KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII — ACTIVE YEARS 1970s – PRESENT

The Ungers are three generations of Kona fishermen — Dave Unger, brothers Rusty and Jimmy Unger, and Bob Unger — who built handmade trolling lures known for their "Lollipop" line, including many tubes and heads poured from the original Lollipop molds.

The Unger name holds a permanent place in lure history thanks to a single day in the 1980s. Capt. Gene VanderHoek was out fishing with Rusty and Jimmy Unger, running two of the Ungers' Lollipop lures on one side and two of his own new cut-nose jet-head designs on the other. When VanderHoek's lure dug in and worked up and down, Rusty Unger called it a "plunger" because it was "plunging up and down" — and the name stuck. That lure caught a 209-pound marlin that day, and today virtually every maker has a plunger in the lineup (Joe Yee famously scaled it up into the Super Plunger). So while the plunger's shape is VanderHoek's, its name is Rusty Unger's.

As a museum and archive, we're honored to document the Unger family — three generations of Kona fishermen — and their lasting mark on the language of the sport.

Notable shapes: Lollipop lures and tubes (from the original Lollipop molds)

Identification tips:

• Look for the Lollipop-mold tubes and heads; a multi-generation family output
• Vintage Kona construction — provenance helps place a given piece within the family

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