Was the crackle back design on some vintage Heddon fishing lures an accidental occurrence rather than a plan?
In the early days of the Heddon Company’s growth, the freshly painted, still wet, fishing lures would sometimes need to be dried quickly to meet customer orders. It is reported that in order to accomplish this faster drying, the wet lures would be popped into the family oven to dry! One interesting byproduct of this rushed process was the crackled paint effect that would come to be known as crackle back on some Heddon lures. In order to keep satisfied customers, this crackled surface was billed as a feature rather than an error in production, and since it caught fish and was appealing to customers, the “mistake” stayed with us.
