p>By Doug Bucha
Paw Paw Bait Company
In 1924, Clyde Sinclair and Floyd Phelps purchased the Moonlight Bait Company and changed its name to the Paw Paw Bait Company of Paw Paw , Mich. four years later.
Moonlight was a lure manufacturer from the early 1900s until 1924 and manufactured many lures, which are now called Classics, by lure collectors. The Moonlight Company got its name from the fact that the first lures that it made were designed for night fishing. They even glowed in the dark.
Over the years, Paw Paw would expand their catalog of offerings to include items such as ice spearing decoys and duck decoys. All are highly prized by collectors.
Paw Paw sold to the Shakespeare Tackle Company of Kalamazoo in the early 1970s and a few years later, Shakespeare sold to the Creek Chub Bait Company of Garrett, Indiana.
If you have any questions or need help with the identification of Paw Paw lures or for that matter any other lures, please feel free to contact me at dbucha@att.net