Better-Luck Baits

When a fisherman opens up an old tackle box and observes the contents, they might notice a brilliantly coloured orange cardboard lure box.

- Patrick Daradick

The top side reads, “Better-Luck. For All Game Fish. Cast or Troll. For Pickerel Troll Slow and Deep.”

The boxes, besides having a bold border, can also be found with three distinct jumping fish logos - two styles of trout jumping to the left and one of a bass leaping to the right. The box featuring the bass is harder to locate. What’s missing from the boxes is the actual manufacturer’s name and the location where these magnificent wooden fishing lures were made. Frank Edgar, the founder of Lucky Strike Bait Works in Peter borough in the 1930s, devised a wonderful and successful marketing scheme. Not only was he selling his Lucky Strike Baits with the “Edgars Lucky Strike Baits” logo on the box (and later in the iconic red and white Lucky Strike boxes that included lure’s name on the front) Frank also marketed similarly styled, and sometimes nearly identical, lures in the bright orange Better-Luck boxes.