 4/10 Good --- www.prairiestateoutdoors.com http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/index.php?/pso/atom
| Illinois' premier hunting, fishing and birding Web site ... |
Friday, July 11, 2008 --- 142 days ago http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/index.php?/pso/article/lure_show_brings_coll
 PEORIA — Hundreds of fish. Several mice. And a firecracker. No, not some weird booby trap. Just a few of the wacky widgets in Buddy Parsons’ tackle box. “Fishing lures aren’t designed to catch the attention of the fish,” he said, with a laugh. “They’re designed to catch the attention of the fisherman.” The National Fishing Lure Collectors Club doesn’t have a motto. But if it did, that might be the winner. From average lures worth no more than a buck to rare treasures with six-digit price tags, fishermen-gone-antique-collectors are showing, selling and trading a little bit of everything this weekend. For the second time, the Civic Center is hosting the annual NFLCC convention, and lure enthusiasts from just about every state, as well as Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, have flocked to Peoria to show their stuff. “Almost all of them have a story,” said Parsons, a police officer from Birmingham, Ala., as he explained the significance of several of his favorite lures. It’s not the perfect ones that garner attention, he pointed out. The lures accidentally painted green instead of blue, for example, are the ones that bring in the bucks because of their rarity, just like any antique. “This is the biggest lure show in the country,” said Parsons, who has been collecting the miniature moneymakers for about five years. “We seem crazy to people. They just don’t get us.” The highest Parsons is asking for one of his lures is $800. Pricey, he ad ... |
|
|
Anytime
