The Old Wooden Bait Company OWB
Cobourg, Ontario

A big thanks to Greg Fruehwald for helping piece together some of this information:

     The Old Wooden Bait Company started with Rick & Carol Shepherd of Cobourg Ont. At the time, Rick was carving decoys and was an avid fisherman. He loved the style and paint jobs of early musky lures from companies like Creek Chub, Pflueger, Shakespeare and Heddon and decided he would try to make his own lure configurations. Rick wanted to manufacture the old style of wooden bait instead of plastic and set to the task of making a high quality lure with lasting paint and strong harware. He got together with his wife and a machinist friend by the name of Klaus Becker, and set to the task of creating their own line of high-end Musky lures.

The company started in the late 70's but the first baits were not produced until 1983, and they were called the Leviathan models. The Old Wooden Bait Company eventually produced 9 different models in 15 different colours.

     Rick & Carol made some display boards and attended the Toronto Sportsman Show in 1983...the reception was quite promising. Business grew quite rapidly and they moved to the old Clover Leaf Hotel in Colbourg to exapnd their operations. They later moved to 4998 Walton St. in Colbourg Ont.

     After a huge order with Cabela's which bought out their entire product line, they were given another order which they could not fulfill. They eventually sold all the tool and dye equipment to a gentlemen named Floor Kromhout who used some of the machinery, but then never used it again and stored it in his barn. And so ended another short-lived company that produced a beautiful array of Canadian fishing tackle.

	Old Wooden Bait Leviathans Shown here is a 1205 giant jointed lure in pike at the top, and a 1002 standard jointed lure in perch firebelly at the bottom...truly impressive lures!
	End Box Text for the OWB 1002 Leviathan
	Close-up of the Old Wooden Bait Lure Box Stencil Gold stenciled text and graphics on the top of the plastic and cardboard box.