My buddy was plugging the beach one night with pretty good success, enough so that a young buck took notice and boldly walked up on him with his head lamp set to high. “Dude, is that what I think it is,” the young surfcaster asked, his light shining on the striper that my friend was unhooking, the umpteenth of the evening session. Before my buddy could offer of one of his notoriously sarcastic responses the fledgling surf historian was quick to recognize the plug. “Dude, that’s a real Danny, where’d you get that?”
Now, my buddy has been around the block a few times, and he’s met and fished with many of the greats along the way. Still taken aback at the kid’s bold and audacious approach to sneaking a look at his lure in the dark, he replied “I bought it from Danny Pinchney for $5,” as he launched that classic Danny back into the surf, the lad standing slack-jawed in the glow of the Luxor Lamp attached to his head.
Look, I get it, there’s a big market today for Striper Coast classics by the likes of Hahn, Carr, Pond, Daupin, Musso, Pinchney and others. But honestly, doesn’t it make more sense to see these old lures hanging from a fish’s mouth as opposed to hanging on a wall? Truth be told, I have a bunch of oldies but goodies collecting dust on the bookshelf behind my desk, some hand-crafted originals, others formerly mass-produced by major manufacturers. The fact is, I don’t have the heart to take them out of their original packages. Not yet anyway.
I recently added another untouchable gem to my collection given to me by former PENN staffer Ed Mesunas at the NJ Saltwater Fishing Expo. “I’m sure you know that part of the history of the bucktail includes Atlantic City’s Upperman brothers, first to mass produce them in the 1940s, and that the US Navy included the Upperman bucktails in their life raft survival supplies,” said Mesunas, explaining how PENN had once contracted with the Uppermans to ‘private label’ their bucktails.
In the fall of 1959, Morrie Upperman caught what was then a New Jersey state record striped bass of 63 pounds, 10 ounces while fishing aboard Capt. Ike Beach’s Rascal off Barnegat Light alongside his brother Bill, and Clay Adams and Elmer Gregory. It was caught on an Upperman bucktail. I don’t know how recognizable this jig is for New York and New England anglers, but the Upperman bucktail was the lure of lore at the Jersey Shore, something not lost on the folks at PENN Fishing Tackle Manufacturing located at 3028 W. Hunting Park Avenue in Philadelphia. I know the exact address only because it’s printed on the cardboard label with the rusty staple through the plastic wrapping which holds this red and white Upperman classic.
“The story I heard was PENN did that so no one else could manufacture lures under the PENN name,” he said, adding “Other than a few packets on some dusty factory shelves and a token mention in back of the PENN catalogs, there’s where the PENN/Upperman bucktails remained during my career.”
According to old press coverage, that ‘59 record striper was officially weighed at “Striped Bass Headquarters” in Ship Bottom. At that time, there would’ve been a giant wooden leaderboard out front of the Chamber of Commerce headquarters keeping a tally of Derby weigh-ins from the LBI surf tournament. The 63-pound, 10-ounce striper wasn’t eligible for Derby entry because it wasn’t caught from the beach, through Upperman later said it could’ve been hooked from the beach because it was so close to shore.
That longtime striper derby is now known as the LBI Surf Fishing Classic, the big leaderboard is gone – as is the original Chamber of Commerce building – while Fisherman’s Headquarters set up across the street following the ’62 March storm and has been there ever since. As for those Upperman bucktails from PENN, I have no idea how many still exist in their original packaging. “Over the years, I managed to grab a few and even fish them, wear them out, lose them, but always enjoyed their history,” said Mesunas, adding “But now they’re mostly vintage, collector items, memories of another fishing era.”
You can’t take it with you; and I doubt my kids will have much use for an old 2-ounce red/white bucktail after I’m gone. So, like those old $5 Danny Pichney plugs, one day soon I plan on dropping that Upperman bucktail down off Barnegat Light to see if this old dog can show those young dudes a thing or two about old tricks.
