Joe's Old Lures - Antique Florida Lures

E.J. Lonn "Dandy" Lures
Tampa, Florida

E.J. Lonn had been in the fishing tackle business for years before he started selling his own line of "Dandy" lures. Lonn had worked for some time selling lures for The Eger Bait Company.

This is a letter written by E.J. Lonn to a tackle company in 1943. He was seeking to represent the company's products when "this war is over". Lonn tells them that "I sell more bait and fishing tackle than anyone in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, and I will be pleased to represent you and I promise you the volume of business as a result..."

Whether Lonn ended up selling their products is not certain. What is known is that he began selling his own line of lures. Rather than manufacturing them himself, Lonn had the lures produced for him by the Florida Fishing Tackle Company. Dandy lures are pretty much the same as Florida Fishing Tackle Barracuda brand lures, except that they were painted in different colors, and they all had carved eyes.

Here are some torpedo type lures.

Here are a couple of Dandy pier baits.