Mitchell Reel Museum Discussion Group

Thanks to Liondor, we have learned:

See: MITCHELL LURES?

Roger Bocchino (Paris, France) invented the Plucky.

French patent:
Feb-17-1943 application
Jan-27-1954 award

US patent:
Mar-16-1948 application
May-13-1952 award

Below are excerpts from the 1953 Charles Garcia Catalog describing features of Plucky to fishermen.

Best picture of Plucky

Laroupane,

I have now seen a couple of images of Plucky sans dorsal fin in a sealed package - so they were manufactured that way. The Plucky were on what we call a bubble or blister card. The Garcia black card with red-wedge logo. The red-wedge Garcia logo means 1960 or later.

John

Lures Rublex distributed by Mitchell in 1971

Mates,
I used a better magnifying glass and discovered that I spelled Wobler wrong. Should have one b. The ad above tipped me off!

Randy

Hello,

Here is the picture of my Plucky in a showcase without the window.
All have the dorsal fin.
Also attached the complete picture of the showcase, we can see many Rublex
Best regards
Christian

Laropane, I think NOT. Looks like Mitchell was trying to light a fire under sales of Plucky's. Interesting the way Plucky's evolved without the dorsal fin.

Randy

Randy and Chris,

Thanks for images of your Plucky's.


Laroupane,

Thanks for showing your showcase, catalog pages, and advertisements. Thanks especially for working out the timeline of Plucky.


Mates,

From what I can tell Garcia no longer cataloged the Plucky from 1960 on.

Whether they were not selling it in 1960 or after may be another matter. This because of the observation of Plucky on black cards with the red-wedge logo. The red-wedge did not appear in catalogs until 1960 and the trademark registration first use in commerce is given as Nov-1960 (advertising/catalogs don’t count for that date; it must be transport or sale of product).

I am unclear when Garcia made the transition from selling lures as 12 mounted on a dealer/tripod card or as individually boxed to the bubble/blister card (aka peg card because it has a hole to hang on a peg). Does someone know? The 1961 Trade Catalog still shows dealer cards and boxes, as well as describing 12 lures to a card.

John

Hey Dries,

Thanks. It's always nice to see content from Albatros/Balzer/Arca.


Hey Mates,

OK, I missed something earlier. Garcia brought back the Plucky (sans dorsal fin) in 1965 to 1968. See scans below. During that time they also brought back (from the late 1950s) the Flopy, but called it Lippy then.

John

Hello,
Here are some photos of my Flopy.
On the first three different Flopy notices.

Best regards,

Christian

Laroupane,

Thank you for your images of Flopy.


Mates,

The Flopy was new to the US in 1957. See images below from the Charles Garcia 1957 Trade Catalog.

John

Christian,

Thank you for giving us Flopy history in France.


Mates,

I believe it is not unreasonable to say we have gathered good information on the history of the Plucky and Flopy lures in this thread.

Should we continue in this thread with more discussion Rublex lures, such as spinners?

Rublex had really interesting/appealing graphics (artwork), at least to me, on the covers of their cases/boxes of 12 (see below).

In terms of fish catching, their inline spinners, such as Veltic, had ribbed brass bodies creating multipath (multiple) reflections of sound from the spinner blade – a feature I really like.

John