My Feeling Exactly Summed Up By Little Girl

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-- Dr. Todd

Field & Stream's Weekly Vintage Tackle Contest

Many of you know I've been helping Joe Cermele every week on the Field & Stream fishing blog. Well, this week we get a really cool prototype from Eastern Kentcuky.



To read more about this cool crankbait, click here.

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 33: Jack Dickerson Supply Co. of Camdenton, MO

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part 33:
Jack Dickerson Supply Co. of Camdenton, MO

An often overlooked sporting goods distributor from the heart of the American homeland is the Dickerson Supply Company of Camdenton, Missouri. A fairly obscure company, I checked the bible for Missouri collectors -- Dean Murphy's Fishing Tackle Made in Missouri, but was unable to find any information on Dickerson. Of course, I was only able to locate my first edition, and Dean may very well have added this to the second edition of his outstanding book.

I wasn't able to uncover a tremendous amount of information about this company. I do know it was active in the 1960s and 1970s, and three of the principals involved were Jack, Jim and Terry Dickerson. I believe Jack was the principal, and its possible Jim and Terry were his sons.

Jack Dickerson was profiled in an article dated June 19, 1969 by Joplin Globe outdoor editor Bill Potter in an article about Ozark environmentalism. At a news media dinner, "Jack Dickerson and E.B. Kinder of the Missouri Tourism Commission were there. Jack, owner of the Jack Dickerson Supply Co., operating out of Camdenton and Branson, is a member of the commission His firm provided the happy hour sociabilities preceding the dinner.

The following year they were listed in the October, 1970 Field & Stream as a distributor of Refrigiwear winter wear.

While it is not known their ultimate fate, an advertisement in the November 13, 1980 Galveston Daily News showed Dickerson was still in business, and looking for a "sales representative by a leading U.S. sporting goods distributor." So clearly the firm's history spanned the 1960s to the 1980s as a sporting goods distributor.


The company filed for the following trademark in 1973 but the trademark was cancelled in 1982. I assume this meant that the firm was either purchased or shuttered by the owners.



The original trademark application noted the firm was "retail mail order services, namely, mail order sales of sporting goods." It appears it was both a wholesale and retail firm. I believe Dickerson's Supply Co. was succeeded by Jack's Sporting Goods & Hardware Co., also of Camdenton.

The company sold fishing tackle branded with its name. The most commonly found are the "Laker" brand line spools, like the one pictured below.


Note that this one was sold by the ALCO Discount Stores. ALCO Stores are still around today, which makes this the neatest of trade tackle items--one that is an item from two trade houses!

There are other items marked Dickerson out there, and one sometimes causes great confusion. Occasionally, very cheap fly rods marked "Dickerson" come up for sale. Owners who rush to the internet discover that there was a rodmaker named Lyle Dickerson who was internationally famous. L.L. Dickerson rods sell regularly for over $5000 and some have brought as much as $10,000. In an excited rush, they put their Dickerson fly rod up on eBay and expect the money to come falling from the sky. One look by anyone even remotely knowledgable will reveal there is no chance in hell that Lyle L. Dickerson ever had a thing to do with these cheap rods. Instead, these are Dickerson Supply Co. trade rods and worth around $20 instead of 25 times that amount.

Anyway, it's a neat Missouri trade house and tackle marked with the Dickerson name can be tough to find. If you want to know more about Missouri fishing tackle, contact Dean Murphy and get the second edition of his book! He's in the NFLCC directory.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: The Devil Fish of the Gulf (1906)

This is a great story about the "devil fish," a saltwater ray, which was accidentally hooked by a mackerel fisherman. It was run in the Oct. 27, 1906 issue of Forest & Stream.

The Devil Fish of the Gulf.

New York, Sept. 22.—Editor Forest and Streams: I inclose personal letter, also page from the Galveston Daily News, thinking both may be of some interest to you. Mr. Cotter, proprietor of the Aransas Pass Hotel, is an old personal friend of mine. I have spent four seasons at the Pass, and think it the best point for large and small game fish in the country. This holds good with feathered game, as a guest of the Aransas Pass Hotel can always kill his quota of redhead ducks or quail within a few miles of the hotel, and in a short space of time.

I have been watching your paper for further reports of the catch of some of my tagged tarpon, jewfish and yellowtail, which were caught and turned loose four years ago, but so far have only heard from the one jewfish, which was reported as caught about two months after it was tagged.
W. B. Young.

Mr. Cotter writes:

Fishing has been very good all summer, 1,246 tarpon have been landed this season to date and lots of time is left to catch more. October is a good month for tarpon and you should get some shooting in the back bays then. Fish stories are scarce, but here is one: While out mackerel fishing a few days ago, a lot of the fishermen were anchored close to each other and were having fine sport, when of a sudden a yell was heard and the boat W. B. Leach, of Palestine, was fishing from, was seen coming through the fleet at about twenty-five miles speed with no visible effort. The boats scattered as best they could to keep from being wrecked. After clearing the fleet the boat was seen going straight to sea at this terrific speed. Mr. Leach and his boatman were staying with the boat. Several launches started after them to save their lives; but for two miles or more were unable to gain on the fast moving boat. Of a sudden some one in a nearby launch gave a yell, and looking at the boat in the distance a huge black mass was seen to rise to the surface, spreading out on each side of the captured boat. Several yelled, "devil fish!" and drove their launches at their utmost speed to reach the occupants of the captured boat.

Philip Mayer, of New York, who was in the fastest launch and was armed with a harpoon, was first to reach Leach's boat, and being of a venturesome nature drove the harpoon into the devil fish, which made a sudden surge, almost capsizing both boats; and at the same time snapping the harpoon and loosening from the other boat, it was seen going out to sea and disappeared in the distance.

Mr. Leach, who is a locomotive engineer on the Q. & G. N. Railway, says he has had some wild rides, but this one capped the climax. His version of the fish fouling his boat was that the anchor caught in its mouth and when the fish, becoming frightened, started to sea, the pressure of the boat held the anchor against him until he made the sudden dive when harpooned, and the anchor cleared itself.

If this fish story won't do, I will tell you another next time. Cotter.

-- Dr. Todd

News of the Week: 14 November 2011

Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!

15 year old has life figured out…5 pieces of essential ice fishing gear…is the economy hurting fishing?…smashing barramudi records…brood trout in Oregon…two daughters take over gun and tackle shop for father…fisherman pulled from Allegheny river…flamingo fishing?…the FishKing fly rod…Andy Mill is a good guy…Maine bamboo fly rod makers get profiled…it must be THE NEWS OF THE WEEK!

The Big Lead: Fifteen year old has life figured out: fishing and ice hockey.


It must be that time again; five essential pieces of ice fishing gear.

And your first Mille Lacs Lake ice fishing article.



Is the economy taking a bite out of fishing?

A Rapala promotion.


Anglers out to smash barramundi records in Australia.


Brood trout keep Oregon anglers interested.


Two daughters take over gun and tackle shop for their father.



Fisherman rescued from Allegheny River.

Flamingo fishing…in New York.


Field & Stream's vintage tackle winner is the Fish King fly rod.



Andy Mill raises $18,000 for the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

Why you should take fishing tackle along on hunts.

Finishing with a Flourish: Maine bamboo rod makers hear the call of the bamboo.



-- Dr. Todd

1000 Words

1000 Words

This week in 1000 words we continue our series of "Hollywood Goes Fishing." Today our subject is Robert Taylor. Taylor was a Nebraska-born actor who starred in over 100 movies between 1934-1968. He is probably best known for his role opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 period drama Ivanhoe. Here he is ca. 1940 with a fly rod and Pflueger fly reel posing for a studio photographer.



-- Dr. Todd

Deconstructing Old Ads: Al Foss (1928)

Latest Al Foss Creations for 1929

The Sporting Goods Journal was a publication that went out to the industry to keep dealers and jobbers informed about new products and prices. The Fall 1928 edition has much news for the trade about upcoming products for 1929. I found this advertisement for “Latest Al Foss Creations for 1929” to be of interest on many counts.


Lets start with the “Dixie Wiggler.” I will admit that until I read this ad I did not know that the “Ponca” style spinner seen here on the Dixie Wiggler was designed to, “cut its way through the weeds making a clear passage for the hook." Al also touts the Dixie's “Pull when retreating” saying it keeps the line taught making hooking striking fish more effective. I am reminded here that Al was a renowned tournament caster and knew the value of good spooling.

Changes for the Oriental Wiggler that caught my eye were the introduction of colors other than red and white. In Al's words, “We have always refused to put them out in colors, except red and white, but now, answering an insistent demand from the trade, we are adding a black and white and a yellow and white combination.” According the Jim Frazier's book on Al Foss, what Al was not telling us was that solid red and solid white were being discontinued.

It is not often that ones sees an announcement in an ad that a lure is being “retired”. This introduction for the “New Egypt Wiggler” announces, “This lure is a wonderful improvement over the original Little Egypt Wiggler, which we want to retire to keep our line down. While we realize that the Little Egypt has a host of friends and they will give it up reluctantly, yet a trial of the new one will convince them we are giving them a more effective lure.” I may be too skeptical here but I'm guessing that it was a lot cheaper to make the New Little Egypt (a flat metal stamping) than the original Little Egypt with its hinged parts and glass eyes.

Finally the ad ends with one of Al's usual colloquial quips: “You tackle dealers who 'know your onions' know that Al Foss makes nothing but high class lures and that is the kind that sells. Al does the experimenting himself and does not make it until he KNOWS that it is good. So get busy and put in these items”

-- Bill Sonnett