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ALGONA - This is no fish tale.

Algona resident Bill Dau donated his collection of 257 lures and plugs to the Water's Edge Nature Center at Smith Lake, three miles north of Algona. Many are hand-carved.

"Kossuth Anglers: the Wonder Years" shows off these plugs and lures in lighted display cases, with photos of county fishermen on the story board. Most of the plugs and lures were given to Dau by Algona residents Loyd Wellendorf and Ralph Morgan before they died.

"Loyd's collection was of real unusual plugs," Dau said. "He fished at Rapidan, a dam near Mankato on the Minnesota River. They'd catch catfish and everything else on these plugs. Ralph's plugs were more set for lake fishing."

A section of the display offers a closeup look at Lazy Ike plugs, first carved by a Fort Dodge man named Newel Daniels and known for its lazy, wobbling action. Back in the late 1930s, while Daniels fished with one of his hand-carved plugs, he was approached by Joseph Kautzky, who asked him to make these lures for the Kautzky Sporting Goods store. From 1938 to 1940, he made the lures, until their popularity made it impossible for him to keep up.

Dau said it might be a bit suspicious that the Lazy Ike looked and acted like another plug from that day - the Lazy Dazy - but that doesn't matter now.

"Daniels carved for two years out of red and white cedar wood," Dau said. "After two years, it started getting so popular, no way he could carve enough. A friend, Pop Shuck, worked with him until they got it set up to make with lathe equipment."

By 1950, lures and plugs went plastic, Dau said. "Lazy Ike was the last wooden plug. It gave a smoother action with the wood because of the weight factor. It was the most popular plug in the 1940s."

Dau loves a good story and when he starts talking, he covers everything from his childhood love of fishing to befriending the neighborhood men who fished together and eventually took him with them.

"This all took place right during the guts of the Depression," he said. "I was maybe 15 years old. My dad's car repair shop was just a few doors down from H.W. Becker sporting goods store. Becker was the catalyst for all the fishermen. It was a gathering place by World War II, and he stocked all the favorite plugs and lures popular during the period. He was a master fisherman. The store was close enough, any slack time I'd go up and visit - there would be three or four exceptional fishermen talking about where the fish were, where they liked to go. I was exposed at a young age to some very experienced fishermen."

Often he'd travel to Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake to fish with them, learning the tricks of the trade.

"There was no limit back then," Dau said. "We caught mostly bluegills, but we got crappies and bass, too. On a fly rod, bluegills are really a sporty fish."

Dau said both Wellendorf and Morgan did hand carving, making plugs as gifts or for their own use. When the Lazy Ike curved plug came along, it took the fancy of the whole industry. "They were looking for the magic plug, the one that was going to catch a fish every time."

The Water's Edge exhibit has been two years in the making.

"I promised Loyd when he gave me these plugs if there was a chance to display them so other people can see them, I'd do it," said the 80-year-old Dau. "In not too many more years, I won't be able to do this. I've been looking for a place to display them because they're not going to do anyone any good in a cigar box."

But at Water's Edge, these lures bring history to life and the fishermen on the story board look as happy today as when they caught their fish so many years ago.

Contact Sandy Mickelson at (515) 573-2141 or smickelson@messengernews.net