I’m not a fishing lure collector. There’s only one I like. As art. The Bud Stewart. The antique lure booth collecting-club guys look at me funny: don’t I want to join and attend? No, I just want a Stewart, thanks. Michigan’s Legend. [I now have one. Oh yeah!] These lures are visionary—check out the pics below. Bud just wanted to make lures that caught fish. He came up with art. Folk art, of course. He rankled at those who didn’t fish his lures. Reading the bio info in the gorgeous coffe table book these pics came from (contact info below) reinforces this notion. The reprints of his pencil sketches and napkin notes are a delightful look at a countryboy dreamer. Bud’s were some of the last factory-made lures to have handmade paintjobs, as late as the 1960’s. Heck, he was still making lures in his 80’s, before he passed away not too long ago. Selling them for $50 to folks he cared to have them, when speculators were already running them for upwards of $1K. As I recall, he went back to handmade after awhile with the factory-style. The book is full of great photos of him, as a lean kid, holding heavy stringers. Pure of eye and heart. He kept fishing and guiding all thru his luremaking years. The last I heard, author Ray Carver still had copies of his book, but maybe it’s all eBay now. It cost him the full $40 per *to print*. He didn’t plan it to work out that way, but he wanted to make a good book. It is. It’s one of my few art books. –Don’t tell me I never put you onto something good.
“Bud Stewart–Michigan’s Legendary Lure Maker”
by Raymond Carver & Frank Baron
(isbn 917231120)
$40, write to:
Bud Stewart Book
c/o Raymond Carver
22325 B Dr. S
Marshall MI 49068
