Thursday Review: Old Florida Lures Web Site
As I mentioned last week, there's been some new web sites of late that I've been remiss to review. Today I will review Bobby Blizzard and Scott Watkins' "Old Florida Lures," a subject of intense interest for many collectors.
This site is what we might call a fishing "meta site," in that it is intended to offer the reader a one-stop destination for all things related to Florida lures. There are very few meta sites on the web; Wallace Carney's Mitchell Reel Museum and Wayne Real's ABU site being two famous examples.
The primary focus, of course, is Florida made lures, and as Bill Stuart will attest, you can spend your lifetime collecting tackle made in this state, and something will always come up to surprise you. So many neat lures, reels, etc. were made in the Sunshine state it is almost scary. While there are already some great sites on Florida tackle already on the web (Joe Yates' site come to mind immediately), "Old Florida Lures" offers some great information on some of the more popular companies such as Barracuda, Jim Pfeffer, Porter, etc. Particularly comprehensive is the sections on Bagley, augmented by Dean "Dino" Bagley, the son of Jim Bagley.
The site also has sections on user-submitted pages, both for Florida tackle, and for non-Florida tackle, and a useful set of helpful links. Probably the neatest thing about the site, however, is the Florida Lure Discussion Forum. There's even a separate room just for Bagley.
Overall, this is a very promising site that is definitely on the short list of destinations worth checking out on a regular basis. Kudos to Bobby and Scott for taking the time to put it together -- trust me when I say I know how much time and effort it takes.
You can access the Old Florida Lures web site clicking here, or by using the link to the right.
-- Dr. Todd
