Fishing Lures stamp first-day ceremony attracts 150 attendees

By Jay Bigalke

On March 13 the United States Postal Service issued the five new Freshwater Fishing Lures commemorative forever stamps at a first-day ceremony held at the Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Mo.

Approximately 150 guests attended the ceremony held in an area with a large fish tank positioned behind the large poster of the stamps.

A photograph of the unveiling is shown above.

“With these stamps, the Postal Service celebrates the beauty and ingenuity behind some of America’s most successful lures,” said John DiPeri, USPS western region vice president. “As our design team would tell you, fitting subjects in such a tiny frame is no small feat. However, with their miniature size and design flourishes, fishing lures make ideal stamp subjects. Fish find each of these designs irresistible ... and we think you will too.”

In addition to DiPeri, there were multiple speakers eager to tell their fish stories, some as part of their prepared remarks, others inspired by the moment.

Speakers included Misty Mitchell, director of conservation education at the Johnny Morris Foundation; Lee Beasley, campus director at Bass Pro Shops; JP Sell, director of the National Youth Fishing Association; and fishing guide Mike Webb, owner of Webb’s Guide Service.

After the ceremony guests lined up to get autographs from all of the participants. There was a separate table for retail sales of the stamps and covers with three clerks staffing it. Two additional clerks were at a table providing first-day cancellations.

The aquarium is located next to the national headquarters for Bass Pro Shops. After touring the aquarium, I went over to the fishing lures section of the shop and was thrilled to locate all five of the lures with the assistance of one of the Bass Pro Shop team members.

A photograph above shows all five of the lures this editor purchased at Bass Pro Shops.

The stamp’s crankbait lure image appears to be very close to a Strike King Pro-Model XD Crankbait, complete with the color scheme.

The popper lure is also a dead ringer for the one pictured on the stamp. It is a silver and black version of the Rebel Pop-R.

The wakebait lure looks identical to its corresponding stamp image, too. On top of the body of the purchased lure is the word “JITTERBUG” which could be why the lure for the stamp was photographed as a side profile in order to avoid showing the text. The brand name is a Arbogast Jointed Jitterbug lure.

The spoon lure image appears to be an Eppinger Dardevle Clicker Spoon lure. The only noticeable difference with the stamp image is some possible photo editing that removed a devil logo from the side of the lure.

And lastly is the spinner lure. The version available at the store had a noticeable difference in the color of the lure’s skirt. The brand name, Mepps Aglia Dressed Spinner, was also edited from the spinning metal portion of the lure on the stamp. It is also possible and likely that another version of the lure was used for the photograph that wasn’t available at Bass Pro Shops that day.

It was pretty incredible to actually find a representative example of each of the lures, thus adding to my stamp-related collections and having my own big fish story of attending the ceremony to tell.

As of March, all five lures were also available for purchase on the Bass Pro Shops website.

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