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George Dempster Visit

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Tony View Drop Down
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    Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:12pm
Barry (a.k.a CaptainCranky, our Far North Queensland roving reporter and Lure Lover of the highest order) had the opportunity to visit with George Dempster during his recent trip to Townsville.

As a big fan of George Dempster's work I am extremely gratefull to Barry for having firstly tracked down George (no small feat!), and making the effort to visit George and share the story of his visit with us all - Thank you Barry Clap

Enough rambling from me - here's Barry's report on the visit!


=======================================================================

I was fortunate enough to meet up with the man himself on the weekend! Smile

Here is some of the information that I obtained from George during that brief visit.

George is now 79 y/o. He started making his lures in 1982 and stopped in 2004.His inspiration was from Eric Moller.

George started making lures through necessity, for himself and a few local kids who were all  very keen Barra fisherman.  He found that good lures were expensive and sometimes not to his liking with colour and hardware.

Sourcing timber was difficult and he went to a lot of trouble finding little old saw mills to help fill the bill.  White Beech or good light Cedar was his first choices.

He normally used twisted stainless steel eyes and tin or stainless bibs.

His wires were hand twisted using a nail only.

He had tin templates of his lures and cut them out with a jigsaw.

A Stanley knife was then used to get the correct shape and then he sanded by hand.

A hacksaw was used to cut the Bib slot.

He finished them with an air brush and auto paint.

They were then swim tested in the Ross River and also across the road at a neighbour's pool. His nickname of Pipeline George came from a pipe that ran across the Ross River and on the incoming big tides he used to get heaps of Barra there.





George signing a few lures for me.




I took my laptop and showed George some pics of his lures.He was amazed about the interest in them.








Cheers, Tony

For the love of Fishing Lures.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote simon bruce Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:47pm
Well done Barry.
 
A great article and photos on what is most definitely a hand made lure. 
 
I llike the photo and line about him being amazed by the interest in his lures though I can imagine how worried he is that this "Tony" character finds his address.....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Alistair Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:49pm
Exellent info there Barry. It must of been great to catch up with another lure making icon, especially one that many thought was no longer with us.
 
Is that a Scorpion style lure I spy there?
Alistair.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:51pm
Yes it is Alistair and it was on my board of who knows who made it.George took one look and possitively identified it as his.It was a pleasure to meet him.
The Journey is the Reward


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 2:54pm
Originally posted by simon bruce simon bruce wrote:

I llike the photo and line about him being astounded by the interest in his lures though I can imagine how worried he is that this "Tony" character finds his address.....


Hey!!! Ouch

I resemble that remark Sir! LOL


Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Craig Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 3:13pm
Great stuff Barry and George. 

Tagged and released
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tooch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2010 at 4:47pm
Great story Barry, I'm glad you caught up with George it's good to see him looking so healthy for his age
and even better to see that he could Identify his lures after such a long time...ClapClapClapClap....Pete.
I'd rather be fishing with





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Powelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 8:34pm
Thanks Barry
 
I would have bought hundreds of lures, from George, in the early 90's when I was in Tenterfield.  I was the 'middleman' for some mates in Armidale who loved George's 2" minnows for bass fishing.
 
I did wonder if the old mate was still around and still making lures.  Now I know!  Fantastic.  He's looking pretty good, too.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bilge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 9:43pm
Barry can you post that photo of the group of lures on the lap top please?
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 9:51pm
Originally posted by bilge bilge wrote:

Barry can you post that photo of the group of lures on the lap top please?
 
billj


Is this the pic you're after Bill?









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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 9:57pm
Here's a few more of the pics George had a look at Thumbs Up











Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bilge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 10:07pm
Tony
Thank you. I dont see many lures of this type here. But you fellows have wound me up an I am headed north soon with a big wheelbarrow.
Thanks Billj  Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote steiny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2014 at 6:31pm
Tony....third and fourth pic down, bottom right corner there are 4 lures, I am fairly confident they are not Dempsters. I would say they are 'FM lures' from Darwin.I have doubts about the three nilsy copies also.
cheers steiny
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2014 at 7:05pm
Some of those lures were from early days of collecting and there may be a few ring ins however that is why we have this site.
To Educate all of us and I am certainly no exception to this as I have learned so much since I joined and am still learning.
The Journey is the Reward


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jul 2014 at 12:43pm
Originally posted by steiny steiny wrote:

Tony....third and fourth pic down, bottom right corner there are 4 lures, I am fairly confident they are not Dempsters. I would say they are 'FM lures' from Darwin.I have doubts about the three nilsy copies also.

You have a good eye for lures Steiny Big smile

Barry summed it up really well, at the time the photo's were presented to George there were no documented examples of those lures real makers that I was aware of.

Barry's visit to George helped answer a lot of questions, as have the many helpful members like yourself since then - we're gradually sniffing the details out bit by bit! Thumbs Up

I still remember how proud I was of my "Dempster Mice", which later turned out to be some of Bruce Killpatricks awesome BK Lures (known also thanks to Barry) - still love them every bit as much Smile


Cheers, Tony

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote steiny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jul 2014 at 2:19pm
It would be great to meet George!

Still waiting to find my first BK mouse!
cheers steiny
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote CaptainCranky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jul 2014 at 11:06am
It was very nice to catch up to him and the meeces are a little hard to come across.
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