James Heddon's first commercially available lure was the "Dowagiac" Casting Bait. It was a white lure with a blue sloped nose and a red metal color. He received a patent for the lure on April 1, 1902. By 1905, Heddon was producing a number of different underwater minnow designs. You can tell the oldest models because they had three long flowing gill marks painted under the large glass eyes. Heddon continued to make glass-eyed wooden lures up until World War II. In the 1950's and later, plastic lures were the most common design. The first lures pictured below are all pre 1910 models. The other photos show some of the color and model variations.