<Previous—–Lure of the Month—–Next>

The Mooselook Wobbler

Brecks Inc.
2560 Roy St
Sherbrooke, Quebec Canada J1K1C1
(819) 563-2115
www.Mooselook.ca

By John D. Silva

Take a leisurely drive up Route 4 in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine, and you will soon find yourself on the eastern shoreline of Mooselookmeguntic Lake, one of the largest lakes in Maine and the namesake of the original New England classic lure: The Mooselook Wobbler.

Back in the 1930s, a resourceful Maine angler by the name of John A. Selinki decided to try his hand at creating a new imitation smelt lure that would help him consistently catch more and bigger fish. His primary goal was to try to mimic the size, slender profile, and erratic swimming action of the native smelt species living in his favorite fishing locale, Mooselookmeguntic Lake in southwest Maine.

“He loved to fish, and so did his wife,” said Mark Stiffel, vice president of marketing for Brecks Inc., makers of the Mooselook Wobbler. “They would fool around, cutting different types of metal, and eventually they came up with the Mooselook design.” Once a workable prototype was developed, Selinki and his wife Ann tested the new designs within the confines of the lake. Ultimately, the shape they settled on may have seemed basic, but it was highly effective.

Selinki felt he really had something special with his new smelt-imitation-style lure, something worth pursuing. He was an insurance salesman by trade, and the presence of another Selinki in the area, who also sold insurance, had a tendency to confuse matters. So John A. Selinki changed his name to Greene, and in 1938 he formed the J.A. Greene Company to manufacture and market the Mooselook Wobbler. As the popularity of the Mooselook spread, different colors and sizes were introduced, including the Junior (still available today), and an extra large version called the “JAG,” an acronym for J.A. Greene, which is no longer manufactured.

John and his wife Ann ran the business together for the next 20 years. In that time, the popularity of the Mooselook continued to spread throughout the Northeast, thanks mostly to word-of-mouth testimonials among hard-core trout and salmon anglers. In 1958, John experienced a heart attack. With his health failing, Ann assumed full control of the operation.

“Back in the [nineteen] thirties, women weren’t nearly as involved as they are today in fishing tackle or the fishing business,” Stiffel explained. “But Annie, his wife, was an avid angler, and she wound up with the company and kept it going rather than just divesting herself of it. You know, she just loved fishing.” To help keep the company afloat, John’s half brother, Mike Yerka started working part time in the business. When John finally passed away in 1960, Mike and his brother Joe Yerka began overseeing the business operation full time. Once Ann passed away two years later, the business was willed to the Yerka brothers, who continued the proud Maine tradition.

The Yerka brothers continued to run the business together until 1995, when Joe passed away. For the next several years, Mike and his wife kept the family business going. Then, in 2002, the J.A. Greene Company was purchased by Brecks Inc. of Quebec, Canada, along with the rights to the Mooselook Wobbler. “At that point,” Stiffel recalled, “Mike was well into his eighties. He was living with his wife, and he was sort of having [the lure] stamped in one place, having it painted in another, plated in another, and his daughter was helping him with the packaging, and it was getting to be beyond what he could manage.”

Upon acquiring the company, Brecks promised to maintain the highest level of quality and tradition. No one involved in the transaction wanted the original Maine classic to become just another faceless, indistinctive piece in the industry. “When we acquired Mooselook, one of the things we wanted to do with it was rejuvenate it,” Stiffel explained. “It was the classic New England—especially Maine—lure. But it hadn’t been touched in terms of packaging or finishes in years. So that’s why we decided to make some changes.”

Brecks was not a newcomer to the industry. The company had previous success with assembly and packaging operations in the Canadian market for time-proven lures, such as the Mepps Spinner and Mister Twister soft-plastic baits. Brecks also handled the manufacturing and marketing of the Williams Company classic lineup of lures, including the Williams Wabler, Whitefish, and Quick Silver. “We assured Mike that we would maintain the Mooselook brand,” said Stiffel.

In keeping with their promise, Brecks expanded and improved the Mooselook designs, using genuine, highly reflective silver and 24-karat gold finishes. Applying these trademark Williams finishes on the Wobbler increased the reflective properties of the lure for maximum visibility at all depths where light can penetrate. “Manufacturers and anglers often mistakenly refer to brass and nickel as silver and gold,” Stiffel pointed out. “Although at first glance they appear to look the same, the similarity ends there. Genuine silver and 24-karat gold reflect all available light farther and deeper than other finishes, period. [Conversely], a nickel finish will begin to reflect a dark cast in as little as one foot of water as the light is filtered out. The deeper you go or the more stained or silted the water, the less light travels through it.” As long as there is any available light, silver will reflect the white bands just like the side of a baitfish. For those who still preferred the old, traditional lure finishes, Brecks continued to offer the customary chrome and copper models of the original Wobblers. “It was maintained for the traditional Maine trout fishery. They still wanted a subdued flash on that, and that’s the only exception in all of the Williams and Mooselook series,” said Stiffel.

Today, the classic Mooselook Wobbler comes in five sizes ranging from 1½ inches (1/15 ounce) to 3 7/8 inches (3/8 ounce). It is available in 19 different colors and combinations, with smooth or hammered finishes, including fluorescent orange, rainbow, chartreuse/black, gold, and copper just to name a few. The newest model is an ultralight, ultra-thin Mooselook called the Thinfish, which is designed for controlled-depth trolling. The Thinfish is 3 inches long, weighs 1/8 ounce, and comes in seven color combinations. Mooselook Wobblers are packaged and sold individually, or may be found in versatile 4-pack multi-kits. New for the 2011 fishing season, redesigned packaging, improved finishes, and several new unique lure colors are being introduced for the first time, including Orange Candy, Emerald Shiner, Wonderbread, Candy Apple Green, and Candy Grape Purple.

The Mooselook Wobbler has always, traditionally been considered a trolling lure. As such, it works well right out of the package or can be adjusted for a more precise action. “Most anglers, especially the experienced anglers, with those styles of baits – the Mooselook style – they tune them,” said Stiffel. “What you’ll do is you bend the tail section down. So you bend it down five degrees, eight degrees – just enough to change the action – and pull it beside the boat. Basically what you’ll do is pick a trolling speed and tweak it or tune it. Throw it in the water and have a look at it and see what the action is.” The more the tail end is bent inward, increasing the curvature, the more exaggerated and erratic the action will be.

Among effective techniques used with the Mooselook, Stiffel said his personal favorite is trolling them on a sinking fly line during springtime. “The favorite size in Maine is the junior, which is one-sixth of an ounce. But the smaller sizes we have introduced since, the Pee-wee’s and the Midgets, those work beautifully on the end of a fly line.” It can also be used to great effect behind a flasher or a dodger. When used under the right conditions, Mooselooks can be also effective when vertical jigging, such as when ice fishing. The most effective sizes for jigging are the pee-wee and midget sizes. Optimal conditions for jigging the Mooselook include calm water and shallow depths, from 10 to about 30 feet.

Mooselook Wobblers, as with Brecks’ entire lineup of fishing lures, all are 100% manufactured in North America. No aspect of the lure’s construction is performed overseas. Yet despite the manufacturing move to Canada, the Mooselook is still widely considered an original Maine icon. Fortunately for those still enjoying the lure’s success today, some 70-plus years after its inception, Mr. J.A. (Selinki) Greene saw it fit to spare us the linguistic torture of naming his legendary classic lure the Mooselookmeguntic Wobbler!