Fishing Contest

Antique Fishing Lures by Floyd Roberts

South Bend Fishing Photo Contest

Advertised in 1922 Catalogs

Send Us Pictures of Your Catches Tell us About 'Em

We are always glad to receive photos of interesting catches made with South Bend lures and prefer that lure is shown in picture. We appreciate a few words always in connection with the catch. Send in your photos and it may be we will have use for them in an advertising way, as all our advertisements show photographs of actual catches.

The first South Bend Bait Co. Fish-Photo Contest was held in 1923. A South Bend Bait $2,000.00 Fish-Photo Contest pamphlet was issued for the contest. The rules for this contest was anyone except for employees and their families could enter this contest. There was no entrance fee of any kind. Photographs entered must prominently show the South Bend Bait with which the catch was made. Pictures will be judged for photography, that is, back-ground, naturalness, human interest, and outdoor atmosphere, for the kind and size of fish, for clearness and detail.

1925 Contest Judges

Ivar Hennings - President of South Bend Bait Co.
Lew B. Jones - Vice President of Eastman Kodak Co.
Claire Briggs - Eminent Cartoonist "The Days of Real Sport"
Eltinge F. Warner - Publisher Field and Stream
Earle G. Thomas - Director of Publicity, South Bend Bait Co.

$2,000.00 in Prizes

Grand Prize - $300.00 in Gold Pieces (Thirty new $10.00 gold pieces)
1st - Eight $75.00 in Cash Prizes
2nd - Eight $50.00 Prizes of Tackle Selection
3rd - Eight $25.00 Prizes of Tackle Selection
4th - Eight $12.50 Prizes of Tackle Selection
5th to 9th - Forty $5.00 Prizes of Tackle Selection
10th to 34th - Two Hundred $1.00 Prizes of Tackle Selection

The Fishing Photo Contest continued through the 1920's, 1930's and into the mid 1940's but it's unclear if South Bend offered prizes after the 4th annual 1926 contest. We know throughout the years anglers continued sending in photographs of their catches and South Bend advertised these photo's along with a few words describing the catch in their catalogs.

After the end of WW II South Bend immediately began promoting their 1944 Fishing Photo Contest. South Bend didn't start production of tackle again until 1947 but to stay in the minds of the public they issued the 1945 Fishing Photos catalog. This catalog featured prize winners from their recent 1944 Fishing Photo contest. South Bend offered $3,000.00 in prizes which included $750. in War Bonds to the 1st place winner.

The first South Bend catalog to be printed after WW II was the 1945 Fishing Photos catalog.

There was a "Preferential Order" form in this catalog for anglers to fill out and take to their dealers. This would give the angler a priority by reserving tackle for them until the factory resumed production of fishing tackle once again.

South Bend took eight of the finest photo's from the 1944 Fishing Photo contest and reproduced them on paper, lithographed in duotone, 11" x 15" in size and made a portfolio available for the public. They were printed in limited quantities and made especially for framing. The complete portfolio of eight prints were available for $1.00 postpaid.

South Bend Fishing Photo Portfolio

"Angleworms" by Perry Cragg, Cleveland, Ohio - First Prize Winner

"Saturday Mornin" by Carl Mansfield of Bloomingdale, Ohio - Fifth Prize Winner

"Trout Waters" by N. N. Nadeau, Minneapolis, Minnesota - Sixteenth Prize Winner

"Take a Boy Along" by Josef Muench, Santa Barbara, California - Seventeenth Prize Winner

"MOTION IN MAINE" by L. M. Powell, Hartsdale, New Youk - Thirty-second Prize Winner

"HONEST" by William H. Lattimer, South Bend, Indiana - Thirty-fourth Prize Winner

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