Granddad’s Tackle Box
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My Granddad Frank had a metal tackle box he kept in the garage,
I loved the old wooden fishing lures looking like a nice art collage,
They were made of wood and some had glass eyes so great.
This poem reviews the lures I loved to use on our trips to the lake.
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Granddad’s Tackle Box
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When our family went to Sulphur Springs every summer back then,
I was a young boy that loved to fish with my granddad now and again.
My granddad had an old rusty tackle box filled clear to the brim,
With wooden fishing lures that we used to catch big fish with fins.
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My favorite lure of them all was a top water lure called a Jitterbug,
That ran along the surface making a lot of noise as a lively plug,
I loved it when a bass hit it knocking it out of the water so high,
Giving me that big thrill when I hooked him way up there in the sky.
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The Hula Popper was another favorite of mine out on the lake,
It had a replaceable hula tail that wiggled around with each shake.
You throw it out, let it sit, then with your wrist give it a real big pop,
The big fish usually hit as it just sat there after that pop did stop.
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There was another fun popper in there called the Baby Popper,
I’m not sure but I think it did simulate a very young frog hopper.
This was a fun lure to use just popping along on the top of the water,
But the fish we caught with it were usually somewhat smaller.
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My very favorite under the water running lure was the Lazy Ike.
It seemed like the bass hit it better than many other lures I did like,
Old Granddad liked the Lazy Ike too so he always kept two or three.
It always had a kind of slow steady fish enticing wiggle to me.
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Another deep runner called “Lucky 13” that he kept in his box too,
Was a good lure we used for trolling behind for an hour or two.
We caught some nice bass out in that very small boat so slow,
With Granddads 5 HP motor that he gave me when he got old.
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A fun lure to use from his tackle box was called the “River Runt” lure.
It was a deep runner and often hung up, but Granddad had a cure.
He pulled directly over the lure, and hung a spark plug on the line,
Then dropped it straight down to knock the plug loose just fine.
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He had one plug called the “Creek Chub” that we used sometimes,
It has a little propeller on the back to catch a fishes eye so fine.
This wasn’t one of my favorite wooden lures to use out on the lake,
But Granddad always had one in his box that he always did take.
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A lure carried called the Dowagiac Minnow was another deep runner,
When nothing else would work, we tried this one in the summer.
Trying to get those bass that had gone on down to the cool deep,
It was sort of like trying to lure them up from a very deep sleep.
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Those old wooden fishing lures that we lost every day fishing,
Back in those days of old when I did a lot of fish catching wishing,
Are now worth as much as $500 each for some of the rarest.
I would have saved them all if I had known, of this I do attest.
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My mother captured the essence of my Granddad Frank as he looked on those fishing trips.
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By Bill
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Thanks for reading Granddad’s Tackle Box,
Bill