The Hardy Crocodile Spinner

Hello, today I am featuring one of a group of antique fishing lures that were designed for assisting the angler in spinning real fish(dead ones). There were several designs of these apparatus, some more complex than others. As usual Hardy's came out with a device that was more complete than most. They called it the Crocodile Spinner.

Actually there were several different models,each of a slightly different pattern, as can be seen in my illustrations.

The general idea was that the metal lure consisted of a central spike, or needle, to which a swivel was attached. Below the swivel was attached a set of vanes, or fins, which were free moving, such that they could spin when being pulled through the water. There was then a self securing clasp device to hold the fish in place.

The dead fish was pushed length ways onto the spike,usually head first,whilst the clasp was open. The clasp was then closed, which pierced the fish through the sides with one, or several spikes. There was then the further option of wrapping wire around the fish, to both hold down the treble hooks, and to further secure the fish to the mount. Sounds like a medieval instrument of torture!

As mentioned there were several variations on the design, the differences mainly related to the length and shape of the spike, and the presence and number of side spikes on the clasp. There were several sizes available, 2 1/2-3 in,3 - 3 3/4in and 4 - 4 1/2inches. The lures were supplied with the central spikes being either leaded or unleaded. The wording Hardy's Alnwick will appear on the side of the clasp.

As usual other vintage tackle makers, like Allcocks, had their own variations.

Value wise they are not too rare,but do not appear on Ebay too often. There are currently a couple listed that are selling at £1.99.

Not too much more to say about this unusual,but interesting, family of antique fishing lures. I will feature some of the other variations in later blogs.

Thanks for reading.

Antique fishing lures on Specialist Auctions

Hello, a bit of a different post today.

Apart from eBay there are a number of other auction sites, and websites, where you can pick up antique fishing lures. Today I thought I would feature one of those, specialistauctions.com

It is similar to eBay in some ways, you join, you have user names, things are set into categories, you bid etc, but it also differs in a few ways.

As far as I can tell it appears to be free to list and buy. I am mainly concentrating today, upon what is actually listed on the site , rather than the mechanics of using the site, but I may revisit this topic in a future blog and look again at how it actually works.

Another difference, and a bit of a complaint in my eyes, is that it doesn't appear to be a true auction, at least in the field of vintage fishing tackle.

If you have a look at the site, down the left hand side of the page, you will see the categories. Enter sporting goods, and then fishing. There is then a subsection for lures. And within this is a further subsection for vintage fishing lures. You get a picture or two, and a minimal amount of descriptive text. OK you can ask the seller questions, but to me the lack of detail seems a bit lazy, particularly if you are trying to sell something.

I just checked today and i think all of the items in the vintage fishing section are being sold by one seller,the eponymous 'Lovejoy'. Now I have no problems with the name,or idea of what he is doing, but what I don't like is the fact that his items on offer at auction just appear to be an extension of some antiques business, and the items do not appear to be realistically priced to induce bidding.

Also, if I remember correctly I did put in a bid once for a reel,(cant remember exactly what),however, after entering what was actually a reasonable £25 for the reel, I got a message like "reserve not met". I continued bidding for another £10 or so, and never did get to a point where the bid was accepted. This to me suggests the reserves are far too high, and that no actual competitive bidding is ever going to occur. Mr Lovejoy might as well just list the item with its actual selling price, and you then try to knock him down from that, rather than the other way around.

As a few examples of what is actually listed at present, there are 4 or 5, common or garden, metal minnows at £25 minimum. A modernish looking, Colorado spoon at £25, an Archers Bait tackle at £25, and a boxed Horton Evans Vibro spinner at £25(I sold one on eBay a few weeks ago at about a fiver and was pleased with my return).

There are a few Hardy's items for sale,for instance some natural bait tackles at £25, and a quill minnow at £25. Again these prices are all far above what you can pick them up for on eBay. Even more expensive are a couple of what look like silk phantom minnows,each at £50!

So, all things considered, I am a bit disappointed in what this site has to offer as a competitor to eBay. I cant really knock Mr Lovejoy, fair play to him if he can get people to buy at those prices. However, I cant imagine he gets many sales, and he would shift a lot more by offering things at realistic prices, in a true auction environment.

I will keep an eye on this site, and might even try listing some of my own things at some stage just to see what happens.

Thanks for reading.

Hardy's Kidney spoons

Hi, today's post about antique fishing lures covers something fairly simple and straightforwards, the Hardy's Kidney Spoon. Although maybe not that straightforwards!, as in the Hardy's catalogues you do get a bit of variation in the naming. The Kidney Spoon appears, but there again so does a listing for the Extra Heavy Kidney Spoon. However, within the catalogues that I have they don't appear at the same time. So are they different products or the same?

I assume that they are called Kidney Spoons because they are shaped like a kidney! They are described as half scaled,which from the picture should be obvious as to why. And the Extra Heavy Spoons were made from genuine Sheffield plate(steel?). They were given a nice copper coating on the outside, and a shiny, silver coloured coating on the inner side.

As you can see, the spoon above has been provided with a chain link and a large,single hook. Very often in the catalogues they were displayed with a treble hook from one end,or possibly even a treble hook at each end. The imprinted name, Hardy Bros Alnwick appears on the inside of the spoon above, but it can appear on the outer copper side as well(possibly only on the Extra Heavy Spoons,maybe this was a distinguishing feature?).

Back in 1937 there was a range of spoons covering different dimensions. They ranged from a 1 inch length up to 3 inches. The corresponding weights of these being, 2 1/2 to 12 drams, and the corresponding prices being, 1 shilling and 3 pence, up to 2 shillings and sixpence respectively.

These spoons appeared to be on sale for a long time in some variant or other,reportedly between about 1900 and the early 1960s. For most of their life the product was marketed as copper outside,silver inside, but there was a period up until the early 1950s when a gold outside,silver inside model was promoted. This later spoon was sold in a slightly, smaller size range of ,1 inch up to 2 1/2 inches in length. I don't know if this was instead of,or as well as the copper/silver combo. Apparently, for the final few years of distribution the original copper/silver combination was the only one on offer.

What is their value? Well they are not particularly rare, but they have not appeared upon eBay for some weeks. I suspect a selling price will be around the £8- £10 mark.

I think other manufacturers of antique fishing tackle,such as Allcocks, had similar products.

In summary then, the shape of the spoon determines its name. The pattern upon the spoon may vary with Hardy's spoons, typically like the above, and at least with Hardy's spoons their origin should be clearly marked.

OK that's enough for this posting, tune in next time for another view of Vintage British Fishing lures.

Mother of Pearl Spoons

Hi, this is yet another antique fishing lure that I cant tell you much about!





Basically, back in the 1930s, Hardy's had the idea of selling lures made out of Mother of Pearl. No idea why, apart from the fact they look nice and shiny.

By the way, Mother of Pearl comes from an organic/inorganic composite material produced by some mollusc's. It is strong,resilient and iridescent. Pearls are made of it, as are the insides of various shells. It is also called Nacre.

This particular lure I listed on eBay as a Hardy's lure. It doesn't have the Hardy's name printed upon it, this is another of those rarities that they appeared unable to emblazon with their brand name. So how did I come to the conclusion that it was made by Hardy's?

Well I looked in the catalogue!
The spoon itself is fairly non descriptive,a concave piece of Mother of Pearl,nice and smooth and shiny. This particular spoon is 3 inches long. The fittings are more of an identifier. The swivel is typical Hardy's shape. You can see in the picture that one end of the swivel is a bit of a diamond shape, as opposed to round. Also the wound, wire hook trace, matched the trace portrayed within the Hardy's 1937 catalogue. The treble hook was originally surrounded by a tassel. Well most of this had worn away on my hook, but there were some remains suggesting that the tassel was originally present. All of these clues, plus the fact I bought the lure alongside some other Hardy lures, was sufficient for me to list it as a vintage Hardy's Mother of Pearl spoon. Elementary my dear Watson.


I haven't got a great deal more info about these lures. Hardy's sold their range between 1928 and the 'end of' the 1930s,at least until 1937. They had a few different sizes in the range,1, 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 and 3 inches. The prices in 1937 ranged between 1 shilling and sixpence for the smallest, up to 3 and sixpence for the lure pictured above.

A collectors list price of £80 to £100 was suggested by a reference for this lure. However, my eBay selling price of about £30 was probably a fair price, given the condition of the spoon which had one small crack and a few light marks on it.


I have owned a few more of these spoons,all smaller than the above. Come to think of it a reason Mother of Pearl may have been used is that it is fairly robust, but also light for its size. Sometimes, you see these with a drilled hole for fittings at either end of the spoon. Sometimes, you can get the rig attached to the spoon by a little, metal plate being stuck onto one end of the spoon.

I am sure other manufacturers would have made, and sold, Mother of Pearl spoons,the trouble is identifying them. I doubt that many were successful in marking such a material with their logo.


OK,that concludes my knowledge of antique, or if you prefer vintage, Mother of Pearl spoon fishing lures. Can you add anything to this blog?


Until next time,thanks for reading.