Worden’s T-50 Lure Painting

There is no question that I’ve gotten into the painting of fishing lures over the past year. What started out as purely a painted series of family hand tools has spilled over into family fishing lures which has migrated to some artifacts from friends of mine.

I had never seen a fishing lure like this before in my life. I came across it in my friend Todd’s garage. It instantly struck me as a really unique looking lure. “Hmmm” I thought.. This would make an excellent painting.

Todd certainly wasn’t using it at the moment and didn’t have plans to use it in the lake anytime soon so I happily took it off his hands.

It turns out the lure is a Worden’s Style T-50 lure and it’s been around for quite some time. This is one of those lures Todd inherited from his grandfather. I’ve got a few more of his lures in the queue so there’s more to come.

What drew me to this lure was its unique form. Every other plug-style lure is basically a cylinder with rounded ends. In fact, I’ve come to find out that old timers used to make their own fishing plugs out of broom handles. They used to install do-it-yourself tackle hardware to assist in this task. And without digressing any further…

This is definitely not a DIY plug, but it’s so darn unique looking. Even though I have no interest in fishing anymore I might cast this one out just to see how it swims. I can’t image it cruising through the water hydro-dynamically. It’s bizarre curve must add something extra to the way it moves through the water.

All assumptions aside, I ended up attaching a black wire liter to the lure before hanging it on the wall. My uncle Ted has always made his own wire liters so I was able to get the perfect length for what I hoped would add to the overall work of art.