[cool][#0000ff][size 1]There was a writeup with pics in today's Salt LakeTribune on some of the exotic types of fish hooks (fish traps) that have been marketed over the years. [/size][/#0000ff][url "http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_4511897"][#333366][size 1]LINK TO ARTICLE[/size][/#333366][/url][size 1]
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[#0000ff]It is easy to see that many of these were designed more to catch fishermen than fish. Kinda like some of the stuff we see today.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Anybody have any of these old contraptions in their "heirloom" collection? Got any other lures that might fall into the same category that you wanna share with us...to purge your conscience?[/#0000ff][/size]
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Wow! Those are nasty looking meat hooks. I do seem to remember some magazine ads in times past that promoted things like that. Not the mainstream fishing mags, though. A fish wouldn't stand a chance with something like that.
z~
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[cool][#0000ff]I remember when I was a kid there used to be a lot of "men's" magazines...like TRUE and ARGOSY. They were not the "skin" magazines of today, but were filled with stories for hairy chested he-men...about fishing, hunting and high adventure. I got to read them at barber shops or at a couple of my uncles' houses. And, in the backs of those magazines were ads for a bajillion wild and wacky things...like those fish hooks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Of course they also sometimes appeared in real "fishing" magazines, like the old issues of FIELD AND STREAM, SPORTS AFIELD and some publications that are now extinct. Even as a young angler, I knew the importance of stealth and how fish would shy away from too much "hardware". I could not imagine then how any wily trout would ever be stupid enough to put itself in a position to get caught by one of those hooks. Heck, I used small hooks and light leaders and the fish still turned away from my flies or bait sometimes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s there were a whole lot of inventive folks who were continually looking for the next great invention. If you ever get a chance to look through an old copy of an early Sears catalog you can see some of them and how they were marketed. There are also books with pictures of some of the wierd patents that were issued over the years. A great testament to inventiveness, if not practicality.[/#0000ff]
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