooked her 12-pounder. It’s little stories like the one of Mrs. Sheffield’s catch that make for interesting controversies and fodder for other stories in the history of bass fishing.