How many of the old companies still make their baits out of wood? I know that heddon has changed to plastic, are their any others?

                   -gk

    I think that Rapala is still making some of their baits out of balsa wood.

Rapala

Poe 's

Bagley 's

smithwick still makes a wooden devils horse, and bagleys. thats all of the old ones that i know of.

BPS still makes some balsa baits as well

Most companies began with wood and as the popularity of the lure increased the lure changed to plastic to keep up with demand. at the time most where made by hand which takes time to build and plastic offered a way to build a lure with less time. Many of the new lures that you see and use today where made from wood in the prototype stage and later built in plastic. The problem with this is that the lure made from wood caught more fish and had better action than the same plug made from plastic. the reason for this is that when you make a lure from wood it has more air per volume than the plastic plug. when you look at a plastic lure you notice the joint, rattle chamber, weight chamber, the lock pin that holds the figure 8 for the hook. All of these things take up air and the extra plastic adds weight to the lure also. Now take a good look at that bill that is also a chunk of weight. The lighter the bill, the lighter the lure body, the more air it has and more fish it catches because it has a better action. The reason is that the lure is fighting to dive and fighting to stay at that depth and not float up to the surface. this plus the lip causes the lure to swim and wiggle. Many old companies changed to plastic but many new ones still make them out of wood and are still great lures.