Lures/Baits/Artificials

Boxed Set Lures.

 

Whilst out of historical context by decade, the advice given in these Tight Lines pages from the 70's are very relevant and well worth reading.

There is a distinction between actual pre-selected box sets like Cocktail and Weekend and sets made up by the fisherman of the day. ABU would sell empty boxed which the fisherman would then populate with his own selection of lures to suit his style of fishing thus creating his own MUST Set. Innumerable combinations then are then possible.

ABU boxed sets catalog pages from 1953 to 1981 are shown here

On this page I will display the actual box sets that I own.

Many have helped here but Tobias Svensson of Sweden has helped me a lot to secure my hardest to find box so far. It was a box of 5 tiny 4g Salar lures. He also helped me complete my ABU Island collection by locating the 12g T Island.

More images coming soon.

More images follow at the bottom of this page

 

The purpose was to put similar sized proven lures into an easy to buy collection , targeting a particular group of fish and/or fishing category such as ABU 3 fishing .

Sets were originally always in clear plastic compartmentalized boxes with see-through lids.

Later clear containers with red or blue coloured lids identified the content type.

The number of compartments varied from 3, 4, 5, 6 up to 13 compartments.

Eventually plastic boxes were released in an empty form to allow anglers to select their own MUST sets of ABU lures.

Next cardboard packaging was made containing a number of conventionally boxed lures.

Later the boxes, were to become cardboard backing with blown bubble tops covering the lures.

My experience tells me that occasionally identical lures but varying in colour were sometime marketed, but generally different lures targeting the same group of fish or Fishing ABU (1, 2, 3 or 4) were the norm for marketing.

I have never seen a staggered set of different size lures of identical name in a kit.

I have never seen a range of the larger size plugs in a kit.

Many of these images will look the same but for the true enthusiast of ABU lures, you will, with discerning observation, detect a reason for EVERY scanned page image being different in some aspect.
The last approach by ABU that I have seen toward selling multiple lures is the clear bagged set which was generally thought to have been for selling off excess stock rather than any thoughtfully collected group. They ranged from metal spoons to  plugs.

Enjoy!

If you have any other boxed set lures, that are un-needed or doubles in your collection and are available for swapping or a reasonable fee, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Please feel your input, help , criticism is very welcome and I look forward to expanding with network of Record ABU lure collectors and appreciators.

Contact me here to assist.