Yep: I laid down the big bucks on this Okie Salesman Sample Card, but I figured they won't be making anymore of these displays anytime soon. It will be a nice fit in the Mini Museum that I am putting together of Vintage Northwest Fishing related items. I am thinking of posting a virtue Museum of my collection on my web site for all to enjoy.
Pacific Northwest Fishing Golden Years
It would be nice to share my collection with anyone else who enjoys vintage fishing tackle.

Cool site, thanks for sharing. Have mostly orange & translucent ones.

Have you seen this one? Cool book for winter steel, showing all the holes etc.

I'm not sure if I have seen that map in particular but there were several of river maps printed. The main one that I have in my collection is called "Washington Steelheaders Manual" put out by Gordie Frear (he also was the Editor of the Ben Paris fishing guide from the 50's to the 60's). I have some other River maps that were given away at the local Union 76 gas stations.

Washington Steelheaders' Manual

Wow.....Ben Paris.........I remember the place in Seattle, late 40's, that had live fish....and then had a place where a person, that caught a big fish, could display it.

All gone now, as are all the Seattle fishing stores.......time marches on!!!!

ramrodcf.......I'm a old Redmond boy, went to junior high there, no local High School then, had to go to Lake Washington.

Lived right at the beginning of Avondale Road......fished Bear Creek, lot's........and North end of Lake Sammish....1953 and on....

Back in the day all the Sporting Goods shops in the Seattle area would display nice catches and they would even list them in the newspaper so you could decide what fish you wanted to view.
Speaking of nice fish to view, did you get a chance to see the Big King hanging on the Ben Paris wall downstairs ?
It was the 126 1/2 lb world record holder, I wonder whatever happened to that mount.
I know that it would go for over $65 on it at ebay as well, trust me on that.

Its pretty cool hearing about how things were back in the day. I wonder what I will tell my grandkids when they come up in age..

I've seen the clown pattern with a huge glob of eggs do work on a platinum hen.

Already has...

[img]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac180/Audball0770/OkieSaga.jpg?t=1355960094[/img]

[img]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac180/Audball0770/OkieProud.jpg?t=1355960094[/img]

[img]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac180/Audball0770/MakingofOkie.jpg?t=1355960093[/img]

I still have quite a few okies (don't know why). I caught my first steelhead on a pink pearl with green and orange yarn below it in 1969 when I got out of the Army. Caught it on the Cowlitz below the trout hatchery. Nothing magic about that okie. In those days you could catch steelhead in the Cowlitz on anything.

Cool sight ramrod.

I have to ask, what makes Okie's so special other than their nostalgic value? Is it the ease of use or the actual success they have? Every once in a while I find a gooey bob or okie in the river, but only use it as a last resort because it looks so silly (of course so do buzz bombs).

Due to the shape of the okie it wiggles in the water. This wiggling is erratic and seems to trigger bites from steelhead. It's a combination of the visual, looking like eggs, and the erratic movement that makes them effective.
The nostalgic side of them is undoubtedly what has been driving the retail value of them in recent years.
I still use okies to fish with, but only the foam ones, or old beat up originals that I have repainted. Repainted okies can be very effective, but have little retail value.

One of the few items I've seen whip ass on a bait of eggs in the winter from time to time....

Okie with a pinch of yarn over the top, tough to beat on fish that are worked over....

Keith

Yea, what I remember about Ben Paris was the billiard hall. Huge tables with sharks looking for easy marks like myself. Also remember the Warshalls sporting good store downtown, and if you still had any money leftover you could go down to Pike Place to view some 25 cent vids.

Old Nate, let us not forget the Eddie Bauer store before it went Yuppified, or Fredrick & Nelsons and the Bon Marche Sport shops as well as Tashiro's Hardware which was mowed down when they built the Kingdome.
How many quarters did you feed those video machines down there at Lewd's......... I mean Lew's Arcade........
I bet you didn't go to the Garden Theater to watch "Lassie Come Home" either.