- Brecks Inc. (819) 563-2115 www.williams.ca
In 1896, an unexpected discovery in the Yukon Territories of northwest Canada sent a bolt of excitement through the North American continent. Gold had been struck! By the turn of the century, tens of thousands of lives would be changed and the remote mountain region irreversibly transformed.
Word spread slowly at first. But the poor, recessed economy combined with sensationalized media accounts of the event and made a combustible combination that would gain the momentum of a high plains buffalo stampede. Over the next several years, thousands of would-be fortune seekers traversed over land and sea across the continent. The determined battle cry “Yukon ho!” echoed across the land.
These frenzied masses spent months making the perilous journey to Skagway, Alaska, where they faced the most arduous leg of the journey: the final 600 mile endurance march on the Chilcoot or White Pass Trail. Many travelers gave up on those Yukon Mountain trails, others lost their lives. Shallow graves, marked and unmarked, line the passages between Skagway and Dawson City. To be caught in winter without proper supplies was a death sentence. Worst of all, very few would actually strike it rich.
Among the early Yukon stampeders was a young mining engineer from Goldenville, Nova Scotia by the name of A.D. Williams. After staking his claim, he enlisted several of his brothers to help extract the precious metals from the earth. The Williams brothers rendezvoused at Nanaimo, British Columbia and made the trek north to seek their fortune. Over the next few years, they became one of the rare success stories of the time, earning a modest fortune in gold.
After several years working the claim, the Williams brothers started trickling their way back east. In 1907, A.D. Williams resettled in Kansas City, Missouri, where he used the profits from his mining efforts to establish a gold refinery business. In 1912, A.D. relocated his business to Buffalo, New York under the name Williams Gold Refinery Company. A few years later, his brother Malcolm, who established his own company across the border in Fort Erie, Ontario, joined businesses with A.D.
Avid anglers both, the Williams brothers liked to do a little tinkering at the plant. They started experimenting with metal lure designs, making different odd shapes, sizes, and finishes. Around 1916 they came up with the patented Williams Wabler design.
“The brothers used to take some of their clients fishing in Dorset, Ontario, which was a very well-known area for lake trout,” said Mark Stiffel, vice president of marketing for Brecks Inc., makers of Williams lures. “Being anglers and being in the gold and silver refining business, they were hammering out their own lures and plating them in their own operation.”
For the Williams brothers, it was just a little side hobby, but the lures worked so well that word began to spread.
“They started handing them out in the area,” said Stiffel. “And then word of mouth got out that the Williams lures were catching fish and the Williams brothers were making them.” At the time, no one really knew why they worked so well, they just knew that they caught fish better than anything else available at the time. Being businessmen as well as anglers, the next course of action was clear, and the fishing tackle division of Williams Company was born.
“In 1920 they started official, limited production at the Buffalo plant,” said Stiffel. “The Wabler W50 was the original Williams lure. It was the same size and shape (½ ounce, 2 5/8 inches long) as it is today, and is still the most popular.”
In 1925, Malcolm’s son Lloyd Cameron (Bud) Williams entered the business. He developed the next series in the Williams line and ran the company until he retired in 1980. Over those many decades, the Williams Wabler grew in both popularity and customer loyalty. Williams advertised in print magazines and kept up good relations with outdoor publications, personalities, and organizations. They also sponsored a number of fishing tournaments, which served dual promotional purposes.
“Williams was making the [NHL] Stanley Cup rings. And one of their promotions that they would use for the Great Lakes tournament was that you could get a Williams ‘Circle of Champions’ ring. It was made in the same form and shape as the Stanley Cup rings.” These highly coveted rings were awarded to the winners of the tournament – gold for first place, and silver for second and third. Yet, despite the lure’s success, the fishing tackle division of Williams remained very, very small in comparison to their core business in dental and precious metal refining.
“The lure business was just sort of a hobby and a passion, and they both loved to fish,” Stiffel explained. “So they continued to manage it. But they didn’t give it the attention it deserved. And sort of in spite of itself, it still became one of Canada’s most popular spoons.”
Williams Lures were manufactured in both plants on each side of the border until 1978, when the entire fishing tackle division was transferred to the Fort Erie, Ontario facility. Upon the deaths of Malcolm and A.D., their sons inherited the business and continued the family tradition until 1986, when they sold the company to Brush-Wellman. Three years later, Brecks Inc. acquired the fishing tackle division of Williams and the rights to Williams lures. Brecks continues to produce all the Williams brand lures in their manufacturing facilities in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
The classic Williams Wabler is available in 7 sizes, ranging from 1/16 ounce (1 inch) to 1 ounce (4 inches), and comes in 23 finishes and combinations, including silver, gold, copper, and a variety of painted and hammered surfaces. The Wabler is also available in a “Wabler Lite” series designed for shallow-water trolling. Brecks also carries several classic lure designs under the Williams brand including the Whitefish, Trophy Spoon and Quick Silver. The newest Williams brand designs for 2012 include the Yukon, a wide-bodied casting spoon, and the Nipigon, a multi-speed trolling spoon.
The Williams Wabler is stamped from premium polished brass and plated with genuine silver and/or 24 karat gold. It is then finished with a baked-on clear coat. What they didn’t know back in 1920 is that the precious metal plating is one of the primary reasons for the lure’s fish-catching success. Genuine silver is one of the most reflective natural metals known to man.
“If you take a silver lure at 35 feet, it’s still flashing white,” Stiffel explained, “whereas a nickel or chrome lure, as soon as you get 6 or 7 feet down in the water column, it starts to have a grey cast. By 10 or 15 feet, there is very little reflection at all.”
The Wabler is a versatile spoon that works well at a wide range of speeds, thanks to its shape and patented stabilizing ridge. “The little ridge that’s down the middle of the lure, that actually prevents the lure from rotating,” explained Stiffel. “It has just enough drag in the water that it keeps the spoon from spinning. It just kicks back and forth.” This feature was considered so original at the time that Williams was granted a U.S. and Canadian patent, one of the few patents ever issued for a fishing spoon.
The Williams Wabler is effective on a wide range of freshwater and saltwater game fish, including trout, salmon, pike and many others. Popular methods for fishing it include trolling and casting and retrieving. In addition, the Wabler can be used to great effect as a fish-attracting flasher when trolling lures, streamers or bait. The Wabler is also popular among ice fishermen. It can be used as a jigging spoon or as an attractor tied on the line of a tip-up above live bait.
“One of the reasons that they are so effective through the ice is because of the genuine silver and gold finishes,” stated Stiffel. “Ice fishing is an absolute perfect example of a low light condition.”
In 2016, the Williams Wabler will be celebrating its 100th anniversary, an amazing accomplishment for any product, much less a fishing lure. With a countless assortment of fishing products to choose from in today’s marketplace, the Williams Wabler is proof positive of the staying power that a seemingly simple invention can have when designed and manufactured with quality, pride and the best of intentions.
trying to locate someone online who sells a complete line of Williams lures would appreciate your help thank you
The current manufacturer is Breck’s in Sherbrook, Quebec. The are also the mfg. of Mepp’s spinners amongst others.
Where are you located. I was the General Manager of Williams in Canada.
Hi Bob I just read your message eight years later. I have some of the William’s warblers..never used. Your message was eight years ago but still I thought to reach out before I sell them all of what I have.
Please let me know ASAP.
This was my Grandfather’s family’s company. My sister and I would go fishing with him in Canada as children and we would always use a Williams Wabler lure. What great times we had! He is now living in Sarasota, Florida.
Hi Kelly
My husband’s maternal line is the Camerons and Sarah Jane Cameron married John Scott Williams who I understand are the parents of Malcolm Cameron Williams. I would love to chat with you for any info you might have on this branch of the family. My husband’s grandmother was Edith Maxwell Cameron – daughter of Malcolm Cameron who is a brother to Sarah Jane Cameron and the mother of Malcolm Cameron Williams.
Hoping to hear from you
Betty, I am J. Scott Williams, named after my great great grandfather John Scott Williams you mentioned that was married to Sarah Cameron. There is a Williams family tree out there somewhere that goes back to Zephaniah Williams during the American revolutionary war. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of it, but I am sure one of my cousins does. I can tell you that John and Sarah had AD and Malcom. AD had Reginald and Jack, who died childless in his 30’s. Reginald had Georgia, Donna, John A (my father), and Vic. Each of them had kids, and now they have great grand kids. I do have a very cool picture of John Scott Williams standing in front of the Yukon claim with a gold pan on his hip and with his son Malcom in the background. Unfortunately I am not able to paste a copy into this reply.
That was a great read. My father won a Williams championship ring back in the late 80’s. I still have it to this day
Does anyone know if there was a J.A. Williams? My father has a steel line fishing pole that he was given when he was working in Algonquin Park in the 1950’s. This was at a time when my dad was doing creel census on Dickson Lake. It was also a time when government people still had permission to fly into the park. From what I understand my dad was given the pole by a Mr. Williams who was in Lake Dickson fishing with the minister of natural Resources and trying out new lures. The reel has the initials JAW etched on it!
John Alexander – a couple of them…
Dickson in Algonquin Park would make sense – it’s not far from Kawagama / Slipper house
My Uncle, with whom my family lived on Shirley Ave. in Buffalo, worked for Reggie and then John and Vic Williams at the Williams Gold Refinery. His name was Frank C. Gareis. He worked for Williams for over 65 years. He started when the business was in downtown Buffalo as a mail runner, wearing out a pair of shoes per month and wound up Secretary of the Corporation upon his retirement. He only had a 5th grade education because he and his brothers had to leave school to work to support their family when his father died at 45 yrs. of age………..Uncle Frank would bring home samples of Williams Wablers for my father who loved fishing. Many a yellow pike in Lake Erie lost the battle with his wablers. Northern pike in the weed beds of Georgian Bay also suffered the same fate………..Uncle Frank was a confirmed bachelor who’s whole life revolved around Williams. He worked from 8:00-5:00 daily, was on call lover the weekends if the trains that passed next door to Williams set off the alarms. He would go there on Sundays for a few hours to catch up. Sometimes he’d take me and my sister with him to see the plant and from time to time get a chance to hold a brick of gold from the safe if he had to check on things in the safe. He was there in the evenings sometimes for the UB dental students who came to Williams for classes in dental metals, wires for braces, etc..Frank communicated with Williams customers on yellow pad in beautiful fancy handwriting. All the customers wanted to deal with Frank…..Every Christmas I’d go with him to deliver special German Christmas cookies to Reggie’s wife who lived in a big beautiful house near Delaware Lake………….Frank was part of the Williams family…..In the day, when he retired there was an annual holiday given workers in Frank’s name. He had his portrait hanging in the building……Whenever I hear the words “Williams Wabler”, all these stories pop up in my mind.
So does anyone have company catalogs? We love fishing with what was called a Giant Flasher that hasn’t been made for years. The box says made in Fort Erie. We buy them on ebay from time to time. I also just bought a Williams Sure Lure and intend to use it for lake trout. Not sure when it was made but it is a great looking lure. The Sure Lure box is labeled Buffalo N.Y.