Lure of the Month Club - Grube's- Lucky Strike Minnow

March 2012 Lure Of The Month- Bill's Lucky Strike Minnow

W.J. Grube - Bill's Lucky Strike Minnow Box. The label has a faint illustration picturing the bait

Bill's Lucky Strike Minnow

This 1922 Grube  Letterhead lists W.J.  Grube as a manufacturer of Swastika Brand fishing lures, Automobile and Cycle supplies, Bicycles -- Agent for Racine Tires.  Note: Before the Swastikas association with Hitler it was considered a sign of good luck.

    The letterhead above points to the fact that  Bill Grube was also involved with Automobiles, Cycles and Bicycles.
   William J. Grube was a mechanical engineer. According to the 1907 Automobile Trade Journal, by 1907 W.J. Grube had already designed & marketed both engines & cars. In 1907 he turned his attention to motorcycles.  For a year, he had been thoroughly testing his finally adopted 1907 motorcycle design . This means Grube started his motorcycle design only a few years after William S. Harley and  Arthur Davidson offered their first production bike to the public. 

Grubes  " Delaware " Motorcycle

 

 Grube called his motorcycle the "Delaware" and it was made by the Grube Motor Co. of Delaware, Ohio of which Mr. Grube was the general manager. Grube's "Delaware" motorcycle incorporated some unusual  features that were innovative for the time.
  The unusual features  mentioned included a shaft drive, a peculiar motor suspension, and a multiple disc clutch that was controlled from the right handle bar by means of a lever, similar to a brake lever on early pedal cycles.
  By 1910 W.J. Grube had  succeeded A.J. McCullum as head of Miami Cycle & Manufacturing Companies motorcycle department.  
 Don't let the name throw you off, the Miami Cycle & Mfg. company was located in Middletown , Ohio.
  Motorcycle enthusiasts may be interested to know that in 1911 Miami Cycle bought out the famed Merkel Light Motor Company factory in Pottstown , Pa. and took over the companies complete business interests. I wonder if  W.J. Grube was still heading Miami's motorcycle dept. when they bought out Merkel and started manufacturing the Flying Merkel.

Click here-Grube Motorcycle article Google Books 1907 Automobile trade journal 

Image of Grube's shop with cycles parked out front. Circa 1914 from the Delaware , Ohio Gazette.

 It seems that Grube reinvented himself  in the teen years of the Twentieth century. Migrating from the world of cars & cycles to that of fishing tackle.
  The earliest information I can find connecting Grube to fishing tackle is a 1917 patent for a design improvement for artificial baits. The last piece of info. I could find on Grube fishing tackle was in a 1950 Sporting Goods Dealers Directory of the Sporting Goods trade. It had a simple text listing  Grube's rubber fishing baits W.J. Grube 
42 E. Winter St. Delaware, O. 
 I would guess that the Grube baits found in the plastic snap boxes would have been from around this time period.
 W.J. Grube made lot of lures including a Humdinger spinnered minnow, a mouse, grasshopper,helgramite, frog, crawfish, and several other rubber critter type lures under the names Swastika brand , Delaware  and True to Nature Lures. Grube also made a spinner bait type lure called the Hydroplane as well as the Lucky Strike Minnow.

 

Early Lucky Strike Minnow two piece cardboard box paper work, stating the bait is rubber with a cork center. Offered in two models, floating & semi-floating.

2 piece  cardboard Lucky Strike Minnow Box

Later hinged plastic snap box with enclosed paper work.

Later Plastic snap box paper work,  stating the bait is made of stock rubber with a composition center. It lists three models. Close attention to the descriptions of each model will dismiss the belief that the rubber lip Lucky Strike Minnows can always be positively identified as the earlier version of this bait.

Delong Lures of Cleveland , Ohio produced a reversible # 400 lure out of foam plastic. It looks remarkably like Grubes Lucky Strike minnow and it's often misidentified by collectors as a Grube bait. Delongs started up in the tackle business around 1946. Several of their baits bear a strong resemblance to Grube products. I can't help but think Grube had a connection or at least some sort of influence on Delongs products.

I collect early fishing tackle related paperwork and letterhead like the Grube letterhead shown in this post. If you have any early ,interesting lure company letterhead or other tackle company papers, I'd be interested in buying or trading or simply hearing about it. Hope you enjoyed this Lure Of The Month Blog Post.