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ABU Angling: Lures and Baits

ABU Lures from 5 decades

First we will consider whether to fish with bait (live or dead)

Lures (any artifical man-made creation including flies)

The first big decision: Bait or Lures?

Now you will have decided there is benefit in all styles of fishing

so onto lures in detail.....more specifically ABU Lures

Mankind's lure/spinner/bait/fly/plug (s) are our attempt to deceive the fish and entice it into attacking it, either as a food source or purely out of territorial aggression.

Metal, plastic, wood, feathers or other synthetic materials are all utilized in the battle to attract a strike. More recent times has seen fishermen use smell, flavourings, taste in conjunction with artificials to increase the strike rate.

Vic McCristal the much revered Australian fisherman (ABU) , writer and futurist, and early-adopting fan of ABU

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

Below we see the universal lures in both his and my opinion

My personal collection of ABU/Record lures

This is in the process of being displayed on a Swedish flag, (this image needs constant updating due to regular additions!) with the five sections allocated to plugs, spoons, spinners, flies and perks.

It will never be complete and hopefully being constantly added to. See below.

Continued sequential development has occurred from 1940’s to the present.

My experience is concentrating more on from the earliest to the early 1980’s.

My collection started small but now number 800+ different ABU lures

Outsourced ABU Lures

ABU Lures in General (Types, sizes and colours)

ABU Lure Colours in Detail

ABU Lure Packaging Styles

ABU Lure paper boxes :Intro

Record paper boxes: Detailed

Lures Licened by ABU eg Heddon

ABU Lures by the Decade 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's

ABU Lures and Production Timelines (Rarity)

My Personal ABU Lure Studies Hi-lo Killer Toby

ABU Killer Scandinavian Heritage

Len Borgstom's History of the Reflex Spinner

ABU Reflex Spinner # 1 in deadly dozen!

ABU Reflex Lures by Special Request in Holland

My Golden ABU Spoons

My Custom Painted ABU Plugs

Refurbished ABU Lures (NEW)

ABU Prototypes

ABU Boxed sets

ABU Must Lures

Auction Site Rare ABU Lures

Attention ABU fans,

Garcia catalog images of lures from USA to date are here

I am looking for ABU lures to document and study for this site which were sold only in USA.

Any help in buying, loaning, photographing or providing information on would be greatly appreciated. Many metal lures in the old paper boxes interest me greatly.

Images from an extremely rare USA Garcia "jobbers" catalog share by Wallace is dated 1949. (slight possibility it could be 1950)

Larger more detail revealing images to be linked very soon!

My personal collection of ABU/Record lures is in the process of being displayed on a Swedish flag, with the five sections allocated to plugs, spoons, spinners, flies and perks.

It will never be complete and hopefully being constantly added to. See above.

Continued sequential development has occurred from 1940’s to the present. My experience is concentrating more on from the earliest to the early 1980’s.

More detailed Lure Links from USA ABU Catalogs here

Even a small 12 leaf lure catalog was made in the early days to show Garcia's lures.

Interestingly, pre-amalgation, very little acknowledgement of the giant Swedish ABU firm was noted. These were in effect sold as Garcia product.

A quite definitive amount of highly detailed information on the huge variety of ABU lures courtesy of many good friends such as Mike Elsworth from the UK, Derrik from Germany , Hans from The Netherlands and Uffe from Sweden.

A passionate group of researchers and contributers to our expanding knowledge of ABU Baits/Lures all around the worth. I feel privileged that they are so unselfish and willing to share the fruits of their labour of many years in unwrapping the riddles of the development of ABU Lures.

Thanks to all the the collectors, past and present who have shared this information with me and a huge world wide audience of ABU lure fans.

Friend and ABU Hi-Lo enthusiast Rob H (Mr Hi-LO) from Netherlands tells of his passion for collecting ABU Hi-Lo here.
We will will be working on a collaborative effort here for the definitive ABU Hi-lo study.

Prototypes here were never for sale, and were shared by good friend Uffe Edefuhr, a one time serious ABU Collector. These have been shared around the world of ABU Collectors before Uffe and I became friends.

My good friend and tireless helper Uffe Edefuhr has discovered this information on early lure design at ABU.

My ABU Flies are here

Derrik's Figge from Germany, has a wealth of knowledge and has been very helpful in sharing also.

This beautiful un-documented black Rakan has been a treasure to find and add to my collection.
Thanks for the image of your smaller version Derrik!

The best discourse on Sportfishing I have ever read was written by Mr Eric Swan in the 1967 ABU Tight Lines/Napp och Nytt . See below

Worthwhile ABU lure reading by Australia's # 1 gentleman legend Vic (McSea) McCristal

I am still looking for items such as Kelly, Doublespinnaren, Svangsta spinnaren, Toby, Hogbom, Whirl or Whirler or Virveln, Tilly, Safir, Sally, ABU Spoon, Joker, Glimmy, Atom, Tommy, Hazard or Mac Dan in any size or colour (or other metal lures) are needed to continue studies as well as the plastics such as Killer, Hi-Lo (Heddon ABU Hi-Lo River Runt Spook, any colour other than RH , I need XBW, XRY, L and D for my collection. The Kynoch in T or the rakan in black are still to be found to record. Full recognition for any assistance offered will be provided on this site. My name and website is well known to many ABU reel collectors in USA, but unfortunately I do not know too many ABU lure collectors there. Looking forward to getting to know more and perhaps trade some doubles of lures too!

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.