In Woolner & Lyman's book of Striped Bass fishing, ( the original version that came with pics of plugs hanging in netting on the cover) there is a plate with pictures of many different Striper Plugs and one is a Boone Bait Needle in Black with White chevrons down each side. I had the pleasure of seeing and holding that plug on a visit to Mr. Woolner's house in Shrewsbury MA. 30 years ago, along with a few others in that picture. In the late seventies and early eighties I along with some other surfcasters from Worcester ( my hometown and hometown to some if not the greatest surfcasters ever to hit an Atlantic beach) made a pilgrimage to Block Island at Thanksgiving for a few years in a row. We took Boones and early Gibbs ( with 3 trebles and screw eyes, no wire through) needles and they were the number one plug to use. We even had to make some on island when we ran out of the store bought jobs. I believe but have never really done any research into it, that Boone was the first commercial builder of needlefish. Sadly Contemporary Boone products are way inferior to what was available then. Gibbs ( John) copied the Boones and modified it as there was a patent on the Boone design. ( This was related to me by John himself). I have ( if you go into the "Some Plugs" thread) a collection of early Gibbs large, six inch and some of the Boone oldies. The Best Boone color we had at the Block back then was the EEL color to which we fastened black hackles to the rear treble which made it all the better. Would love to see your presentation on this subject and thanks for doing it. Flap. Oh yeah, cameras were verboten as bananas on our trips so we have, at least I don't, no pics. Just memeories of tr#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g up steep embankments with 30 pounders over our backs at the Block.
