The Lure Factory

THATS avery very nice looking bit of wood tony

Awesome paintwork, great looking lure.

Good addition to the NT section, thanks Tony.

Nice one mate' thats only the 3rd one I've ever seen!

agentjss wrote: Wowee, This brings back memories. Nice pic! I can tell you abit about the history of the lure factory if you like. It's great to see some of these still floating around the place.

Thanks for sharing the information Jamie.

Thanks for the story Jamie, shame all the good makers can't compete with imports. Nicely designed backing card also, look forward to seeing a few pics of your collection.

Hi there,

Barry I found one but Tony wanted to keep it. Billj

Jamie

Hi Balls, ahh the saga of the "commercial shed". Yes they did have a shed to work from when the business was growing, it lasted for a few months until they got broken into and all there painting gear, tools and heap more stuff got stolen. That really hurt them and is also one of the reasons why they stopped making them.
Mark is my uncle and it was his close mate that designed the logo on the card. He came into the business when things started to grow pretty fast.
hahaha funny you remember two kids twisting wire eyelets, yes one was me and i think maybe my brother.
Palmerston markets was the usual haunt on a Friday night and they usually sold out most of the good colours before 9pm But Thursday night at mindal beach was the best. I remember on a few occasions setting up at 6pm and being completely sold out by by 7pm, then taking orders of colours for the next week. I guess that's what happens when you sell lures for $8 small, $10 medium & $12 large. The tackle shop was top end fishing supplies. Bloody good shop and the owner was a champ.
Dad does live at Dundee now and is trying to take it easy but there's always something to do, keeps him on his toes.
I haven't had a chance to talk to my dad about this site yet, but i spoke to mum and she still has some lure factory t shirts stashed away, might try and grab one before the moths eat them.

Balls, You have a bloody good memory, hit the nail right on the head. you sound like you know my old man from around the traps, How'd you know him. i'll say Hi for you though.

Thanks every one for your input and comments i'll be sure to let him know. I was thinking of knocking up a few lures myself and keeping the tradition alive.

Was told these lures were made by a George Miller from Darwin but after reading this post am not so sure,

Capt seaweed, the 2 you posted look like the early ones dad used to make before things got abit more organized but it's hard to be sure. The eyelets look like the early ones we made from twisting the wire around a large nail until we made a actual twisting jig (thank god).
Grey nomad, I reckon all of them are are dads because they are all pretty much natural colours. aside from that green scaled one, it has a twin eyeball thing going on and that was not a common way of him doing it. Brian was a customer/mate of dads and fishing guide back then, plus in the Palmerston game fishing club together aswell.

I had my sister go and have a look at the museum and found that the name on the lure factory lure on display says Mark Dredge. How does one go about getting this fixed/corrected? My old man would have heart failure if he found that. Mark only came into the picture years after dad had started it, Plus he didn't really do much on the manufacturing side of things.