The July 1915 issue of Outer’s Book featured an ad that was widely published at the time. It is shown here along with an entry from the 1915 South Bend Catalog. It illustrates the new “South Bend Wobbler”.
South Bend was a small company at that time, desperately trying to “make a go of it”. The Anti Backlash reel made for them by Shakespeare beginning in 1911 was one of their few success stories. With the introduction of this new bait, they hoped they were on to something that could compete with the many “Wobblers” that had recently begun to replace the underwater minnow as the lure of choice among baitcasters. I don’t think that the South Bend Tackle Company suspected that it would become a candidate for the biggest selling lure of the 20th century and a lure that is still being produced 100 years later! With all that success the lure was given a new name in 1916. The name would be familiar to all bass fishermen of several generations: the “Bass-Oreno.”
To show how immediately success followed its introduction, only four years later the back cover of the May 1919 issue of Field & Stream featured a fabulous full-page, full-color ad, the bulk of which was for the Bass-Oreno. It is offered and illustrated in nine colors and available “With either treble or single detachable Snapeye hooks — each 75 cents”.
With only four years’ worth of sales under its belt the bait is already presented as “the favorite of several hundred thousand anglers.” This is the bait that put the South Bend Bait Company “over the top” as far as its financial survivability. It became the envy of other lure companies who soon produced lures specifically meant to capitalize on the Bass-Oreno’s success. Some years later, Charles Heddon stated, in a letter to his plant manager William Stolley, that what the Heddon Company needed was, “a bait that did not lose its appeal with fishermen after a couple of seasons; one that had appeal and therefore sales year after year like the South Bend Bass-Oreno.”
Many colors and sizes of the bait were offered over the years making Bass-Orenos a favorite among today’s “color collectors” who try to amass as many colors of the same bait as possible for their collection.
I was in a local tackle shop not long ago and the Bass-Oreno was sitting there on the shelf 100+ years after its introduction, still being made and offered for sale! To be honest, the workmanship of those recently manufactured baits was bad and close inspection showed that they were no longer being made in the United States. However, users of vintage tackle and baits can rejoice as there is no end to the supply of older Bass-Orenos available for practically nothing at antique tackle shows.
If you have not tried a Bass-Oreno or its smaller brother the Babe-Oreno, you might not expect the “dashing attractiveness, the sudden dive and peculiar wobble” as this ad puts it. Being wood there is some variation from one bait to the next but when you find a good one it can only be described as “very erratic” as it wobbles and snaps back and forth at the same time. I have noticed that when a bass hits it there is seldom a problem with a “light hit”. Bass almost seem to get a running start and pile into it with everything they have and thus are solidly hooked and are almost always landed. When fishing is slow, there is one in my tackle box that comes out and more often than not it produces.
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Probably my all-time sentimental favorite lure. Brings back a lot of good memories, fishing with my Dad, catching bass and pike in Bear Creek and Stump Lake in northern Wisconsin, watching that crazy side-to-side wobble and dash in the clear water.