End of an Era

not sure how many of the IDO gang new about this

End of an Era: Uncle Josh to discontinue pork products

Mike Pehanich January 7, 2016 Highlights, Industry News 1
FORT ATKINSON, Wis. — December 2015 was a dismal month for pork futures.

That’s the view from the tackle shop counter, not the trading pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, as the former Uncle Josh Bait Company – now Hard And Soft Fishing – made official a long-brewing decision to discontinue manufacture and sale of pork baits.

Supply issues forced the decision, according to the company.

“We couldn’t get enough of the right raw product to keep up,” explained Matt Bichanich, national sales manager for the Fort Atkinson, Wis.-based tackle manufacturer. “The quality of pork fat we require for our products has been in short supply for more than five years. It got to the point where 90 percent of the pork we purchased to make product went to waste.”

Founded in 1922 by Urban Schreiner and Allen P. Jones, two anglers who had created an artificial lure to imitate the live frogs they used to catch largemouth bass on Wisconsin’s Jordan Lake, Uncle Josh became one of the most venerable names in the tackle industry. Its pork rind jig trailers, packed in brine-filled jars, brought the term “jig-and-pig” into the angler’s lexicon.

At this writing, its #11 Pork Frog remains the brand’s top-selling product.

Company owner Kurt Kellogg purchased Uncle Josh in 2002 and has directed its diversification into soft plastics, terminal tackle, ice fishing tackle, and wire baits.

The company had witnessed gradual decline in market share and pork bait popularity over the course of three decades. However, Uncle Josh sales have been on the upswing, thanks in large part to the “Meat” line of skinless pork fat baits in resealable plastic packaging.

The company, which changed its name to Hard & Soft Fishing in October 2013, will sell its remaining inventory through 2016.

“We will focus on our other product lines,” said Bichanich. “Our Kalin’s soft plastic line, Little Stinker catfish products, Beaver Dam tip-ups and Acme family of spoons are all selling well and should do even better with the added attention we can give them now.”

Other brands in the Hard and Soft Fishing stable are Atom, Bead, and Hang on Tackle.

Although I’ve never purchased a pork bait, who hasn’t spent some time looking over the jars of colorful pork rinds in the glass jars?

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Although I’ve never purchased a pork bait, who hasn’t spent some time looking over the jars of colorful pork rinds in the glass jars?

… If they put Spam in glass jars, no one would buy it.. … rrr

I really liked their newer pork crawlers. I did very well with them last year.
DT

That’s too bad. I think I only purchased one jar in my life, but like Brian said, as a youth I can remember checking the jars out as I passed down every aisle.

If I see any now, I’m going to buy a few jars. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen them. They still sell the salmon eggs?

I get a nostalgic thinking about baits like that – creek chubs, lazy ikes, dare devils, red eyes, jitterbugs, etc the ones that were popular in my youth. Thats when fishing and lures were more like magic. When a trip down to Holiday was like Christmas morning back when holiday was a grocery store AND retail store, not a gas station. Back when I would go through every fishing magazine word for word and fill out forms to mail in for catalogs and gimmicky products.

To reconnect with my youth, I’ve been thinking about getting some silver minnows and a skirts to chuck through the pads at the pond. Just like Roland Martin used to do on Okeechobee, I would watch him do it on standard definitionb tv from Minnesota. You know, before frogging and scum fishing. When willow leaf spinnerbaits were the latest “gimmick”. Now it’s harder to find a good plain old tandem Colorado blade spinnerbait than a willow.

I think you know how I feel about this now. *sigh*

Pug as a kid how hard was it to pull one of those pork things off a silver minnow? Damn near impossible. I’m laughinging at my younger self right now imagining the struggle between that hunk of pork skin and myself, maybe some pliers, possibly a knife. Oh and if you negligently left it out to dry overnight to find the next day you were tempted to throw the whole lure away.

nhamm wrote:

Oh and if you negligently left it out to dry overnight to find the next day you were tempted to throw the whole lure away.

Like some of the Gulp products of today.

Really a bummer, I switched over to their pork products just last year. They really worked well… crawler, leech especially. I hope they come back ~

Lol, as I read this I was thinking, and worse, you left in on to dry.

I do remember one chunck that had nice action because I reused it so much. Working it off with pliers I wore a big hole in it. Just kept putting it back in the jar.

nhamm wrote:

Pug as a kid how hard was it to pull one of those pork things off a silver minnow? Damn near impossible. I’m laughinging at my younger self right now imagining the struggle between that hunk of pork skin and myself, maybe some pliers, possibly a knife. Oh and if you negligently left it out to dry overnight to find the next day you were tempted to throw the whole lure away.