Yakima Bait

The name Worden is synonymous with fishing in America. From the Worden family has sprung a litany of iconic fishing brands that have changed the face of fishing in the United States and worldwide. It was 1934 when R.B. Worden founded Wordens Floating Spinner Company, which was later renamed Yakima Bait Company in 1941. Although his earlier business had produced cast aluminum water wheels designed to produce electricity, Mr. Worden now made and sold handmade fishing flies and two and three inch bass wooden plugs with deer hair wings that caused them to spin. Other early products included the Wordens Featherweight Flash Spoon, Flash Fly, Spinning Fly, Twinkle Fly, and the Spoon Fly, all predecessors to some of todays most popular and productive lures. And it wasnt just fishing lures that Mr. Worden created. During World War II he developed the Worden Belt Reel, a predecessor to todays spinning reel. The Worden Belt Reel, or belly reel as it was called, was worn at the front of the waist and worked as a line holder. The user ran the line from the Belt Reel through the eyelets of the fishing rod and to their hook. The Belt Reel allowed the then stiff monofilament line to come off the reel freely and due to the large spool size kept line twist at bay. Howard Worden joined his fathers company in the late 1940s and soon was developing lures too. One summer, during a visit to a lake in California, Howard built a weighted spinner with a willow leaf blade and a hackle tail. Called the Retreat Special, Yakima Bait started production on the spinner and began selling it around the region. Howard felt like the new spinner needed a better name, and, after watching the hydroplane races in Seattle that summer, began calling his new spinner, the Rooster Tail. The Rooster Tail was mostly a regional lure until the 1960s when a few anglers from Florida tried out sample Rooster Tails theyd received at the annual Fishing Tackle Show in Chicago and immediately caught bass using them. Soon everyone on the East Coast had to have these ...