When Uncle Josh Bait Company founder Alan P. Jones got out of the Navy in World War I, he used to do a lot of fishing, frequently with his good friend, Urban Schreiner. Although they fished a number of lakes, their most popular spot for bass fishing was a remote little lake in central Wisconsin called Jordan Lake. Jordan Lake was not remote because of the travel distance involved, but because of the terrible roads leading up to it. Once you left the main highway, sand was sometimes so deep, you had to put hay on the roads to prevent the car wheels from burying themselves up to the hubs. Consequently, nobody went to this lake - nobody, that is, except the Joneses and the Schreiners.
Each June, they always made a fishing trip to Jordan Lake, camping in tents. Jordan Lake in those years really teemed with black bass. They used to catch many of them in the early morning on plugs, but as the sun rose higher, the fish would stop hitting plugs. So, they switched to live frogs, usually with good success for the balance of the day.
There came one day in the summer of 1920 when there were no frogs to be had at Jordan Lake. Jones and Schreiner stomped around the marshy areas near the lake but couldn't come up with anything. Either the frogs had become too elusive or they had caught them all. It was then that the idea came to them. Why not make a frog out of something else, such as pork? So, up to the butcher shop in Oxford they went for a slab of pork back fat with the rind on it. They cut and whittled until they came up with a rough facsimile of a frog. They put the bait on the hooks, and this bait caught so many bass that from that day forth, they left the plugs in the tackle boxes.
During the rest of the summer and throughout 1921, they experimented further with various shapes of the pork frog. They wanted to get a lively tail action, yet have enough pork so that there would be a sufficient hunk of meat for the fish to smell. It took a lot of whittling on fat backs and a lot of knife sharpening, but after experimenting with many variations, they found what they felt was the perfect combination. This bait was so successful in producing fish that they decided to go into business and make it commercially. Jones' primary business was the Jones Dairy Farm that slaughtered hogs and made Jones Sausage. By being in the meat packing business, it was natural for the new company to obtain its raw pork rind from the Jones Dairy Farm.
How Come the Uncle Josh Name?
As they were fishing, Urban and Jones would kick around the question as to what name they should put on the pork frog. As you can imagine, they came up with a number of bizarre names. Anyway, there was an old farmer whose property adjoined Jordan Lake from whom they rented boats. This farmer talked like a stage comedian who was popular at the time, a comedian by the name of "Uncle Josh." Jones and Schreiner called him Uncle Josh (behind his back, of course), and liked the ring of the words "Uncle Josh". This is the name eventually selected for the company.
There were plenty of headaches getting started in the pork rind bait business in the spring of 1922. Perfecting the proper cure for pork rind was particularly time consuming. It helped that Jones had been curing bacon at the Jones Dairy Farm for years, but bacon is not the same as pork rind.
The first baits made at Jordan Lake were white, but Jones decided to dye the skin side of the baits green to make them look more like real frogs. The original green dye wouldn't hold well on pork rind. Besides, the cured bait tended to spoil soon after being packed in glass jars.
One old fellow in the town, an ardent fisherman, commented, "Boys, you have wonderful bait, but it stinks so!" Both Schreiner and Jones worked at their regular jobs all day, so to get production really moving they hired an employee, but just one. Their first plant was an old abandoned Jones Dairy Farm plant that stood at the end of East Milwaukee Avenue in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The first big shipment went to a large jobber, Jenney-Semple-Hill, in Minneapolis. It was $300 worth.
The Pork Frog was the original product, but within a year or so, they realized that it would be best to have a line of pork rind baits. In short order, they developed four more shapes. There was the Pollywoggler, the white pork rind bait with the whiskers made from red yarn. They also brought out a Bass Strip and Fly Strip, both of which were just pork rind without fat on them. Then, shortly thereafter, there was the Pork Chunk, and oval piece of pork with no tail.
There were many growing pains in the early years. However, they gradually licked the problems such that today Uncle Josh produces the finest pork rind baits made anywhere. Although the Uncle Josh operation is still not large, they make more pork rind baits than any other manufacturer in the world. After World War II, better dyes came along that could make pork rind in colors other than just green and white. Black and brown proved to be very productive. They also developed and introduced new shapes - eels, lizards, leeches and all sizes of strips. Today, the pork rind comes in a myriad of shapes and colors to fit every fishing situation.
The Uncle Josh product line has also expanded to include other types of baits. They now have catfish baits, carp baits, and even metal lures.
Alan P. Jones loved all kinds of fishing - from sunfish to salmon, from muskies to marlin. His first love however was bass fishing, especially hooking a large black bass on an Uncle Josh Pork Frog.
In March 2002, three Milwaukee-area businessmen cast their lines in the small-business acquisition waters, when they reeled in the 80-year-old family-owned bait manufacturing business in Fort Atkinson. Uncle Josh Bait Company, known for its line of pork rind bait, was angling for a makeover and expansion under new owners Patrick McDevitt, Kurt Kellogg and Chris Miller.
"It's a great name with a great heritage behind it," said Kellogg, who is now Uncle Josh's president. We look forward to continuing the proud tradition of Uncle Josh, while continuing to develop new and better products to help our customers catch more fish.
Look! It's not a frog! It's a Phantom Craw! Featuring a narrow head with a slit in the middle for better leg action, the Phantom Craw has wider legs with claws at the end to displace more water. The bait resembles a rabbit ears shape with much less bulk up front on the thick pad around the hook point. The Phantom also has a much wider surface area covering the skin-thin legs. The narrow head and wide legs are exactly the reverse of the traditional pork frog chunk. This new pork bait is ideal for flippin' and pitchin' on the back of a jig.
Earth Shattering Action - That is how to describe the new SIZMIC line of toads. The Sizmic products were developed by avid bass fishermen in Alabama and will tease a bass into striking with their great action. The Toad and Toad Jr. feature a recessed hook cavity that prevents hang-ups in heavy cover. And be sure to check out the Creature Toad. Uncle Josh took the great leg features of the Toad and combined them with the tube-like body and a skirt. This is a great bait for a Carolina-rig or when pitching or flipping into heavy cover. The Magnum Toad has to be seen to be appreciated. This is a trophy fish bait that measures 8.5" long and has plenty of action. It looks like a big bass killer! The SIZMIC line also includes a Shaker Worm, Tremor Lizard, Flu-Go, Shocker and 10" Sizmic Swimmer. Look for these at your local fishing supply dealer because they are going to be HOT!!
Well there you are, a look at one of the premier fishing companies in the world. For more information contact Uncle Josh Bait Company, 525 Jefferson Street, Fort Atkinson WI 53538 or go to www.unclejosh.com to see the complete product line.
