A few weeks ago I received a text from my friend Keith, a photo of a haphazard pile of plugs with the caption, ‘yard sale pikies’ encased in an iPhone bubble beneath it. I quickly scanned over the pile and shrugged it off, I was in the middle of writing something and figured I’d respond later. As my fingers flew on the keyboard my mind wandered back to the photo. Having worked as a writer and editor for 15 years now, I can segregate my mind and write while daydreaming—it’s kind of weird. I could probably also write and edit in the middle of a dancefloor, I haven’t tried this, but I can tune my wife out to a distant echo, so I think I could also tune out Dua Lipa.
Anyway, I was writing…whatever it was that I was writing, and literally piecing memory slices together trying to remember what was in the top right corner of that photo. They were the only things that didn’t jump right off the screen as ordinary or uninteresting. Now it was starting to get to me, tapping away at the keys, but I was missing the last corner of the jigsaw puzzle!
Finally, I picked my phone back up and zoomed in. Excitement hit me all at once. There in that top corner, flipped over so only most discerning eye would notice (pardon me while I compliment myself) was a Soco Chief, stripped of all its hardware and eyes. I couldn’t type a response fast enough. I think I said something like, “I want the top right, what can I trade you for it?”
He responded quickly, “You can have it!”
We made plans to fish that night and when we met at the parking spot he handed me the plug. I could tell there was a little suspicion in the back of his mind about what he was giving up. But I had already felt the corresponding twinge of guilt and inquired with a collector friend about its value, he said, “In that condition, $25 to $30.” I explained to Keith that it was a very collectable plug but its value had been obliterated when the previous owner took it apart. Then I gave him one of my last deep swimmers from the original batch I made, a batch that had a particularly robust mojo and he proceeded to catch a nice fish on it that night.
My mind was on fire. I decided that I wanted to restore it and, when I say restore it, I mean bring it back to authentic form. Which translates to trying to find the correct vintage hooks, the correct thread for tying the feathers, recreating the lip and maybe, just maybe, finding an original box. These tasks have proven to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated, but I do love a challenge. I also found out that a stamped SoCo Chief box would cost hundreds of dollars—so I’ll likely settle for a less expensive un-stamped SoCo Box.
This project will not set off in earnest until the snow flies, but I have a lot of sleuthing and searching to do in the interim. If anyone reading this has a good source for vintage hooks and hardware, please drop me line. Also, if anyone has a SoCo box that they’d like to sell, I’ll be excited to hear from you. This is one of those things that sets off a chemical imbalance in my brain, I get so into the idea of restoring it that, at times, I can scarcely think of anything else. And when I complete the restoration, you can bet that I will write another Editor’s Log, with a photo, to show off my handiwork.
If you’d like to know more about the SoCo Chief, check out my 2017 article on how to build one here www.thefisherman.com/article/plug-building-2017-part-3-the-soco-chief/, it gives a lot of background information about this very cool and inspired Rhode Island creation.
