Heddon Slick-Trick Spoon

February 13, 2000 - Vol. 5, No. 2

Heddon Slick-Trick Spoon

Heddon Slick-Trick prototype

One of the things I strive for with Lure Lore is to present material that isn't commonly found in the published tackle references and I'm fairly certain that this one qualifies! If you have one of these lying around in your collection, you probably have one of the rarest of Heddon metal lures!

Shown in the picture above that was taken while visiting the National Heddon Museum is a prototype of a metal spoon called the "Slick-Trick." The Slick-Trick was designed to be a snagless spoon that could be used in heavy cover such as lily pads and weedbeds. The lure consists of a spoon with a bowl area near the back designed to 'protect' the hook from catching on weeds, etc. The hook was part of a one-piece wire rigging that pivoted up and down. The top wire was the weed deflector and 'hook controller' so when it came in contact with cover, it would force the hook down into the bowl to prevent the hook from catching on weeds.

Bottom view of prototype

On the bottom of the lure was the 'barb setter' which was designed to force the hook to rise if a fish were to strike the lure. While the concept is a good one, I suspect that the 'barb setter' could have a tendency to cause the hook to rise when it too came in contact with cover.

Production Slick-Trick and Box (Click on picture to enlarge)
Box for Nickle Plate version; lure is Copper Plate version
( Special thanks to John Elder for providing pictures of lure belonging to Ward Coppersmith!)

The Heddon Slick-Trick was assigned Heddon #1130 and was advertised to come in three colors, these being:

1130NP: All Nickel
1130NP-WR: Outside white with red stripe and nickel bowl
1130CP-WR: Outside white with red stripe and copper bowl

It measured 3-1/2" and weighed in at 3/4 ounce.

Slick-Trick Dealer Ad
This dealer ad flyer shows that the lure was intended to be a feature bait for 1933. Heddon's 1933 catalog, however, does not list this lure and in fact, neither do any subsequent catalogs though it's obvious that it was commercially available based on the fact examples and boxes exist. As a final fact, the production and prototype lure are unmarked but the flyer does show the lure as being marked "HEDDON SLICK TRICK Snagless."

UPDATE:Dick Streater writes to point out that this lure appears in his book, "The Fishing Lure Collector's Bible", though under the name Heddon Casting Spoon and was found in Florida on 10/18/1932. Thanks Dick for the update!

~~Unknown lure~~

This interesting fella recently appeared on eBAY as an unknown lure and the owner, John Williamson, was kind enough to allow me to use the picture for this edition's 'unknown' lure. It is 4" long and made of plastic. The 'paddle feet' revolve but are fairly fragile according to John that their durability is questionable. The lure has been hand painted so it is not the original paint.

UPDATE:A couple of readers wrote me on this one and identified it as a Texas lure known as the Paddle Popper! Thanks, guys!

If you have any further information on any of the items displayed on this page which you'd like to share, please send your comments to me and I'll update the page accordingly. Contributions of interesting items and/or unknowns are encouraged. Lures pictured in Lure Lore are not for sale.

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