David Heiller
Argus News Editor

The headline caught my attention and brought a smile.

ìNew lureís catch rate may be too high for some tournaments!î

It was in a newspaper ad in the La Crosse Tribune. The ad was designed to look like a story. It went on to describe a lure called ìThe KickTailî in great detail. A man named Charlie Allen wrote the ìarticle.î He even got his picture in it. He looked like a grandfather and a fisherman, just the kind of guy you would trust.

The inventor of The KickTail was also pictured holding a largemouth bass the size of a waste basket. And the lure was featured too, in three provocative poses, with a bass bearing down on the middle lure.

All right, the ad got my attention. But in a humorous way. Here was the clincher, written by the famous Mr Allen: ìCuriously, the company may have designed it too well. Tournament fishermen who have used it said itís possible officials will not allow it in contests where live bait is prohibited.î

Now that is brilliant marketing. Ban something and we want it all the more.

The lures cost $9.95 each, and you have to order at least two, plus $6 for shipping handling. Thatís a lot of money for two fishing lures. Is that part of the marketing ploy? ìTheyíre expensive, they must be good!î

The ad brought back a distant memory when I was a youngster. The lure back then was called the Flatfish. It was made somewhere down south, and the ads in Sports Afield had a guy who looked a lot like Charlie Allen holding a stringer of the biggest northerns I had ever seen.

What really caught my attention was this fact: The Flatfish was banned in several states!

I really, really wanted to try that Flatfish. It just looked better than those dull old Daredevils and Jitterbugs. But even then something told me the old ìbanned in five statesî line was a ruse for us Minnesota hicks, where it was not banned. Was that same ad running in the banned states saying that the lure was banned in Minnesota? And the Flatfish looked a lot like a Lazy Ike, which I could buy at Serresí Marina just down the street. So the Flatfish Company never got my $3.95 plus shipping and handling.

There are a lot of things that get our attention by being somewhat inaccessible. Mark Twain had a great example of that in his book, The Adventures of Hucklelberry Finn, when two con artists put on a play in a small town in Arkansas. Iíll quote from the book.

ìThe bills said:

AT THE COURT HOUSE!

For 3 nights only!

The World-Renowned Tragedians

DAVID GARRICK THE YOUNGER!

and

EDMUND KEAN THE ELDER!

Of the London and Continental

Theaters

In their Thrilling Tragedy of

THE KINGS CAMELOPARD

or

THE ROYAL NONESUCH!!!

Admission 50 cents.

Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all which said:

LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED

ëThere,í says he, ëIf that line donít fetch them, I donít know Arkansaw!íî

It did fetch the yokels, who were taken in by the actor prancing around the stage naked. Not exactly when the men were looking for. They fell for the old forbidden fruit line, and it has followed us through the ages, from Prohibition and Britney Spears to cigarettes and even the good old Flatfish.

Some things will never change.

Still, I wouldnít mind casting The KickTail over a wing dam a time or two. Just for the heck of it. I donít believe they work, of course. But then you never know.

As Adam said, ìHey Eve, whaddya say we try one of them apples?î

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