After ICAST 2023, Bass Fishing Archives writer Mike Orzell posted a report detailing some of the historic companies that were at the industry show. In that report, Mike wrote about one of the prominent soft plastics companies of the 1980s, Producto Lures. Today in Producto Lures 1979, we’re going to take a look at a couple of Producto’s oldest ads, which came from the 1979 issues of National Bassman magazine.
The lead-in image was featured in the January-February issue of National Bassman and might be the oldest Producto ad in a national magazine. We know the company got its start in 1978 or slightly before simply because Dave Flickinger won the 1978 NBA-ABF Championship with the company’s bait.
The ad doesn’t state what worm Flickinger caught his fish on, but most likely it was the 8-inch Tournament Worm since that was the bait that put Producto on the map. In this ad Producto talks about their full lineup of products which included the Tournament Worm, Producer Worm, and Lunker Lotion scent.
The Tournament Worm came in 8-, 6-, and 4-inch sizes, while the Producer came in 9-, 7 1/2-, 6-, and 5-inch lengths. Another interesting bit of information in the ad is where it states their Special Introductory Offer for Jake Adkins’ own special formula Black Grape Color. I had heard that the Tournament Worm was initially named Jake’s Tournament Worm but I wonder if it was only this color? By the way, this color is still offered by Bodacious Baits, the new owners of Producto.
The next ad I found was from the March-April issue of National Bassman and featured a really impressive catch made by lady angler Vickie Parker. In the image she’s holding a 14-pound, 5-ounce bass from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. The catch, which took place over a 24-hour period in January 1979, included nine of bass that all totaled over 63 pounds.
At the time it was believed the 14-05 was the world’s record for a woman but to my knowledge it was never recognized by the IGFA. In fact, if you refer to the IGFA record book, you would see that Ms. Parker’s fish would be the All-Tackle Women’s world record even today. To date, the biggest largemouth bass ever recognized by the IGFA for women is the recent 12-pound line-class record caught by Lee Anne Powell from O.H. Ivie this past February. Her fish weighed 12-pounds even.
It’s too bad that the fish wasn’t recognized as a record, not just for Ms. Parker but for Producto Lures. Having a world record to claim is always good for business.
These two ads are most likely the first ads ever placed by Producto in a national magazine and provide a lot of history with respect to the origins of the company. These ads ran in all four of the National Bassman magazines printed that year. Unfortunately National Bass Association folded in September 1979 so there were no more ads after the July-August issue.
I hope you all found this look back into the Producto Lure company interesting. I also hope you get a chance to check out the new company and give their baits a try. If you used them back in the day, you’ll recognize the feel, look, and smell. The new owners, Brad and Heather Houchins, haven’t changed a thing about the manufacturing process. If you’ve never used a Producto bait, it’s definitely worth giving them a try. They old school but believe me, they catch fish.
