My Heddon 1600 and 1700 Wiggler Collection
(And some info on the 1600s)


My 1600s


The 1600s are on the left. The last row on the right are 1700s.

Heddon introduced the 1600 Deep Diving Wiggler in late 1914 along with the 1700 Near Surface Wiggler and the 1800 Crab Wiggler.
The 1600 is found in three configurations.
1) The first model was the longer version. It's like the top lures in the picture on the left side. I measure them to be 4 5/8". they have belly hooks and a flat slope on all four sides of the head to a pointed nose. This model seems to have been a pre-production model and only produced for a few months because it was never illustrated in the catalogs. I suppose this longer version was sent to the sports journalists to hype the lure and to selected fishermen to test it. It must not have been well accepted because the intro sheet in the catalog shows the next model. There are a couple of these long models out there with a 2 piece metal diving plane on the sides of the head. I think they must have been prototypes because most 1600s have a one piece plane which wraps around the nose.

2) The side hooker like the three lures in the second row down of the picture was the second model. This model was illustrated in the catalogs from the intro until about 1921. It's about 4 3/16" long and has the flat slopes on the head like the long model.

3) The bottom 7 1600s in the picture have a rounded head on the top and bottom with belly hooks. The sides of the head are flat sloping. This third model is the most common. It is shown in the 1921 through 1926 catalogs. Mine measure 4 1/4" long. (The Lures in the right-hand row are 1700s)

Early 1600 Early 1600 dive plane
A size comparison between an early 1600 and a later one
and a prototype (?) dive plane (right).

1914 Advert
Here's an Ad for the 1600 from a 1914 magizene. It clearly shows the long model.
1915 Catalog
Here's the Intro sheet from the 1915 catalog with a picture of the side hook model.
This sheet seems to indicate that by the time the 1600 was introduced in the catalog they had changed the design from the long model to the side hook configuration.

The catalog colors were as follows:
  •    1600  Green Crackelback  
  •    1600S  Strawberry Spot  
  •    1602  White/Red Head  
  •    1605  Carnival Spot  
  •    1609A  Bar Pearch  
  •    1609B  Frog Spot  
These were the only colors ever shown in the catalogs for the 1600 but starting in 1921 the statement "All scale colors on request" is included with the listing. This means they can be found in just about all early Heddon colors.
The 1924,25 and 26 catalogs show the picture of the 1600 but don't describe it. It's gone from the '27 catalog. It probably wasn't too well accepted by fishermen or was too expensive to make. In any case, the model was never written up very well in the catalogs. Never-the-less, it's a neat looking lure and fun to collect.

PigTail Patent
Here's a picture of the 1914 Patent application for the "Pig Tail" line tie. The lure pictured in the application is very similar to the earliest 1600 and shows the 2 piece dive planes.






Here's my email:
simman@charter.net

Copyrights: All content in this section is copyright Ed Knight.

Posted: August 3rd, 2005
Revised: August 28th, 2005
Revised: February 26th, 2006
Revised: August 28th, 2006
Revised: January 13th, 2008