L & S Bait Company

The Early Colors and Eyes of L&S

Early wooden "Lemaster Shiner Minnow" with glass eyes

Hi, my name is Phil Kiefer, I collect early L&S and South Bend Bait Co. lures. The information I have about the early stages of the L&S Bait Co. is very slim and sketchy, therefore I am starting this website with the hopes of educating others as well as myself concerning this time frame of L&S (1937? - 1951). I hope to hear from the more experienced L&S collectors and hopefully build a website that is full of good, viable information that can be used as a reference to this era of the L&S Bait Co.. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you feel any of the info you see here is incorrect and also I hope to add more colors to the color section of this site, so please send pics of lures not listed. I have no color charts pre-1950, so I can't put any colors with the numbers found on the boxes, any help with this would be appreciated.

The L&S Bait Company was started in or around 1937 by a man named Harold Lemaster from Kankakee, Illinois, who fashioned his own lures from wood and apparently having some success fishing them as others approached him about making lures for them, starting a most successful and enduring lure company which is still in business today. The earliest wooden lures (as the one pictured above) were made in his own home and called "Lemaster's Shiner Minnow" and came with smallish glass eyes (I have seen both yellow and red eyes), and in 2 differant sizes, the Shiner Minnow in 3", and a Jumbo Shiner Minnow in 4 1/2". As production grew in the early 40's he took on a partner named Phillip 'Fritz' Schriner, thus the name L&S Bait Company and from what I gather continued making wood lures until maybe 1945 at which time equipment to start producing plastics was apparently purchased, and also in this time frame Bradley, Illinois became the home base.

white opaque eye '1945 - 1950-51'

Red opaque eye '1945 - 1950-51'

Clear Eye '1951 - present'

The earliest plastic lures were still called 'Shiner Minnow' (3" long) and 'Jumbo Shiner Minnow' (4 1/2" long) and came in the early pictured blue box (pictures shown in the L&S Box link). They had what L&S collectors call opaque eyes as the two pictured above and are easily distinguished from the later clear eyes also pictured above for comparison. I have seen yellow (cream color) eyes with red and black pupils, red opaque eyes with yellow and black pupils, white opaque eyes with red and black pupils, black opaque eyes with yellow pupils (these are tough), and tan opaque eyes with red pupils (these are tough also), there may be other combinations which I am not familiar with. The earliest lips were unmarked and completely surround the belly hook as pictured below. Sometime in the late 40's the name of the Shiner Minnow was changed to "Bass-Master" and the Jumbo Shiner was changed to "Muskie-Master" both continuing with opaque eyes. The boxes made a change also from the blue pictured box to the brown and black cellophane box, the earliest ones still came with Shiner Minnow printed on them but the printing changed to BassMaster and MuskieMaster sometime before 1950.

Unmarked Shiner Lip
note lip surrounds hook

Bassmaster 250 - aluminum lip
slow sinking model

Bassmaster 150 - steel lip
Sinking Model

The model numbers of the early plastic 3" 'Shiner Minnow' and bassmasters were as follows, 'Bassmaster 150' (sinking model-steel lip), 'Bassmaster 250' (slow sinking or semi-surface with aluminum lip), and '350 Shining Shiner Minnow' (sinker or semi-surface), the 350's were the luminous colored models (I believe the 350's were early and may have come with unstamped lips only). The first stamped lips were marked with 150 and 250, and as time passed the zero at the end was omitted making it 'Bassmaster 15' (sinker) and 'Bassmaster 25' (semi-surface). The model numbers for the Jumbo Shiner (later called MuskieMaster), were 'J430' for the sinker (steel lip), 'J435' for the surface (aluminum lip), and 'JL450' for the '"Shining" Jumbo Shiner Minnow' in either surface or sinker. As time passed, I believe the numbers changed to '40' (surface) and '43' (sinker). The lips on the Jumbos were seperate from the belly hook and mounted with 2 screws (a good way to distinguish them from the smaller bass and pike sizes). In 1949 (magazine ad in boxes link) they added another 3 3/4" size called the 'PikeMaster' in which the earliest ones came with opaque eyes and had lips marked with '30' for the sinker and '35' for the floater. During this time period they also made a "Troutmaster" which was a lure made for saltwater fishing and made in 3 models, '55' (shallow runner), '60' (medium runner) and '65' (deep runner). In the early 50's there was another line of lures which collectors refer to as "Crystal Minnows", which were opaque eyed lures with a clear (transparent) body. Thanks to Dick Black (Blacky) and Tom Jacomet 'Lure Lore', a "Crystal" minnow page has been added, using pictures they have sent (what rare and beautiful minnows they are, thank you). As far as I know these 5 styles of lures are the only ones made with opaque eyes and I believe were made in 1951 or before.

The L&S Bait Company made these lures in many different colors and color combinations and it is my understanding they made alot of special order colors also, which makes for fun collecting and a fabulous display. If you have any more information or pictures that could be added to this website, please send me an e-mail. I am always interested in buying any L&S or early South Bend lures or items related to these companies. If you have anything for sale or trade, I would like to hear from you, I can be contacted at the e-mail address below.

I would like to extend a special thanks to Dick Black 'Blacky' and Chris Emerson 'Jumboshinerkid' and for the help they have given me getting started collecting L&S lures.

Philip Kiefer
NFLCC-Indiana
pkiefer@fourway.net