Rods and reels, minnow buckets, bass lures
By Greg Seubert
Jim Fritz is hooked on fishing and it’s been that way for as long as he can remember.
Whenever he gets the chance, he can be found on an area lake or river in search of bluegills or walleyes.
When he’s not fishing, he might add to his collection of fishing-related items that’s been growing for more than 40 years.
The collection is so big Fritz built a special room for it in the basement of the town of Lind home he shares with his wife, Velonnie, and their children, Morgan, Ava and Fisher.
“I was probably 12, 13 years old when I started collecting stuff,” Fritz said. “My dad a bunch of old bass lures and I always thought they were neat. I had them hanging in my room, probably eight or 10 of them.”
It wasn’t long before the collection grew and eventually included everything from rods and reels to minnow buckets to tackle boxes.
“When I was young, people would give lures to me because they knew I liked to fish,” he said. “I fished with a lot of them. As I got older, it was garage sales, swap meets, that kind of stuff. It just progressed from lures to anything old to do with fishing. If it was old, I had to have it.”
Fritz, who grew up in Waupaca, started fishing at an early age.
“My dad drove truck and on the weekends when he was home, we were fishing,” he said. “I started fishing with him when I was 3 years old on the Wolf River. I just loved fishing and anything to do with fishing.”
Not a hoarder
Some might consider Fritz a hoarder, someone who refuses to let go of anything.
He doesn’t see it that way, however.
“Years ago, I’d go to rummage sales or auctions every weekend,” he said. “I had tons and tons of oddball stuff. I probably had 50 to 100 tackle boxes just sitting in the garage. A lot of times, I’ll buy them at rummage sales and they’re full of stuff. I’ll open a tackle box up and if there are one or two things in there that are worth buying, I’ll buy it. I’ll come home, go through it and it goes on the wall.
“I’d buy armloads of rods and reels and the ones I didn’t want, I’d resell them,” he said. “It would produce more money for me to go out and buy more stuff. I did that quite a bit.”
Fritz figures his collection includes about 200 reels, some of them from the early 1900s.
“Half of these reels, you can go out and fish with them today,” he said. “I’ve messed around with some old stuff trying to use it. It does work, but it takes patience to use.”
Many of Fritz’s lures hang on one of the room’s four walls.
“You look at some of these and you wish some of them could talk,” he said. “I wonder how many fish some of these have caught.”
The collection includes several red-and-white lures.
“It must have been an eye-catching color and fish liked it,” Fritz said. “It must be the flash or the contrasting red and white.”
His collection includes some early versions of the Dardevle, a spoon that anglers have been using for more than 100 years.
One spoon that Fritz said is probably from the 1960s is still in its original box.
“Usually, the boxes, if they’re in good condition, are worth more than the lures themselves,” Fritz said. “The right collector wants everything mint, unused. To me, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if they’re beat up or scratched. I just like looking at the stuff.”
Old-school collector
The internet has changed the way that collectors like Fritz find items.
“It makes it a lot easier to find stuff,” he said. “I look all the time and if there’s something that piques my interest, I’ll buy it.”
He admitted that he doesn’t by a lot of things online.
“I’d rather physically see it,” he said. “I still like rummage sales. I’ll look every week (for sales) and if it says fishing items, I usually try and go. Auctions are kind of hit-and-miss. The prices are usually higher.”
Fritz doesn’t take his hobby as seriously as others.
“A lot of the high-end collectors only want certain lures, certain colors,” he said. “A lot of guys will go for one brand and within that one brand, they’ll try to get every color of every lure. It’s time-consuming.”
Fritz’s collection also includes some one-of-a-kind finds that he picked up over the years.
“This rod here I bought at an estate auction,” he said. “It was an older gentleman and when he was young, they were poor and he loved to fish. He didn’t have any money to buy a fishing pole, so he made it. He found pieces from old fishing poles and he told me he whittled it out of a lemonwood tree. I think I paid four or five dollars for it.”
The collection has changed over the years.
“I’ve sold some things to buy other things,” Fritz said. “I’ll do that occasionally, but I won’t if I don’t have to. I like a little bit of everything. I like the old tackle boxes and I really like the old minnow buckets, the old worm bait boxes for trout fishermen. They were made to last. If you can find those in good condition, they’re worth a lot of money.”
The collection used to have a home in the Fritz living room, but that changed after the family moved to their current home a couple of years ago.
“At our old house, that’s where it all was,” Fritz said. “Our old house was pretty small. When we moved here, (Velonnie) said, ‘No more.’”
He planned on a special room for his hobby.
“A good friend of mine helped me frame the walls in and it just took off after that,” he said. “I wanted to build an old-time bait shop. That’s what I had in my head. It progressed into this and I think it turned out OK. I enjoy sitting down here. When friends come over, we play cards and drink beer.”
Even though Fritz doesn’t add to the collection as much as he would like, he already has plans for what will happen down the road.
“I hope my son will pick it up and start doing it,” he said. “He has an interest in it, too. He likes to fish. We actually named him Fisher.”
Fritz had to think when asked what makes something worth collecting.
“I guess it’s in the person’s eye,” he said. “If I see any old rod and reel and it’s laying in a corner somewhere, it’s collectible to me. A lot of stuff I have probably isn’t worth 50 cents, but I like it.”