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US 2,392,677 · granted January 8, 1946

The 1946 bait patent

A later hook mechanism broadens the documented story beyond the familiar spoon designs.

Documented fact: Anton J. Lauby, identified with Milwaukee, filed this application May 15, 1944. Patent US 2,392,677 was granted January 8, 1946.
Documented fact: The patent describes a mechanism involving opposed hooks and a spring.
Interpretive limit: The patent establishes later inventive activity, not continued commercial production of the earlier Lauby range. The complete patent is retained in the archive.

Still to be establishedA manufactured example matching the patent’s opposed-hook mechanism remains unestablished; the published metal-spoon association requires further comparison.

Sources & record notes

Photographic or documentary record LLA-REC-0009 · Reviewed September 2026. Record identifiers describe the material shown here; they are not accession numbers for authenticated physical objects.

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Provenance

Document reproduction supplied with the collection; bibliographic facts are checked against the linked patent record. The patent is evidence of an invention, not certification of a surviving object.

Document identification

Title: Collapsible artificial bait
Inventor: Anton J. Lauby
Application filed: May 15, 1944
Patent granted: January 8, 1946 · US 2,392,677

Cite this record

Lauby Lures. “The 1946 bait patent.” Record LLA-REC-0009. Updated September 13, 2026. https://www.laubylures.com/collection/patent-1946. Accessed [your access date].

Publisher: Lauby Lures. Submit a correction or additional evidence.

Continuing work on hook mechanisms

The 1946 grant documents opposed hooks operated with a spring in a collapsible bait construction. It extends the reviewed U.S. patent record beyond the four grants described in the 1999 article.

Slusar associates this patent with a later metal spoon, but the relationship to the photographed single-hook spoon is unresolved. The invention described by the patent and a surviving retail object must be compared directly. Source comparison notes.