Nightcrawler Secrets

05/15/2017

1975 Popular Science Ad - Binkelman Blue Books

Posted at 08:54 PM in Bill Binkelman, Books, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/08/2017

Bill Binkelman and Babe Winkelman

From Babe's late 1980s book on jig and live bait fishing, and a short video of the same featuring Bill. This was likely a year or two before Bill passed.

Posted at 09:28 PM in Bill Binkelman, Books, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/30/2017

1966 All Over Again

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Here's Al Lindner from an interview a few months back to make the point. Nightcrawler Secrets, Jack Crawford jigs, and Buck Perry Structure never goes out of style.


JK: "What's one thing every walleye fisherman needs?"

AL: "I think if there's a mistake the average walleye angler makes, they look at Target Walleye and they read all of the different ways people are catching fish in different parts of the country. And the best advice I can give the average angler right now is get proficient at a couple of main walleye presentations. Get good at - you don't have to be good, you have to at least get to be average at. Deadly ways - learn to fish a jig. Learn to use a live bait rig. In most conditions, in most parts of the country, these are bread-and-butter presentations that will put fish in the boat ALL season long...a live bait rig and a jig will always catch you SOME walleyes when you've got fish on structure, and that's true in most bodies of water."

Posted at 08:18 PM in Bill Binkelman, In' Fisherman/Al & Ron Lindner, Nightcrawler Secrets, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/25/2017

Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers Ad

Compiled from the writings of Bill Binkelman's first two books and combined with some Buck Perry structure basics. This ad for Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers; The New and Complete Book of Nightcrawler Secrets appeared in Fishing Facts magazine circa 1975.

Posted at 07:25 PM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing Facts, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/18/2016

Boston Store Fishing Catalog 1968

Long before the advent of online shopping, and even well before now heavy hitter Bass Pro Shops (1972) or long gone Bassmaster's "The Outhouse" (1972-73), there was the Boston Store mail order catalog featuring the best gear written about, used by, and promoted in the pages of Fishing News. This 1968 catalog will give you an idea of what top tackle was available to anglers for purchase regardless of their location. It includes familiar names for the time such as Buck Perry Spoonplugs, Crawford jigs, bulk monofilament fishing line, Smithwick's Devil's Warhorse (Devil's Horse), Lutz pork baits, Nightcrawler Secrets packages, and the Lowrance Lo-K-Tor. However, there are also some newcomers to the scene such as the beginning of the popularity of plastic worms (Bing McClelland/Burke), as well as the Crawford Jig Worm, the early predecessor to shaky heads. You could even open a charge account if you didn't have the funds to pay for your order in its entirety.



Posted at 02:46 PM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing News, Lowrance, Nightcrawler Secrets, Old Newspaper Articles, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/06/2016

Old Photos: Bill Binkelman V

Bill Binkelman with a  stringer of nice walleye from Okauchee Lake, circa 1963. The birth of Nightcrawler Secrets. As seen in Babe Winkelman's book, Jig and Live Bait Fishing Secrets.


Posted at 01:14 PM in Bill Binkelman, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/17/2016

Jenk's Bait Shop - 1972 - Hayward, WI

The heart of Midwest fishing history is inexorably tied to the bait shop, the epicenter of local fishing tackle and expertise before the advent of "big box" and Internet retailers.

 

Posted at 01:06 PM in Everything Else, Fishing Facts, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/13/2016

Six Decades Of Teaching Still Fresh In Some Minds

MJSome of you already know quite a bit about my history and involvement in the fishing world. My late father put a rod and reel in my hand when I was barely able to walk.

The era of enlightenment began with meeting the late Bill Binkelman in the mid-1960s. He was a fishing tackle buyer for the Boston Store in Milwaukee. He was also an addicted live-bait angler as well as an experimenter and "door opener."

And when Binkelman discovered school teacher Buck Perry and his "magical" Spoonplugs, the fishing community in the Midwest went bonkers.

I'll cut to the chase. It was 1966 when Binkelman suggested I come to a lake he often fished so I could meet, as he put it, a couple young guys who were great fishermen.

The young guys turned out to be Ron and Al Lindner. This column is not about those two angling wunderkinds, but rather about Perry and Binkelman's legacy of structure fishing with those funny-shaped Spoonplugs and "conditioned nightcrawlers" impaled on tiny hooks.

And just recently my attention was drawn to Indiana angler Brian Waldman. Here's a partial chunk of his email.

"I've become very interested in Midwest angling history, in particular the 1960s and 1970s time period involving Bill Binkelman, Buck Perry and the Lindner's, among others. I'm currently trying to document and save much of this story online via a blog I run called "The Structure Cafe." I've read many of your Daily Herald columns where you've mentioned your time spent with and learning from these guys, especially Bill.

"I've been fortunate to track down several others who are still with us who worked with Bill in some capacity, but obviously have many more who would have great insight to share. Thanks for your consideration of this request."

I spent a considerable amount of time on the telephone with Brian discussing Binkelman's live-bait tactics, as well as those early days when Bill was on friendly terms with Buck Perry.

I heartily recommend you go to the blog (www.structurecafe.com) and open your mind to re-learning the basics of fresh-water fishing and those "pioneers" who were mainly responsible for today's "superstars" making a living being on-screen and in print...Check out Brian's blog and see how those masters never came off the water complaining there weren't any fish to be had.

  • Mike Jackson: Download WS116030

Excerpted from (Source) : http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160929/sports/160928529/

Posted at 08:57 PM in Bill Binkelman, Nightcrawler Secrets, Old Newspaper Articles | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/28/2016

Nightcrawler Secrets Box

From Bill Binkelman's basement, a small box used for 'Nightcrawler Secrets' fishing. The hooks are small #6 bronze Aberdeens used to hook  a conditioned crawler lightly through the nose. The jig heads are called Revenge jigs, painted with a fluorescent coating and sporting a smaller than normal hook. A couple assorted sinkers including a Lindy walking sinker and a few bullet weights for more weedless applications. Traditionally, small split shot (or even no weight at all) would be used, along with 8' or so rods built on fly rod blanks, and 4# or 6# test monofilament line.

Posted at 01:17 PM in Bill Binkelman, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/07/2016

Babe - On Bill and Buck

About that same time, Hickory, N.C., physics professor E.L. (Buck) Perry, the self-proclaimed "daddy of structure fishing," was "spoonplugging" his way into fishing's history books.

Perry told us fish don't inhabit the entire lake, but rather adhere to specific features like points, reefs, bars, islands and breaklines. These areas have since — somewhat erroneously — come to be known by the generic name of "structure."

In the introduction to his book "Spoonplugging," Perry claims he knew as a young man in 1928 that "deep water is the home of the fish" and that they follow predictable routes when moving from deep water to shallow water, where they feed.

Perry toured the country pulling unheard-of stringers of fish — mostly bass — from lakes "thought to be fished out" and preaching that "knowledge is the key to catching fish."

Buck gained the status of a prophet among fishing's elite. His teachings were passed along through a newsletter, which later would become "Fishing Facts" magazine and a paperback book called "Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers."

That book was actually a spinoff of a book called "Nightcrawler Secrets" by another of fishing's early pioneers, Milwaukee native Bill Binkelman.

    -Babe Winkelman, 2002

 

And another:

Back to what occurred here 40 to 50 years ago, Babe said, "This was an explosion of knowledge. Al and Ron brought the teachings of Buck Perry and Bill Binkelman north and when their break-through strategies were combined with good local anglers like Gary Roach and the Nisswa Guides League anglers, Lowrance electronics and the promotional Lindy team, it was like adding two plus two coming up with a much larger total."

-Babe Winkelman, 2014 (Outdoor Traditions)

Posted at 12:48 PM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing Facts, Fishing News, Nightcrawler Secrets, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

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