About Pflueger
About Pflueger
Pflueger is a member of the “Big 5” of vintage fishing lures (along with Heddon, Shakespeare, South Bend, and Creek Chub).
Ernest F. Pflueger founded the Enterprise Manufacturing Company in 1881 and started out producing fish hooks. Little did he know that this would become the first major commercial tackle company. When his son took over the business in 1906, he renamed it the E.A. Pflueger Company. During this time, Pflueger was the first company to open up commercial production of wooden fishing lures. E.A. would also expand the company from a hook maker only to all areas of fishing tackle. Over the years to come, competition in the industry would cause the company to focus more on reels than lures.
The founding E. Pflueger invented a luminous lure paint that became popular with fishermen. Two of the lures that the company started with were the Flying Helgramite and the Luminous Crystal Minnow lure which incorporated this design. These are two very vintage fishing lures from Pflueger.
Pflueger produced numerous other lures in the early 1900’s, but competition from Heddon and other companies would take its toll. Luckily for Pflueger, they had other sources of revenue in addition to their lures. Pflueger reels were a very popular reel, and helped keep the company in good shape after discontinuing its lures. Pflueger’s primary growth and participation in the lure business was in the time between 1907 and the early 1930’s. Pflueger basically discontinued their lures in the 1930’s and concentrated on other forms of fishing tackle. This is one of the facts that makes the Pflueger lures a collector’s item today.
Today, vintage Pflueger fishing lures are one of the popular collector’s target pieces of vintage fishing lure brands to collect. Pflueger’s old lures generate a lot of interest in the collector market. Pflueger vintage fishing lures are sold everyday in formats ranging from shows, to flea markets, to Ebay auctions. Becoming familiar with Pflueger products is a great place to start for a vintage fishing lure collector.
