Chug Ike

The Kautzky Sporting Goods Company out of Ft. Dodge, Iowa is one of my favorite historical fishing companies. I collect their vintage baits and still use many of them today on fishing trips with my sons. While Kautzky was most famous for their Lazy Ike “Successor to the Live Minnow” fishing lure, they produced dozens of great baits. Many of these were quite popular with fishermen and still are. These lures also continue to gain interest from new collectors every year and make a great entry point into the hobby due to their abundance and lower cost. The lure I am going to cover today had a great 30-year run and resides in many garage tackle boxes just waiting to be found.

The Chug Ike

The Chug Ike was first introduced in the 1959 Kautzky catalog after some buzz in 1958 from successful use in fishing tournaments. It was advertised in the catalog as The NEW Chug Ike that “lets the plug fisherman use every trick in his bag. Casts smoothly… floats motionlessly… twitches to quivering life. On a fast jerking retrieve it chugs, pops and darts. Fish fall for its life-like realism.”

The Chug Ike was Kautzky’s entry into a topwater bait market and is a lure very similar to a Heddon Chugger Spook. It is a plastic lure that has more of a flat bottom and curved top than a Heddon Chugger and when the color pattern called for eyes it included the signature Lazy Ike sideways “teardrop” type eye. It was designed for a popping action on the top of the water. The lure was released in two sizes, the KC (Kautzky Chug) KC-2 which is 2 inches long, ¼ ounce, and the KC-3 at 3 inches long, ½ ounce. It was originally released in six colors in each of the two sizes.

When Kautzky Sporting Goods sold their lure business to the newly formed Lazy Ike Corporation, Lazy Ike Corporation was sure to keep this lure in their lineup. They kept the same sizes and colors in the midyear 1962 update catalog. Sales remained strong for the bait, and they expanded the color selection throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. This included very the collectible blue and purple scale and spot colors in 1967 and metallic colors in 1969. As the groundbreaking technology came about to launch the successful Natural Ikes with their photo realistic life-like patterns around 1978, these were quickly added to the Chug Ikes and launched as Natural Chugs (NICs). This was the same time that the Chug Ike with Bucktails (KCB) were also added to the lineup. Then the bottom dropped out.

This was a time in history that interest rates were sky high. Lazy Ike Corporation had purchased Creek Chub, and borrowed a lot of money to expand upon the massive success of the Natural Ike success. Unfortunately, it ended badly and Lazy Ike Corporation filed for bankruptcy in the fall of 1979.

Dura-Pak purchased the assets and restarted the brand around 1981. They relaunched the Chug Ike as well and offered a great selection of colors. By 1988 Dura-Pak had been acquired by the Great American Fishing Supply Company. The Chug Ike lure bodies now appeared in the final catalogs through 1990 as Sputter Ikes (ST), which have a skirt trailer, and Popper Ikes (PI) which have a metal prop on the back. In 1991 PRADCO acquired all of the assets to Lazy Ike and ended the production of the Chug Ike.

Colors and packaging

The earliest Chug Ikes come in cardboard boxes with plastic tops from Kautzky Sporting Goods. Over time these changed to Lazy Ike Corporation boxes with plastic tops and sliding plastic sleeves. From there they were changed to bubble cards from Lazy Ike Corporation and Dura-Pak and Great American.

Chug Ikes were first offered in six colors. These were RW-Red & White, P-Perch, WBS-White, Black Spots, F-Frog, YBS-Yellow, Black Spots, B-Black, White Mottle.

Blue Scale, Blue Spot, Purple Scale and Purple Spot were added in 1967 with special instructions on how to order them added in the catalog.

All the metallic colors were added at once when launched by Lazy Ike. These include: MAS-Metallic All Silver, MTS-Metallic Threadfin Shad, MD-Metallic Dapple, MBU-Metallic Blue, MBL-Metallic Black, MO-Metallic Orange, MRW-Metallic Red and White, MBLR-Metallic Black Rib, MYS-Metallic Yellow Spots, MP-Metallic Purple, MR-Metallic Red, MG-Metallic Green.

Additional colors include CF-Crawfish, YBLS-Yellow, Black Spots, PE-Perch, BLWM-Black, White Mottle, SF-Sunfish, FOB-Fluorescent Orange Belly, FYB-Fluorescent Yellow Belly. Special order colors do exist.

Chug Ike w/Bucktail colors are FY-Frog w/Yellow Bucktail, CFW- Crawfish w/White Bucktail, BLMW-Black and White Mottle w/White Bucktail, SFR-Sunfish w/Red Bucktail, PEY-Perch w/Yellow Bucktail, RWR-Red and White w/Red Bucktail

Natural Chug colors are Shad, Bluegill, Crappie, Crawdad, Golden Shiner, White Crappie and Rogue Bass.

Collectors’ value

Chug Ikes in excellent condition without the box/packaging would be worth anywhere from $10 to $30 depending on the color. With the matching box/card in excellent condition the price could double that to $20 to $60. Extremely rare or special-order colors can go for more. Chug Ikes with some honest wear can be found for under $10 to start a collection or fill your tackle box. They are excellent for fishing. These lures are also great entry lures to start your lure collecting journey. They make very colorful and nice displays.