ABU Angling: Lures in General

Vic McCristal the much revered Australian fisherman (ABU) , writer and futurist,

long ago wrote so simply " A lure is a lie told by a (wo) man to a fish"

Lures/baits have been created for almost eternity by individuals fore personal use, from natural materials like fur, feather, shells, timber etc and later with metal and plastics of all types.

In the last  century and perhaps even a few decades earlier , businesses sought to create lures to sell and the process continues to this day, with  individuals hand crafting or modifying existing designs to suit their own purpose as well as large multinational companies such as Pure fishing constantly developing new product for a growing market  seeking the "killer"  product .

Many might think ABU's lures were always made in Sweden, BUT Not so, some from the earliest days were made in and outsourced from other countries while ABU was in its infancy. in the 50's these came in the form of small rubber insects from Norway, then later as rubber popper plugs from Burke Industries in USA , the Kynoch Popper from a Scottish Tay River design, The Rebel in the USA when a design upgrade was implemented for the famous ABU Killer! Italy and Germany also made spinner for ABU before all production ceased in  Europe/Sweden to go to the Far East in 1981.

While ABU had the ability to bend cut shape mould metal in house, an interesting aspect of some ABU lure production was that the fiddly assembly of spinner with a myriad number of parts was often put together by stay at home housewives in Sweden from the late forties to mid fifties in  and around Svangsta Sweden. Guides were supplied as a quality control measure and presumably assemblers were paid on a piece rate. I am unsure exactly when this process stopped.

To my mind the major categories are Plugs (wobblers), Spoons and Spinners, Flies (ABU Fly and  Optic ) as well as Perks (Jigs). These others to be linked when I have myself more organized.

Please see images of many in ABU catalog pages

Spoons are the most numerous of ABU's lures coming in combinations of weight, length, colour, hooking style running into the thousands. They are designed to rotate along their length and flutter when retrieve rates are varied.

Perks are deployed vertically from a boat in the sea or lake and via an ice hole when fishing in winter. They are "jigged" up and down at varying levels. Modern sonar devices allow these lures to be worked most effectively in particular bands of water or thermoclines.

Plugs are generally plastic or wood construction and have 6 main form in the ABU marque viz  Minnow like Killer , Hi-lo and Snoky. The Kynoch , and Cello are  generally surface poppers, while the Cello Dip dives deeper and the Rakan is the shrimp like lure. All wobble in their action and are jerked along in pulses or wound in constantly at high , medium or low speed.

Flies are obviously made from feather, fur or hair and  are used in the surface dry form or the under surface wet form. The Optic with its much copied bulging eyes, the popular  Salmo  or  long thin weighted Tube fly came in a number of sizes , colours and variations totalling a dozen variations. Colourful names like Callgirl, Playboy, Pinup or Streamtease were used to identify each. The later dry flies made in Asia (Torrfluga) cam in many assortment packs and differing hook sixes. They were modelled on well known patterns like Black Gnat, Cock-y-Bondhu, Blue Zulu, Greenwells Glory, Brown Ant and Royal Coachman FW to mention just a few patterns.

Spinners can be defined as a lure , some of which rotated through 360 degrees in its entireity OR some whose body remain stationary with a various number of revolving blade(s).  They attracted fish by vibration in the water and /or flashing/reflecting light from its blade. Blade types were Spinnaren, Reflex, Droppen, HiFi, Flax etc with predomiantly single blades but some had two. The other types are Screw, Virvellen, ABU Fly, Swim Fin, Roulette, Double Spinnaren, Dropfish and Hogbom (famous for anti twist design)

More graphics courtesy of ABU catalogs to follow soon. The unusual expression Must lures were commonly referred to, which meant you really needed these lures for particular species. 

See my hand finished  and much prized Svangsta Spinnaren here!

If you have any other 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.