A pioneer in crankbait design, Fred C. Young of Oak Ridge, TN, created the Big O in 1967. The story goes that he just started whittling on a piece of wood one day and decided he'd try to make a fishing plug. Young had plenty of spare time on his hands at that point, because he was in a body cast, as a result of injuries he had sustained while working for the Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge.
Visits to his doctor provided an opportunity for him to stop at a lake on the way home to test his prototypes. He was looking for a fast, tight wiggle, and of all the woods he sampled, balsa was the only one that gave him such an action. Meanwhile, old pieces of circuit board proved to be the best material for making a lip.
Field-tester for Young's plug was his brother, Otis, nicknamed "Big Otis" because of his 6-foot 6-inch stature (hence the name Big O). With his brother's suggestions for improvement, it wasn't long before Fred had a design that, according to some, "was wearing the fish out." And while there were those who poked fun at the plug, Otis urged his brother to maintain the fat-bodied design because of its natural vibration.
It also wasn't long before an angler named Bill Nichols was using Young's creation to win some club tournaments. Noted smallmouth legend, Billy Westmoreland, first saw the Big O (which he dubbed "the homemade plug") during a fishing trip with Nichols and subsequently got one of the plugs from Young. A regular trading session soon emerged between the two, with Young swapping a couple egg cartons (consisting of five or six plugs per carton) for two or three dozen of Westmoreland's hand-tied jigs.
"The homemade plug" soared into national prominence in the spring of 1972, when Westmoreland took it to a B.A.S.S. tournament on Lake Lanier. He cranked his way to a second-place finish with it in that event, with Bobby Murray barely nudging him out of the $10,000 first-place prize on the final day.
Now that "the cat was out of the bag," demand for this hand-carved plug skyrocketed to levels that Young couldn't come close to satisfying. That demand, coupled with the Big O's newfound reputation for "killing bass," led some enterprising entrepreneurs to start a rent-a-lure program. Frustrated tournament anglers didn't hesitate to fork over $25 a day and another $25 insurance deposit, in case they lost the bait.
That high demand continued into 1973, when the Big O was selling for $10 to $15 apiece before the B.A.S.S. tournament at Watts Bar. The going price after that event had climbed all the way to $50 apiece. The plugs were so hot that, as Westmoreland complained, "They're cutting my line and stealing them off my rods."
At this point, the Cordell Lure Company of Hot Springs, AR, saved the day by buying Fred Young's Big O brand and mass-producing a "fat plug" with plastic bodies. Young oversaw the design of this knock-off model, which soon flooded the market and filled trays in the tackleboxes of anglers everywhere. Records show that, within 13 months, Cordell had sold 1.3 million plastic Big O's.
It should be noted here, however, that, prior to selling rights to his famed Big O, Young carved, signed and numbered each of the more than 3,700 plugs he made. Many of these ended up in the possession of Bobby Murray, who, along with Cotton Cordell Lures, revived the wooden version of Young's original Big O for a limited time (circa 2007-2008). It was only available, though, from Cabela's.
The Big O is a lure that indeed has withstood the test of time and is still being produced today. It's available from many different online websites, including eBay, where you can find collector models in various price ranges.
(Fred Young died in 1987. Cotton Cordell died Jan. 6, 2015.)
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