Fred C. Young’s Hidden Treasure –
A Lost Prototype Gives Birth To “Legacy Lures Balsa Bait Company”
Fred C. Young was a legend in the fishing industry. A pioneer in crankbait design, he created the “Big O” in 1967, a lure that started a long line of “Alphabet” crankbaits that changed the way America fished.
But to Sonny Goodall, he was just ‘granddad’. And like many children who are raised around a historic figure, the awareness of their family member’s fame didn’t really sink in until much later in life.
(Note: if you are unfamiliar with the legendary Fred C. Young – you might click here and read about him under “Family Legacy”.)
The Slow Realization That Grandfather Was a Legend
Sonny fished with his grandfather, and was taught to whittle a “Big O” at the age of ten. But it wasn’t until Cotton Cordell was relaunching the “Big O” around 5 years ago, that Sonny began to recognize the impact his grandfather had on the fishing industry. (Cotton Cordell is now a Pradco acquired company that initially purchased the rights to Fred’s bait in the 70’s).
Another eye opener to his grandfather's historical contribution was increasingly demonstrated by the amazing eBay 'bidding wars' that occurred every time an original hand carved “Big O” went up for sale. Sonny remembers, “Some lures were selling for five and six hundred dollars. So naturally, all of these events happening at the same time peeked again the interest of the family in grandfather’s accomplishments.”
Then it occurred to Sonny, “You know, I have a ton of granddad’s lures and they’re up in a box in the attic.” The rest of the family looked too, and much to their amazement the family collection contained over 400 Big O’s. But the best was still to be discovered.
Hidden Treasure
Sonny’s mom, (Fred’s only child), remembered she still had a couple of her father’s tackle box’s in the basement, and she thought Sonny might like to have them.
“So I was browsing through them,” recalls Sonny, “and discovered they were filled with Big O’s and other hand made baits. (Granddad didn’t fish with anything else other than the lures he created himself. It was always a family joke, when you went fishing with granddad, ‘Don’t you pull out a worm, or spoon, or anything – you’re gonna fish with Big O’s all day.’) So, one tackle box was loaded with Big O’s.”
But it was the contents of the second box that would impact Sonny’s life the most. “And the other box was filled with a bunch of proto-types.” Apparently, Fred was continually designing new baits that no one else had ever seen.
A Prototype with a Little Magic
Sonny could hardly contain his excitement. “In this tackle box there were two proto-types of what we now call ‘The Mo’. Its design immediately caught my attention because its profile was very distinct, and it had this amazing metal lip on it. So I took it up to the lake house and put them both in the water. One didn’t actually run well at all, but the second one ran like a classic Fred C. Young design.”
“It was a little lure that still had the big aggressive waggle of the Big O, but it dove much deeper and steeper. And I noticed the shiny metal lip created a lot of flash, and I thought, ‘This thing has a little magic to it!’”
The Birth of an Idea
Sonny’s cousin, Randy Evans, lived in Maryville Tennessee, and was a dedicated fisherman – “Far more so than I am,” recalls Sonny. Randy was very close to Sonny’s grandfather because Fred had helped raise him. Sonny called him and said, “Randy, I’ve got some lures you ought to see. I’m thinking we ought to do something with this.”
Without knowing it, that simple phone conversation would eventually lead to the birth of the Legacy Lure Balsa Bait Company. But none of that happened over night.
Encouragement and Discouragement
Randy and Sonny made a couple more of the baits, and Sonny (a marketing professional) took them to a meeting with Cotton Cordell. As Sonny describes it, “When they saw them, they loved the lure, and they said they’d never seen anything like it. And because they owned the rights to the ‘Big O’ they felt it was natural that they launch any new Fred C. Young designs.”
Over the next year the two partners worked to hash out a licensing agreement with Cotton Cordell. Frustrated with how long the negotiating had taken and eager to get the new lure out on the market, they were shocked when it was explained that they were still at least two years away from launching a new lure. (Sonny added, “And they were probably going to produce it in plastic anyway, and that’s not what we really wanted.”)
Sonny confessed, “The family decided we ought to talk to other manufacturers because we were anxious to get it out there. But we never did end up talking to any other manufacturers because Randy and I decided that maybe we should try to make it ourselves.” Admittedly naive, Sonny confessed, “We didn’t believe it would be that hard.”
Naive but Determined
“However, as we labored to find a way to produce ‘The Mo’ in volume, we discovered a whole different animal. And whereas we had thought ‘two years’ was a long time to launch a lure, well… Randy and I spent four years bringing it to market. Four long years!” laughs Sonny.
“We knew how to make them one at a time, but we knew nothing about lure manufacturing. Still we had this passion and a great idea. So we decided to figure it out as we went, and we did. We made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot of things, perfected some others things, and ultimately were able to get to a final product that we liked and that caught fish. It is still a tedious process, but one that produces a premium product.”
Carving Out A Niche
If Fred C. Young fans are eager to purchase “The Mo”, they won’t find it at Walmart. It is targeted to, and sold directly to, tournament pro’s and avid anglers. “That’s where our niche is,” explains Sonny. “We’ve never been interested in mass production. Ours is a painstaking process, a family art form, and we want to stay true to granddad’s methods.”
Hard To Make
Even so, there are some noticeable differences in how ‘The Mo’ is built. Sonny admits, “We do use better materials today – much better than what granddad had in his time. When my grandfather was creating the Big O, he was using regular household materials, and would experiment with whatever was laying around the house. I have some lures of his that would just blow you away,” smiles Sonny. “One prototype of his has a penny in it as a guiding lip.”
The first thing the two partners discovered is “The Mo is actually very difficult to make because of its shape.” And there was a world of differences between the way Sonny’s grandfather hand whittled crankbaits one at a time, and Cotton Cordell’s mass production methods.
Cotton Cordell ability to mass produce the ‘Big O’ out of plastic was a real breakthrough for them at the time (70’s). Sonny had been told that in the first three months, the company sold a million lures – something that is unheard of, even today.
But a lot of the professional anglers still wanted the hand-carved crankbaits from the master himself. And over the years Fred would produce 3,700 of them – one at a time. So, even though the cousins would be left Fred’s ingenious prototypes, they would not inherit any specialized manufacturing equipment.
Seeking Tennessee Craftsmen
So began a long quest to discover a process by which “The Mo” could be produced in larger quantities than hand carving them one at a time. An obvious place to start was with those small custom bait companies that thrive in Tennessee, a state where the art of hand-crafted lures has flourished.
But in the competitive world crankbait manufacturing, the two partners discovered that most balsa bait companies, even the small ones, had proprietary trade secrets and processes that they guarded zealously.
Finally, a well known artisan, Mike Estep opened his shop to the young men. This Tennessee lure maker confessed that he guarded his specialty equipment and processes too, but decided to make an exception this time.
He told Randy and Sonny “I’ll be honest, I never share any of my secrets with anybody, but if it wasn’t for your grandfather I would have never made a lure. He showed me how to make them.” Out of gratitude, Mike Estep provided trade secrets that the two partners would come to appreciate and cherish.
The Right Machinery for the Job
Having gotten a glance at Mike Esteps’ unique machinery, Sonny drew up some rough sketches that an engineer in the family put into speck drawings. Randy saw to it that it got built. “It worked well at first,” said Sonny, “and provided a way to duplicate granddad’s lure pretty consistently.”
But as time went on and more sales came in, the partners decided their homemade machine was a little slow, and tended to waste a lot of wood in the process. It wasn’t going to get them where they wanted to go.
The Lee Sisson Connection
“And then one day,” says Sonny, “one of our paint suppliers told us that Lee Sisson ( another legendary lure designer and manufacturer) had a machine that you stick wood in one side and it spits out lures on the other side – like a vending machine. He told me, ‘You ought to give him a call. Lee is a great guy and he’d be glad to talk to you.’”
A little doubtful that such a machine existed, Sonny never-the-less I found his number and contacted him. Lee Sisson told him, “Yeah, there is such a machine – we invented it. My brother built it for me. And he’ll build one for you if you want. And here’s his phone number.”
So Sonny contacted Sisson’s brother and sure enough, he’d make one for them. Up to that point he had made only made seven of the specialty machines, (two of them are now located in Japan), but he agreed to make an eighth for the family of Fred C. Young.
Sonny was overwhelmed by the results, “It is a marvel of a machine that cuts balsa with accuracies reaching .003 of an inch. So we can be highly accurate with this machine. And it gives us the consistent body we insist upon.”
Manual Perfection
Interestingly enough, the lure’s body-making machine is the only automated process that Randy and Sonny want at this time. Everything else (the preparation, sealing, painting, and assembly) is done manually in their little shop on Randy’s farm in Maryville, Tennessee. There they make “The Mo” in batches, gearing up for each new outdoor show they attend.
“It’s not our intention to go into retail (at least not right away),” says Sonny. “We still want to stay real close to our process - which is finally ‘exacting enough’ that when volume dictates, we can hire craftsmen to step in and plug-in to our process. Our process is now very ‘tight’; but it was a long and hard quest to get to where we are now.”
Relational By-product
Sonny, a marketer, credits his cousin Randy with the lion’s share of figuring out how to manufacture the lure to meet the high standards they set for themselves in the Fred C. Young tradition. Though they possess very different skills sets, they recognize their abilities are very complimentary. Besides being a marketer, Sonny also has a degree in graphic design and experience as an airbrush illustrator, and contributes greatly to color and pattern design.
One of the interesting by-products of this entrepreneurial adventure is relational in nature. Both cousins admit that the goal of keeping Fred’s legacy alive has helped the cousins to develop a closeness between them that hadn’t previously existed. Undoubtedly Fred would have been pleased more by this relational by-product than the production of another crankbait.
The “Look”
One of the goals of the partners is stay true to Fred’s simplistic but functional paint style. This approach is an intentional contrast to the minute details that are increasingly being added to crankbaits, especially in the Japanese premium imports. Sonny states matter-of-factly, “I made a living as an airbrush illustrator, and I can create a lure that looks just like a fish. But the questions is ‘Why’? There are a million of them out there just like that, and they can stamp them out of plastic at a rate you can’t even fathom. What we do is truer to the original art form.”
Sonny agrees with the concept that today’s heavily pressured fish get conditioned to certain lures over time, and that anglers need to be throwing something different to trigger more strikes. But he doesn’t agree that adding additional details to the finish is the only or best way to provide that difference.
Sound and Profile First, …then Color
“When we are testing lures,” says Sonny, “many of them have no paint, or maybe just a clear coat, or perhaps a white primer coat only – but we catch fish on them. No paint, no eyes, no scales, gills, dots, sparkles, …no nothing. Those fish are responding to the sound and profile – that’s what they’re reacting to.”
Having said that, Sonny also agrees that color can and does contribute to the triggering qualities of a bait. But in providing the “differences” modern anglers are seeking, something new can still be presented simply in the old school tradition.
Color – Then and Now
“Yeah, even with color,” Sonny explains. “My grandfather just used rattle-can spray paint – it’s all he had. He didn’t have sophisticated airbrushes and this sort of thing. He didn’t have the pearlescent colors we have today – he used household glitter to get glimmer. Those old school color patterns still work today.”
“Why? Because when a crankbait is coming through the water, (even when you are cranking slow) a fish cannot see the minute details on that lure. It only sees splashes of color, flashes of light, and a few streaks and contrasts in the patterns; but I think that’s all that is necessary to trigger strikes.”
“The difference between a red lure and a chartreuse lure is enough to provide ‘something different’. In other words, if the lure the fish are reacting to it that day is chartreuse, it doesn’t have to be chartreuse with detailed scales on it to trigger strikes.”
Catching Fish or Fishermen?
Sonny is well aware that many of today’s finishes are primarily created to catch the attention of fisherman, but Sonny doesn’t want to venture too far away the color traditions of the original handcrafted balsa baits. Fred C. Young didn’t care about catching fishermen – his lures were designed to catch fish.
“That’s why my grandfather never painted a ‘firetiger’,” laughs Sonny. Then recognizing the fact that modern anglers do have some additional color expectations, he admits, “And grandfather never painted crawfish patterns the way I’m painting ours. But that really is for the fisherman because they do have confidence in certain patterns.”
“That’s not to say granddad didn’t use firetiger colors, (which was a pretty popular lure for him), but it didn’t have the stripes and details like we see today. Overall, I would say he sold more black and white (shad colored), and yellow and black ‘Big O’s’, than anything else. He personally liked the yellow body with a black back more than any other color combination”
Hooks and Line Clip
The trebles are manufactured by Eagle Claw and are a premium black Nichol hook. While many manufacturers offered them quality hooks, Sonny explained their choice, “It’s the only hook that is still manufactured in the United States. And that was important to us. We wanted to keep it in the USA.”
“We use a shorter shank on the front and a standard shank on the back, (#4 hooks), and the reason is that in “The Mo’s’ original design there was a tendency for the hooks to catch each other. Going to the shorter shank in front eliminated that problem.”
The prototype’s line-tie clip presented a challenge. “Yeah, the connector grandfather made was an interesting concoction of twisted wire,” admits Sonny. “But it worked and we understood the principle there.”
“We were pleased to discover that the connecting links we needed were a standard product, though you don’t see them that often today. They were originally developed in the earlier days when they were making some metal-lipped lures like the Hellbender. But ‘The Mo’ requires that kind of clip. A split ring will only impair some of its action. We needed that specific type of clip so as not to restrict its action.”
The Price
Because the “The Mo” is produced in the hand-crafted style, this premium balsa bait has been introduced at $16.99. But after considering Legacy Lures’ clients, (pros, serious fishermen, and collectors) the price is fairly reasonable.
Sonny recalls asking one professional fisherman his opinion on the cost of “The Mo”. He said “I think that’s cheap. See that boat over there? I have 8 rods in it and every one of them has a lure on it that I paid at least $25 to $35 dollars a piece for.”
If the price causes some anglers to hesitate in investing that much in a handcrafted crankbait, perhaps the refund policy will ease their mind. When Sonny was asked if any other crankbait company offered a money back guarantee, he replied, “I don’t know. But I’ve always felt that if someone was dissatisfied, they certainly shouldn’t have to pay for it. But… we’ve never had one returned so far.”
A Unique Sonic Signature
The Legacy Lure partners are discovering that many serious fishermen are looking for an edge - they want something different. “And the beauty of handcrafting lures,” says Sonny, “is that everyone of them is going to be unique. No matter how good our manufacturing process is, because of variations in wood density - each balsa bait is going to be just a little bit different.” This characteristic of balsa baits means every crankbait will have what the Legacy website describes as a “unique sonic signature.”
Why does very balsa bait potentially have a unique sonic signature? “Well, each lure’s action displaces water. And that water displacement creates vibration and sound,” explains Sonny. “And should a crankbait be shaped slightly differently, …if it weighs different, …if it is cranked differently, …if the wood has a different density - all these little subtleties will affect that sonic signature. It will affect the sound and vibration.”
The Mystique and Love/Hate Aspects of Balsa Baits
There are many professional and amateur fishermen who find the uniqueness of handcrafted balsa baits intriguing and appealing. Others are disturbed by the idea that no two balsa baits are exactly the same.
There are endless stories of professionals buying a dozen handcrafted lures, hoping that within that dozen there will be a couple that will tract or “hunt” exceptionally well. Those on a thin budget often fret over their single purchase, fearing that it may not have that rare sonic signature that excels in attracting their favorite game fish. This has not been lost on Sonny and Randy.
“Well, that describes what some pros call the ‘love-hate’ aspect of buying balsa baits. They love the fact that they are unique lures. But they also know that if they buy a dozen lures, …there will only be six in there that are going to give some very unique actions and sonic signatures – which on a highly pressured lake gives sounds that the fish have never heard before.”
Something Different
It is the belief of many anglers that certain balsa baits can provide a unique sonic signature, and that it makes the bait very appealing to the fish. And there is an increasing group of professional anglers who strongly believe that providing something “different” gives them an edge over the rest of the pack in tournaments. After studying “The Mo’s” design, it is clear that “something different” is exactly what the bait will deliver.
Stainless Steel Lip
“The Mo is innovative,” insists Sonny, “because there is nothing on the market that resembles this lure. Just look at the stainless steel lip; when it bangs on rock or wood – it’s putting off a unique sound that fish have never heard.”
The stainless lip also provides a certain amount of flash as it moves through the water.
This provides some fish-triggering light reflection – the kind found attractive in spinnerbaits. But Sonny says the flash is not overpowering and works exceptionally well in clear water.
The unique lip design also provides for a steep dive angle. “That was the first unique features I saw in grandfather’s prototype. With just a few cranks this lure started almost straight down, and you didn’t have to crank it hard.”
A part of the reason for the steep angle is that the lip is thin and cuts through the water easily, and the stainless steel lip also creates weight. Combined with the ballast in the belly, its very head-heavy which, according to Sonny, makes it cast very well.
While the metal lip contributes greatly to its performance, surprisingly ‘The Mo’ is not a sinking bait. Sonny explains, “It actually floats. In fact, when it is sitting in the water, the tail is sticking slightly out of the water at about a 60 degree angle. It is in fact, a slow riser. When you stop cranking it rises slowly.” Legacy Lures has plans to eventually put out sinking and suspending models down the road.
The “Waggle”
Whereas many anglers describe the actions of lures in terms of wiggle or wobble, Sonny says, “The Mo has a pretty wide aggressive ‘waggle’ to it. Unlike a thin lure that has a tight waggle, the Mo has a wide waggle much like the ‘Big O’ did. Therefore it’s a smaller bait that puts out a different type of sound wave in the water because of the v-shape of this lure. This makes it very unique.”
The Best Way to Fish ‘The Mo’?
What’s the best way to fish ‘The Mo’? “Often!” laughs Sonny. “The Mo is designed to get down fast and grind on the bottom. That’s how I fish it most of the time. I let that metal lip dig into the bottom, bounce off rocks, structure, wood, …and stir the ground up a bit. That’s one way to fish it. But you can also burn this lure in open water – it really reacts nicely to ‘a burn’. And then again, I’ve also slow-cranked it. So how you use it will vary on conditions.”
One surprising benefits of the bait’s design is its ability to be very snag-resistant. “Snag resistance is inherent in the design because of body shape and bill design. This lure swims at a pretty steep angle, so when that metal lip it hits something, it throws the whole body of the bait around or over the structure. If it wedges, or pulls up tight to something, because it is balsa, it will float backwards. So you just stop pulling on it, and most likely will float free.”
More Hidden Treasures
What makes this new company so very exciting is it still has a box full of other Fred C. Young “hidden treasures” - prototypes that are still to be “reverse engineered” and prepared for future offerings. Still, the company is taking it one step at a time. “We have a lot of prototypes to explore, and the action is very unique and different for some of these. It’s exciting. But ‘The Mo’ is the one that I am most anxious to get out,” says Sonny, “and I think its going to be a successful lure.”
A Passion for a Grandfather’s Legacy
Unlike many modern crankbait companies, Randy and Sonny are neither motivated or driven by market studies, the latest trend, or the desire to make large financial profits. “Making a hand crafted balsa bait is time consuming, and let’s face it; it’s not a great business model. And I’m smart enough to know that. And what drives Randy and I – is a passion for my grandfather’s legacy.”
Legacy Lures has set its sites on providing Fred C. Young designs to as many hand-crafted balsa bait fans are out there. “I think there is some magic to granddad’s lures that many fisherman have never seen. I run into many people at the trade shows, and find that even the young anglers are mesmerized by “The Mo” - because many of them haven’t been exposed to the old school stuff.”
“They’re used to the holographic finishes, fancy foils, or the sophisticated pattern-printings that are done on today’s lures. After all, there are some absolutely beautiful lures out there,” Sonny admits. “There’s some high-tech science in today’s crankbaits.”
“But we’re not any of that – we’re simple and authentic. That’s where we want to be. I come from the marketing business, where the purpose everyday is to create a lot of glitz and unfortunately - ‘clutter’. But now we’re trying to take that all away – removing it from fishing. Grandfather believed fishing is a simple pastime, and that lure making is an art form. Ours is an intentional simplicity.”
The Future
It is doubtful that all of America’s anglers will rush to benefit from the discovery of this “hidden Treasure”. But then again, you never know. And besides, getting rich was never on the minds of Legacy’s partners.
Certainly it’s true, that ‘The Mo’ is a one-of-a-kind crankbait with a unique sonic signature. There’s no doubt that anglers purchasing this new offering will be the first to offer the heavily pressured fish in their home lakes ‘something new’. And there’s proof abounding that it catches fish, (last year “The Mo” produced three first place finishes for Randy and Sonny in southeastern tournaments). After all, it’s a Fred C. Young design.
But first and foremost, Legacy Lures is the result of a family’s passionate desire to share recently discovered “hidden treasures” with those who appreciate Fred C. Young’s genius, craftsmanship, and historic impact on the world of fishing.
‘The Mo’ is a product of the heart – it is a passionate response to a beloved grandfather. A legendary figure in the world of fishing may be gone, but his Legacy lives on.
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Sonny Goodall is grandson of legendary lure designer and craftsman Fred C. Young. Along with his cousin Randy Evans, the two family members have created "Legacy Lure Balsa Baits" which can be viewed and purchased at http://www.legacylures.com/
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