The Rise and Fall of Arbogast: The Akron Factory Behind the Jitterbug

During the Second World War, the most famous lure in America left an Akron factory with a plastic lip that cracked against the first rock it met, and today that broken version is the Jitterbug collectors hunt. This is the story of Fred Arbogast, a tournament casting champion in the Rubber Capital of the World who began building his own baits in the 1920s, named his first one after the Model T, and put live rubber skirts on lures because rubber was what Akron had lying around. It follows the Tin Liz, the Hawaiian Wiggler and its Hula Skirts, the Jitterbug and the night-fishing craft built around its sound, wartime rationing, the Hula Popper, and Fred's death in 1947. It ends with the company running on without him, the sale to PRADCO that took the name out of Ohio, and the same lure still slapping the water on a dark July lake. You will come away knowing why the skirt on nearly every jig in a bait shop traces back to Akron, and why you should check the lip on any old Jitterbug in your tackle box before you throw it out. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 2:30 The Caster from Akron 5:30 Rubber City's Gift: The Skirt 7:55 The Jitterbug 11:13 The War and the Plastic Lip 14:17 After Fred 17:48 The Last Cast