Dan Morphy, president of Morphy Auctions, has always enjoyed fishing in his native Pennsylvania, and he recently announced a big catch that is neither trout nor bass. Morphys has been commissioned to auction the renowned Wayne Edens collection of antique and vintage fishing lures. A three-part auction series is planned, with a debut sale slated for Tuesday, Dec. 10, with the other two in 2025. Each sale will feature 600 to 700 lots. The largest, most comprehensive and historically important collection of its type in the marketplace, the Edens assemblage contains many exquisite examples, including an elusive, 100-percent original Heddon Factory Board frog lure, ca. 1898, and hand-carved. Fishing lure expert Scott Jedd, who is cataloging the collection, confirmed that the Heddon frog is one of eight such lures or baits, as they are also called, that were personally crafted by James Heddon, founder of the Heddon Company, and subsequently exhibited on a display board at the factory. In the world of lures, those eight frogs are as rare and coveted as Faberge eggs, remarked Jedd. They represent the original American wood baits. In 1977, Clyde A. Harbin Sr., an outdoorsman, author and fishing lure archivist known as The Bassman, was invited by Heddon to visit the factory and declutter the board by removing any baits that were not Heddon productions. The eight frogs were present on the board both before and after the board was thinned out, and were photographed many times. Harbin would later write a book titled Heddon Historical Footprints in which he details where each of the eight frogs ended up. Today, it is believed that one of them is held in the Bass Pro Shops corporate collection, a few others are privately owned, and another may be in an aquariums collection in Oklahoma. The frog lure in Wayne Edens collection was acquired from Dudley Murphy (1940-2022), co-founder of the National Fishing Lure Collectors Club. Murphy obtained the lure directly from the Heddon factory. In addition to its unbroken line of provenance, Edens lure has been definitively photo-matched to one of the original eight board examples. It will make its first auction appearance with a $30,000-$60,000 estimate, although Jedd suggests that if the wind is blowing in the right direction, the frog could leap over that estimate and sell for $80,000, maybe even more. Being entrusted with the Wayne Edens collection is a great honor for Morphys. Waynes collection is, in a word, astonishing, and contains many special-order and one-of-a-kind lures, some in their original picture boxes. Many have never before been offered at public auction. In addition to Heddons, there are rare productions by Immell Chippewa, Shakespeare, Haskell and scores of other top brands. We estimate the collections value to be around three million dollars, commented Morphy. Morphy Auctions representatives will be set up at the Nov. 7 to 9 Savannah Southern Classic Antique Tackle Show co-produced by the Carolina Antique Tackle Collectors and Florida Antique Tackle Collectors clubs. They look forward to discussing highlights of the Edens collection with show attendees. To learn more, visit www.morphyauctions.com.