Can Anyone Give Me Some Background Info On Bob Hahn???

[BigFish]

Just curious to know a little more about him, any info would be appreciated. Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for any help.

[justplugit]

Big Fish, i am sure there are lot of guys here that know more than i do but i will tell you what i know.
Bob Hahn was one of the best fisherman on the Jerey shore and came from Pt Pleasant,a shore town between Sandy Hook and Seaside Heights NJ. His plugs are probably the best swimmers i have ever used.Best in moving water. I beleve he made most out of white cedar. His surfster and jointed pikie were along the lines of the Creek Chub lines.
He had a 5in surfster,a 5in danny type and a 6 1/2 in jointed pikie. He made alot of other size lures including a darter which i wasn't aware of until Adam posted it lsat week. He liked to use yellow flash and black as his main colors.
Rumor has it that he went out of business because he sold everything on consignment and some never paid him.
The last time i saw him was at a seminar about 12 years ago, i would say in his mid 40s. Tall guy ,humble very well mannered ,who was very willing to share his fishing knowledge.
Don't know much ore than that but i can still hear him say,when fishing swimmers "fish the lure as slow as you can ,and when you think your going too slow go slower". Worked for me.
There is an older guy at a bait shop i go to that knows quite a bit about him and i will see what else i can learn next time i'm down there. However i know there are guys here that can add rheems to my info.
Hope it helps.

[bassmaster]

I use to buy His plugs in falmouth and crack them up off the islands
for a plug with no weight , they swim good.
I have a few inspired plugs along the lines of His work , only tweaked to My specks and royal pain in the ass to make due to My construction process.
Im not using the wood You may think. But the action is to die for.
out of I think 4 or 5 proto's there is one that out swims anything out there. But the others swim awsome and are up there in the royal section of the cave

[BigFish]

Justplugit....thanks, that is what I was looking for. When I am interested in something, I am the type that needs to learn all I can about it. Thanks for the info, thanks BM.....if anyone can add to that, please do.

[NIB]

I don't know him personally so all i can tell U is second hand.At one time he lived In the Keyport area he used to frequent my friends Pizza shop. my friend would go to this place to fish that was restricted but some had access.He would go every night an often Bob would come in for pie. one night my friend invited him out with him he said bob had on one of the biggest fish they ever saw. over 60 lbs. but this place has lots of pillings an on one of its final runs got in them an broke him off.Another story from a kid that used to frequent the same spots as Bob said one morning He saw Bob catch an release one over 50.Alot of the Hahns where made out of Maple guys would bring them back to my friends takle shop when the paint exploded off them an return them I used to scoff them up I lost a giant on one of his bigg swimmers.My guess is he turned by eye as I see many different versions of the same plugs he basically made everything poppers, needles, darters, bottle plugs, jointed trollin lures,an all kinds of swimmers.Was basically the other wood plug to buy besides Gibbs.I think I liked them cause he filled out the colors U couldn't get in the Gibbs.Unless u where Flap.there wasn't as much a craze for that type of thing back then.I think the yr. he stopped the next fall we had Peanuts like we haven't seen in yr.s an the wood plug craze went balistic.Thats when my friend Tony started Lex lures.the limited Gibbs orders the Tackle shops would get just flew off the wall that yr.an u couldn't find a wood swimmer.he made a pretty good buck.fillin the void.Yesterday I went to a tackle show had to be ten plug builders there.some guys sitting there with nice stuff not sellin well.I guess U can only sell so many 20-30 dollr plugs.Seems we've come round full circle.

[steve f]

Hey Big Fish I can tell you this Bob started using cedar then went to white pine I believe cost being the reason. He had a neet invention he made, He made a duplicator using a router mounted on his lathe worked pretty good and fast. One problem he had with finish is there wasn't the quality there is today redally available I will post a picture of his sample board that resides in my buddies tackle store. There are rummors that bob died and was bought out these are not true. The truth is one season he and some friends went on a yearly trip up the coast to sell plugs to stores and most were on consignment in cape cod, these peo[ple never paid him and the dollar amount was over 10,000.00 total in plugs this put him out of buisness. As for a little background he is a carpenter by trade so alot of his wood came from this he is a great fisherman I have had the privilage of fishin with him on occasion and he is a good personas just plugit stated in an earlier post. His plugs are among some of the best I have ever used and still use even allchewed up and destroyed they still catch fist with a vengance, I am a fortunate person to know him. Attached is a picture of a med surfster and a large surfsterboth of witch have seen better days I will have to find my favorites to show and these still catch fish.

[bassmaster]

i have whit with pink surfster with the paint almost gone.
He make a killer color combo on one of His swimmers
I use to trash them on the sides of the islands and on the shores of Falmouth

[Striperknight]

Some B. Hahn plugs.

[BigFish]

Those look just like Gibbs!

[Striperknight]

I'm far from being an expert.

[NIB]

the top one looks like a Hahn notice no belly grommet an the big line tie loop.Bob some times used the Grommet sometimes not.his bottle had a few configurations some fatter some with different heads.all good.

[Mike P]

The large front eye on the bottle also points towards a Hahn's. On Gibbs, they're too damn small to get a Coastlock snap thru without a major fuss.

[Flaptail]

Top one is a Hahns, bottom one is a Gibbs.

[Hip]

Some pristine Hahn Surfsters