OAHU, HAWAII — ACTIVE YEARS 1960s – 1999 (end date unverified)

George Lum was one of the quiet masters of the early Honolulu scene. The key to understanding him is geography: Kona's glassy water suited the flat-faced straight runners that Parker and Chee built, while the choppier trade-wind seas around Oʻahu asked for something with more body and dig. Lum — working in the same circle as Johnny Abreu and Chester Kaita — helped define that Honolulu answer: fuller, curved heads with scooped faces and the leader hole set off to one side. Off the water, he and his wife Hilda ran a typewriter shop on Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu, and as a maker he was best known for his "Fat Boy" fish-head scoops.

His work traveled far beyond the islands. In 1962, one of his scoop-faced heads reached Hatteras, North Carolina, where the crew of the famous charter boat Albatross used it to land an 810-pound blue and set the Atlantic record — a Hawaiian lure quietly rewriting a record on the opposite coast, with barely a mention at the time.

He's also bound up in the most storied catch the sport has ever seen. On June 10, 1970, Cornelius Choy and his daughter Gail brought a 1,805-pound blue — Choy's Monster — to the Honolulu docks, a rod-and-reel mark that still stands more than half a century later. By the account historian Jim Rizzuto gathered from Gail, the lure that hooked it was a Lum "Fat Boy," marked "C. Choy" on the insert. In fairness to the record, this is debated: the fat-boy pattern is also linked to Johnny Abreu, and with lure-copying already widespread by 1970, several makers have laid claim to the shape over the years.

As a museum and archive, we're honored to preserve the legacy of George Lum, one of the foundational makers of the Honolulu scoop-faced tradition.

Notable shapes: "Fat Boy" fish-head scoop; Honolulu-style curved, scooped-face plungers (off-center leader)

Identification tips:

• Genuine Lum lures are rare collector pieces
• Honolulu scoop-face pattern: curved body, scooped face, off-center leader hole, built for rough water
• "Lum" written in Kanji characters engraved on the saddle - Resembling "Chicken Feet"
• George Lum's Saddles are extremely "clean" - Very uniform with a flat taper at the ends.

Below, you’ll find our ever-growing digital archive showcasing every lure that has come through our shop. This collection is constantly evolving as new lures arrive, making it a living record of rare, limited-production lures. We will continue updating this database regularly, building what we aim to be the largest digital archive of offshore trolling lures in the world.

If you have any further information or any lures you believe deserve to be showcased, please reach out to us at ren@luremonger.com