Cermele: Lures That Define an Era

I found an article by Bryan Brasher in The Commercial Appeal out of Memphis, Tennessee, that posed an interesting idea. Brasher talks about how Strike King's Sexy Shad pattern lures (below) have swept the fishing market so wildly, it is possible that 20 years from now, anglers might refer to these times as the "sexy years." If you think about it, there are plenty of lures that you can say defined an era, whether on a personal or commercial level.

Brasher notes that in the 1990s, Slug-Gos were all the rage. That eventually gave way to Senkos. "The mid-to late 1980s for me were the 'Shad Rap days,'" writes Brasher. "Back when you could still get a gallon of gas for $0.89 and a movie ticket for $3, we were eagerly plunking down $8 for the most realistic and effective crankbait any of us had ever seen at that point."

The mid-1990s for me were donimated by the Zoom Super Fluke in white or bubblegum thanks to an episode of "Fishin' With Orlando Wilson." If it swam in salt- or freshwater, I threw a Fluke at it. They're still awesome baits, but that confidence eventually transposed to Storm Shads. I would argue that the early Millennium years could just as easily be called the "swim bait years" as the "sexy years."

What lures are tied to eras in your life? What was the be-all-end-all bait you had to have in high school or college? We all had those few seasons where there was just some lure we got stuck on until something else came along. - JC