The following advertisement is from the April 1933 issue of Outdoor Life. It is a small ad for the new family of “Fish Flesh” baits. As we have mentioned before in this column, the term “Fish Flesh” was dropped a couple of years later in favor of the name “Spook” (seen here in smaller print) for Heddon’s transparent plastic line of baits.
What is remarkable about this ad is that one has to look very carefully for any mention of the River Runt Spook. It is obvious that this was not the bait that they expected to become the bestselling bait in their line. The “New Products for 1933” brochure that was sent out to dealers in the fall of 1932 makes no mention of the River Runt Spook among their line of new plastic lures. One must search hard in the 1933 Heddon catalog to find mention of the River Runt Spook and you will find no illustration of the lure there. There is a notice that the bait was “perfected as we went to press” but it is not given any sort of a promotional build up. Only the standard sinking model is available.
One sees this occasionally in older ads where a company expected great things from a “new” lure and little success followed, but they were taken completely by surprise by the success of a lure they felt would be an “also ran”. Seldom has any company been as wrong as in this case. The River Runt Spook was slow to catch on but as we will see next week when success did come, it was beyond all expectations!
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One of my Dad’s favorite baits was the River Runt Spook. For plugs he had three or four go-to’s: a Mousie (Shakespeare or Creek Chub), Bass-Oreno, River Runt Spook, and a Rapala. In fact the word Spook was interchangeable with River Runt – they pretty much meant the same thing or signified the same bait to my Dad, that’s how much he replied on them.
No, the word Spook simply distinguished plastic from wood to Heddon.
Don’t know if you’re replying to my comment, Dennis, but if you are, I am – along with my Dad – well aware of that. My point was that The River Runt Spook, to my Dad was often just shortened to Spook; he didn’t have to say River Runt to know what he was referring to. That’s how closely associated the Spook style lure was associated with the River Runt.