I have suffered from writer’s block for almost 2 years and have somewhat recovered. Also, being a fountain of useless information, I have decided to write an article for GRN.

For the last 100 years, fishermen have been searching for the magic lure that fish can’t resist. Many of us can remember the ads in the national magazines that read like; after years of research, some of it even underwater observation, fish could not resist the Super Vivif with the swimming tail. Ads showing impressive catches of bass were common. Also, ads claiming guarantees to catch nearly every bass or large muskie in any body of water or claiming to being banned from use in some states or national parks!

Some lure companies made some good fish catching lures that gathered a large following of anglers.Companies like Creek Chub Bait Co., Heddon, South Bend and Fred Arbocast made some high-quality lures that caught many fish under the right conditions.

By the 60’s and 70’s, useful fishing information was available through magazines and TV. Anglers practiced this and found that, fishing where the fish live, many lures were close to magic.

In the 60’s, the original Rapala came very close to fulfilling the quest for the magic lure and, in the 70’s, the Mister Twister gave a good showing. Both of these lures were bombarded by knockoffs from other lure manufacturers, usually lower priced and decent quality.

For myself and many other anglers, the close to magic lure was the Helin Flatfish. In 1955, a local game warden who was also a family friend caught an impressive walleye from one of our rental boats, using an orange U-20 Flatfish. That memory was burned into my brain. The fish was 36” and weighed 18+ pounds on our non-certified scale. About that time, I’d have traded my younger brother and all my baseball cards for that orange u-20. The following year I had saved enough cash to get my first Flatfish. My father took me to a sport shop in Batavia and I bought an orange U-20 and a yellow T-4 flatfish. I still have that U-20.

Helin Tackle, based in Detroit, made other lures like the Swimerspoon and a topwater call the Fishcake. Neither of these lures came close to the popularity of the Flatfish. The Flatfish was an invention by Charles Helin a larger-than-life character with a knack for not letting work interfere with his fishing and had a penchant for making his own lures. Helin received a patent for Flatfish in 1934.

He had relatives and friends involved in the production of Flatfish so at first, they were handmade. The lure caught fish and fishermen and by 1949, over 5 million were sold. By 1970, over 40 million Flatfish had been sold. Flatfish are most likely one of the top selling lures of all time. They are not high on tackle collectors list because of the sheer numbers made. The first Flatfish were wood but were switched to plastic as that material became more available.

The first Flatfish were made with a spreader bar that had two small hooks on it. The theory was that the smaller hooks would penetrate the fish’s mouth and it was considered more sporting to fish smaller hooks and fight fish longer. I’ve said in past articles that “A fisherman and his money are soon parted.” Well, Charles Helin was a master at this. There were 21 sizes of Flatfish from 1” to 7” and countless color combinations. The orange and yellow combinations were probably the most popular, there was also a rather appealing frog color.

Other lure makers soon had some version of the Flatfish or an imitation lure that was sometimes referred to as banana plug. Many of the imitations were low quality and much lower priced. A lure made in Canada came out in the 70’s called Quickfish that gave Flatfish some real competition. Quickfish was a quality lure with many more color combinations. Quickfish became a mainstay for salmon, steelhead and lake trout on the Niagara River because of the lower price and the fluorescent colors. Helin carried on and held up to all competition.

Charles Helin passed away in 1979. It’s presumed the family lost interest and in 1989, Helin Tackle was sold to Yakima Bait Co. Yakima Bait still makes Flatfish and they’re readily available at many tackle outlets. Locally, Flatfish Fly Rod series were popular with ultra-lite anglers and were very good for pan fish and smallmouth bass. I found these F-series to work well on steelhead and brown trout on Lake Ontario tribs. Silver or gold in the larger sizes worked well on pike or largemouth bass. Larger sizes would float and could be used as a surface lure. Flatfish also came in a surface model that had swimming action but would not dive.

The original spreader bar would tangle when cast so that one out of three or four casts was useless. Flatfish had a limitation or retrieval speed and if too fast, they rolled over and came to the surface. The smaller the Flatfish, the slower the retrieval was needed. The throbbing swimming action always let the angler know his Flatfish was working properly. On the Finger Lakes, trout anglers shaved the bill of a Flatfish to give it a more erratic action.

With the introduction of salmon and trout in the Great Lakes, the Flatfish found a new use. They worked well for fishing stream and river-mouths and also worked for either casting or trolling when the salmon moved into the tribs. Silver Flatfish worked well in muddy or dirty water.

If it is a predator, it most likely can be caught on a Flatfish. I’ll bet most NYSCC members have a few Flatfish or imitations. Me, I probably have close to 500, a drop in the bucket to the likely 100+ million sold.