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Company History The story of Little Atom begins with Mr. John Butwinski, the founder of Little Atom Lure Company in 1950. John and his sister Phyllis were the only two children of poor immigrant parents from Poland who emigrated to Chicago in the early 1900's. John Butwinski was born in Chicago and as a boy growing up in Chicago, he grew fond of fishing the lakefront harbors of Lake Michigan. Back in the 1930's during the Great Depression, many people fished to put food on the table. However, when you're a boy of a poor family, you don't have much money to buy bait, and thus Little Atom's story begins with a little boy's fascination of catching fish without any live bait. John Butwinski was drafted into the Army during WW2, and while serving in the Army overseas, John was introduced to salt-water fishing where the best lures used for saltwater were huge 3 oz - 6 oz. jig heads tied with bucktail. John had never seen anything like that used for fresh-water fishing back in the states, not even smaller sized jigs. After WW2 John returned to Chicago and for his own fishing use, John began making smaller jigs (1/16 oz., 1/10 oz., etc.) that were modeled after the huge saltwater jigs John had used overseas. John tied white animal hair on them just like the saltwater jigs. John caught so many fish on his new freshwater jig that other fishermen began asking John if he would sell them his new freshwater jig invention, and thus John began selling them as a hobby. The most popular color the fishermen wanted in John's new freshwater jig was a pink colored jig head tied with white animal hair, so John haphazardly called his new freshwater jig invention Pinkie® and the name stuck. Soon fishermen all across the mid-west were using or hoping to use the Pinkie Jig to catch fish, so in 1950 John began selling his new freshwater jig invention commercially. John applied for and received trademarks from the US Patent & Trademark Office for the name of his new jig invention (Pinkie) and the name of his new company (Little Atom), and thus in 1950 the Little Atom Lure Company was borne. 1950's As the popularity of the Pinkie grew, so did the number of imitations and knock-offs of John's original Pinkie Jig. Initially John defended his rights and sued several of the companies trying to sell jigs that were confusingly similar to John's original Pinkie Jig, some companies even went so far as to purposely mis-spell and call their imitation jigs "Pinky" to mislead and fool fishermen. John won every court battle defending his rights, but he lost the war. There were so many companies copying Little Atom's products, and the time involved in suing each company that copied Little Atom's products was taking away from John's work and his passion for fishing. Even when John would win a court case, the company copying his products would just file for bankruptcy and John would never receive a dime of court-awarded punitive damage monies. Thus, after winning a court case in the 1950's, John resolved to give up suing the companies that were selling imitations and knock-offs, and John resolved to simply focus on making the best lures that he could invent, and of course enjoying his passion for fishing. In 1952 the standard type of ice jigs available were just usually a piece of brass soldered to a hook and painted or plated or both. While in the Army during WW2, John remembered seeing a new type of plastic that was very soft and flexible. John began experimenting with different ways to put this new soft plastic material on an ice jig so that it would mimic natural prey of panfish. John settled on a final design and began making and selling his new invention, the Purist Jig. The Little Atom Purist Jig was the first ice jig ever made that incorporated soft plastic into its' design, and it caught so many fish so quickly that some fishermen began filing down the hook barb on the Purist Jig to make it barbless, and some fishermen began asking John to make it with a barbless hook in the first place. John fulfilled the demands of the fishermen and immediately began making and selling the Purist Jig with a barbless hook. Just like John's first invention the Pinkie Jig, the Purist Jig sold like crazy and many companies began trying to copy and sell knock-offs of John's second invention the Purist Jig. The popularity of John's second invention, the Purist Jig, made Little Atom a brand recognized by ice fishermen, but it was John's first invention the Pinkie Jig that earned John the nick-name "Pinkie John" and thus many who knew John well would refer to him affectionately as "Pinkie John."
The 1960's John invented the Shmoe Spoon and the Rembrandt Jig during the 1960's. The Rembrandt Jig also incorporated a soft plastic body in it's design, but the Rembrandt Jig had a larger profile to it with a hook soldered to a willow-leaf spoon. The Rembrandt Jig was a work of art, and thus named appropriately. The Rembrandt Jig was designed to catch monster crappies, and thus it did, and still does today. The Rembrandt Jig became so popular that it spawned a host of knockoffs in the marketplace. The Shmoe Spoon was an ice blade that was shaped like a beetle, with a bigger body and smaller head, and painted with contrasting colors. The unique shape of the ice-blade and the contrasting colors of the Shmoe Spoon made it a fish-catching machine, and as word of popularity of the Shmoe Spoon began to grow, so did the number of knock-offs in the marketplace.
The 1970's In the early 70's John invented the Optic Jig and the Rat Finkie Jig. The Rat Finkie Jig was the culmination of over 20 years of ice fishing experience for John. They say that the best always comes last, and the Rat Finkie Jig was the last lure John invented, and perhaps the best lure. The Rat Finkie Jig also incorporates into its' design a soft plastic body that hides a good portion of the hook shank, and it is a perfectly shaped and balanced lead head. The Rat Finkie Jig became a panfish's worst nightmare almost instantly. Tackle stores could not keep the Rat Finkie Jig in stock, and thus everybody and his uncle were making imitations of the original Rat Finkie Jig John invented. When you would go to a fishing store and ask for a Little Atom Rat Finkie Jig, half the time the store would try to sell the fishermen a jig with a piece of plastic tubing over the hook shank that did not look anything like the original Rat Finkie Jig, but over time the knock offs and imitations of the Rat Finkie Jig got to looking more and more like the original Rat Finkie Jig John invented. The knock offs and imitations of the original Rat Finkie Jig today may have a slightly different shaped lead head that reacts differently while jigged, they may have a poorly balanced lead head, they may have a sloppy paint finish, or they may just have faded paint from sitting on stores shelves too long. However, one thing still remains the same, and that is that there always seems to be some company trying to fool fishermen into buying knock offs of original Little Atom inventions such as the Rat Finkie Jig. The Optic Jig was designed by John long before the "Marmooshka" type jigs came to America commercially. There are times when during ice fishing the fish are so lethargic that they won't bite any fancy jig with two-tone colors and beetle shaped body like the Shmoe Spoon, there are times when the fish are so lethargic they won't fall prey to the fancy wobble and inviting soft plastic body of the Rembrandt Jig, there are times when the fish won't fall prey to the tiny soldered head and soft plastic body of the Purist Jig even if it does look like "easy pickins" to lazy panfish most of the time. These are the times that the Optic Jig was invented for. The Optic Jig starts out with a perfectly balanced lead head, then it has a perfectly shaped lead head that swims true and mimics nature. All fishermen have to do is add live bait, and wait for the lethargic fish to slowly start nibbling away, and eventually the fish will get caught in the Optic Jig trap with it's super sharp hook.
The 1980's In the fall of 1982 John Butwinski passed away of a heart attack he suffered shortly after a vigorous workout of playing hand-ball. John's sister Phyllis, being the next of kin, took over Little Atom Lure Company while the courts dealt with John's estate. The Little Atom Lure Company was sold and moved to Racine, Wisconsin in May 1984 where it remains still today.
The 1990's In the early 1990's, while Little Atom owner Rick De Baere was ice fishing, a fishermen nearby was catching more fish than Rick to Rick's dismay. Rick had a conversation and found the fisherman was using crude-looking home-made plastic tails to jig fish through the ice. They looked a little big for ice fishing, but nonetheless they caught fish pretty good. Little Atom had pioneered the use of soft plastic in ice jigs by inventing such jigs as Purist Jig, Rembrandt Jig, Rat Finkie Jig, and so Rick set Little Atom's resources to pioneer the use of super-soft plastics for ice fishing. By 1996, after much field testing of super soft plastic shapes and scents, Rick had settled on a simple design which proved to be the most effective in many situations, it was simply a super soft plastic tail that looked a like short piece spaghetti noodle and scented with the scent formula that had the best overall results during field testing. "What should we call it?" And thus in 1996 Noodles was born. The Noodles Tail became another instant Little Atom success and suddenly the "plastics" revolution in ice fishing was being pioneered by Little Atom. Not wanting to rest on the success of Noodles Tail, Rick still had other designs that showed promise for catching fish in certain situations versus others, and so in 1997 Little Atom invented the Wedgees Tail and the Micro-Noodles Tail. In 1998 the Skimpies Tail and Spidgies Tail were invented by Little Atom. In 1999 the Duppies Tail was invented by Little Atom. In 2000 Little Atom perfected the Duppies Tail invention by making it in two-tone colors. Today there are many plastic tails marketed for ice-fishing by many companies, and some companies have even tried to copy and sell knockoffs of the original Little Atom designs. When fishermen insist on Little Atom, they can be sure they are not fooled by knockoffs.
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