Many Florida-based collectors challenge the belief that Heddon had anything to do with its creation. They feel the first offering of a topwater walking lure was through Grover Cox — a sporting goods dealer in Tampa, Florida — around 1918. And I agreed with that assumption … until recently. Now I’m not so sure.
Searching for the truth
For the Florida faction, the story begins with Cox as a young North Carolinian who moved to Tampa, Florida to seek his fortune. Cox began his business venture in 1910, in bicycle sales, then gradually added a wide range of sporting goods to his catalog offerings — part of which included fishing tackle.
In 1916, he introduced the first of his “Tampa Minnows” — a fat-bodied wooden bait with fluted sides. His second offering appeared in a 1918 advertisement and was similar to the first, but featured a short, metal diving lip. Both lures were nearly identical in design to the Wilson Fluted Wobbler and Flanged Wobbler, wooden lures offered earlier by Wilson Sporting Goods Works of Hasting, Michigan. And that’s important to note.
Cox’s third offering was much different. Its design mirrors that of the earliest Heddon Zaragossas, and features what collectors refer to as the “no chin” body style — a design feature presumably intended to reduce drag during side-to-side movement of the lure.
Although Cox had number designations and names for his lures (including the Fish Hawk and Basdex), it’s unclear as to which was which. None of the early advertisements offer any distinction other than size or color variance. Some collectors believe the Basdex to be Cox’s walking bait, but there has been no clear proof to support that notion.
Among the few surviving images of Grover Cox is one of him with a man named King, crouching behind a large pile of freshly caught snook. What’s remarkable about this photo is that it is the only known photographic evidence of a Tampa (walking-style) Minnow. Or is it? Some contend that the lure in the photo is a no-chin Heddon Zaragossa.
If you look closely, you’ll see the lure suspended from a rod tip, over the pile of snook at his feet. What’s even more amazing is that the lure is shown in profile, displaying the “no chin” characteristic. While it’s known that Cox was selling his Tampa Minnows prior to 1920, there is no clear proof the no-chin model was among them.
In Bob Waterman’s book, Fishing for Florida’s Black Bass (1959), the author credits Robert King as being “the designer of the bait.” But was this the same King appearing in the photograph with Cox?
The plot thickens
In an article written by Jasper Hutto, featured in The Charlotte Observer in May 1922, there’s a quote by R.B. King reacting to a report of an 18-pound bass caught in Florida (see the clipping below).
King says, “And the thing about it that makes me proud is the fact that that black bass was caught on one of my own minnows, the Zaragossa…. I am rather proud of that Zaragossa, especially as it is of my own design.”
What’s even more revealing is that the writer refers to R.B. King as a “traveling representative of James Heddon’s Sons of Dowagiac, Mich.”
With the help of fellow collector, Colby Sorrells, I learned this was Roswell Bayard King of Pensacola, Florida — not Robert King. And that the name “Zaragossa” came from a street in Pensacola — once a red light district where the ladies sashayed along the street.