Fishing with tin squids can be documented back to the 1840's and from that time on there had to be some fishermen that incorporated worms, eels, etc. into their presentation; even though they were fishing with hand lines in

the earliest of times.

 

On August 17, 1913 Charles B. Church caught the [ then ] new worlds record striped bass weighing seventy three pounds on a live eel.

 

It is hard to imagine that it took almost one hundred years before fishing with eel's really became a popular way of catching striped bass. Shortly before and then following the end of World War II; many new methods of presenting the eel to bass were developed and mastered. There are dozens of different styles of eel rigs, jigs, squids, etc. out there and while some were made professionally some were also homemade; they all caught fish. The largest companies advertising them for sale at the time includes:

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Bradford Tackle Co.

Clarke's Eel Lures

Evans Case Co. [ Ecco Lures ]

Canal Bait Co. [ Chandler's ]  

Cap'n Bill's [Oldtime Woodsman's Line ]

Point Jude Lures

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Whether these companies were actually manufacturing their own eel product's still needs to be researched farther. On this page; we will take a look at some examples of rig's, jig's, squids, etc. that were used during the 1930's, 40's & 50's; some models continue to be used today.