TODAY’S TRADEMARK – FLASHGLO
The YAKIMA BAIT CO. filed for trademark with the USPTO on November 27, 1973 and was assigned registration number 973883. Their mark was first used in 1965.
Worden’s Floating Spinner Company, established by R.B. Worden in 1934, was renamed Yakima Bait Company in 1941. The company sold wooden plugs with deer hair wings for two and three inches of bass and handmade fishing flies.
R.B.’s son Howard joined the business in the late 1940s and started creating his own lures. He constructed a weighted spinner known as the “Retreat Special” one summer while on a trip to California. It featured a willow leaf blade and a hackle tail. However, Howard thought the new spinner deserved a more fitting moniker. The summer he started referring to his new spinner as “The Rooster Tail,” inspired by the hydroplane races in Seattle.
Yakima Bait Company acquired a number of businesses in the ensuing years and brought a number of cutting-edge goods to their line. These included the Hawg Boss lure in 1986, the Helin FlatFish Company in 1988, Schoff’s Triple Teazer in 1993, Poe’s in 1994, Hildebrandt lures in 2006, Lee Sisson in 2007, Mag Lip in 2010, and Big Al’s Fish Flash in 2011.
Currently, they are among the world’s leading producers of fishing lures, selling their goods under the Hildebrandt, Worden, and Poe brands. The same values that founded Yakima Bait Company in its early years still guide the company today.