Info for the above post came from "The Fred Arbogast Story", by Scott Heston.

The pics below are of various 1/4 oz. Spinning * Casting versions...

The pic below is a No. 2 without the Weed Guard...

No. 3 Hawaiian Wiggler

Fred Arbogast's No. 3 Hawaiian Wiggler was fashioned much like the Johnson's Silver Minnow. The single upturned hook and wire weed guard allowed this lure to wiggle through some of the thickest weeds.



Its wobbling action and flowing skirt made it irresistible to bass and pike. This lure came in two sizes, 5/8 oz. and 1/4 oz., and in a variety of colors.

Took over 5 minutes just to post this   

Here's a website I just ran across by a guy in Minnesota who collects...

http://www.retiredlures.com/index.html

He has a special section on lures & companies just from Minnesota..

http://www.retiredlures.com/Minnesota_Lures.html

Very nice site, Bro!

Here's a very decent article by Tom Jacomet (Lure Lore) about care & cleaning of collectibles...

http://www.lurelore.com/care.html

I picked up this 2602 the other day

Mo, the "best guess" for dating your jointed jitterbug is 1961 to 1997. That would mean the "hook hangers" are of the 7th generation.

I am just about ready to post-up the Jitterbug Story!

Arbogast Jitterbug

This is probably Fred Arbogast's most famous lure. Richard Kotis, when he was president of the Arbogast Company, believed that more kids caught their first big bass on a Jitterbug than on any other lure. Whether this is true or not, the Jitterbug has had quite a run. It was patented on July 9, 1940, but entered production a couple of years earlier.

The "regular size" Jitterbug was first cataloged in 1939, with a length of 2 3/4" and a weight of 5/8 oz. This top water lure came in six cataloged colors originally, but was ultimately offered in several cataloged colors and uncataloged colors. In late 1942 or early 1943 they switched from wood to a plastic body.

The "peanut size" Jitterbug was also introduced in 1940, with a length of 2 1/3" and a weight of 3/8 oz. It came in the same colors as the "regular size". Some time in 1947 or 1948 they switched from wood to a plastic body.

The "Musky Size" Jitterbug was introduced in 1940, with a length of 4 1/2" and a weight of 1 1/2 oz. It came in Red & White, Black & Silver Scale and Perch. The original two-hook model had disappeared from catalogs in 1942. The "Musky Size" Jitterbug was reintroduced in 1947 with three hooks.

There are and were many other series of Jitterbugs offered in various styles and sizes. Most are still being produced today.

During WWII metal was needed for the war effort, so metal for things like fishing lures was hard to come by. Fred Arbogast replaced the metal lip with a plastic one. The lips were made in four colors, red, yellow, white and black. This lip was lighter, and the lure did not have the same action. The lure bodies were soon changed to plastic, which helped some. These were only made from 1942 to 1945. As soon as the war ended, the company went back to using metal lips.


This Jitterbug is in the "Green Scale" pattern. The eye color (yellow) seems indicates this lure was made between 1945 and 1949


But the Hook Hangers (1942 to 1946) and the plastic lip seem to place this lures "born date" at 1945, before the reintroduction of the metal lip.

I am going to post up more Jitterbugs and attempt to date them in future posts. Please feel free to add to this post as I am pretty much learning about this famous lure myself!

The info for the above post came from: "The Fred Arbogast Story" by Scott Heston and the TackleCollecting.com website.

The hook hangers for the above lure are of the forth generation...

The pics below are of various shades of Green Scale. Also noted are the hook hanger generations..

This Jitterbug is also a forth generation hanger.



This next one is using a seventh generation style hanger (1947? - current)...


These last two are using a sixth generation style hanger (1943 - 1946)...


Notice the difference in color shade as well as how pronounced the scales are. If you have several color patterns that are the same, take a closer look. You'll be suprised at what you will discover!
Information for this post came from, tacklecollecting.com

The best info that I currently have for hookhangers is as follows:

First Style Hookhangers = 1939 - 1941
Second Style Hookhangers = 1941 - 1948?
Plastic Lip = 1942 - 1945
Third Style Hookhangers = 1942 - 1946
Forth Style Hookhangers = 1942 - 1946
Fifth Style Hookhangers = 1942 - 1946
Sixth Style Hookhangers = 1943 - 1946
Seventh Style Hookhangers = 1947? - current

It appears that 1942 to 1946 are years that this company made many changes to the hangers, so attempting to "age" your lure simply by the Hookhanger is just about impossible (IMHO)! This info was taken from the tacklecollecting.com website.

The white with blue head Jitterbug is considered one of the toughest colors to find. This lure is highly sought by color collectors. In the 1990s a new blue and white Jitterbug was released, but the head of this lure is a little lighter shade of blue.

Cedar Jitterbug
Even though Fred Arbogast left his job with Goodyear in 1926 to be able to make his lures full time, the company has picked 1930 as it's official "start date". In 1980, to commemorate 50 years of business, the company offered a limited edition Cedar Jitterbug. This lure was packaged in a special wood-grained cardboard box. That year, Fred Arbogast's customers were allowed a limited number of Cedar Jitterbugs, based on the sizes of their orders. Limiting the number of lures a customer could purchase had the desired effect. Most customers took all of the Cedar Jitterbugs they were allowed, and the lures quickly sold out. These collector's edition lures were offered in the musky size as well as the original bass size. Today these lures are hard to find and are prized by collectors. This info was provided by, The Fred Arbogast Story by Scott Heston.

I'm glad you reposted info about the hangers...as I am NOT comfortable with the phrase "generation" concerning them. It's leads a person to believe that they came in a "sequence"...which they didn't. You can tell this by seeing how many were in use over the 1942-1946 period. JMHO

I thought I would post some of my Musky size Jitterbugs, ones I keep in my tackle box...


And these are some more of my collectable Jitterbugs...


Finally, this is the newest member to my Creek Chub Concave Belly Darter, 8038...

These Musky size Jitterbugs are older than the ones shown in the post above and are made of wood.




The hangers shown in the pic below are of the seventh style hangers (1947 - ?).


Look at the side hook hangers on the ones posted in my last post above, those are the newer ones and I believe they are plastic (lure body).

Cool stuff turnip! I love Musky 'bugs...

Here's a relatively new website I ran across a couple of days ago.

He's a collector in Japan...but if you look down through what he has you will see he collects lures from around the world.

http://worldlurecatalog.blogspot.com/