{{Short description|Inventor of the spoonplug fishing lure and author}} '''Elwood "Buck" Lake Perry''' (15 July 1915 in [[Hickory, North Carolina]] – 12 August 2005 in [[Taylorsville, North Carolina]]) was the inventor of the form of [[fishing lure]] known as the spoonplug, along with being an author.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=Elwood Perry, 90, Dies; Maker of a Fishing Lure|author=Martin, Douglas|work=The New York Times |date=28 August 2005|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/us/elwood-perry-90-dies-maker-of-a-fishing-lure.html}} NY Times "Correction: August 30, 2005, Tuesday An obituary on Sunday about Elwood L. Perry, a fisherman and the inventor of the Spoonplug lure, attributed a distinction to him erroneously. It was George W. Perry, not Elwood Perry, who caught a largemouth bass of 22 pounds 4 ounces — a world record — on June 2, 1932."</ref>
Perry earning a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from [[Lenoir-Rhyne College]] and then taught and coached at [[Hickory High School (North Carolina)|Hickory High School]].<ref name=NYT/> In [[World War II]] he was a lieutenant-colonel in the [[United States Army Transportation Corps]] in the European theatre. After the war he returned to Hickory, N.C. to work in the family business with his father and brother. In 1946 he invented the spoonplug<ref name="Slade">{{cite book|last1=Slade|first1=Robert A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3imrwVye9pwC&q=spoon+plug&pg=PA170|title=The Encyclodpedia of Old Fishing Lures: Made in North America|date=2010|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=9781425152628|pages=168–171|language=en}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2018}} and soon went into business selling the fishing lures manufactured by him and his first wife Marjorie. Business was slow until 1957 when he had a major success in sales promotion.<ref name=bassfan>{{cite web|title=Buck Perry Began the Modern Era of Fishing|date=8 September 2005|website=BassFan.com|url=https://www.bassfan.com/news_article/1463/buck-perry-began-the-modern-era-of-fishing#.XCEL-zOZO9Y}}</ref>
{{blockquote|It was an airplane pilot named Don Nichols who first convinced Perry to promote his Spoonplugs in Chicago. Perry and outdoor writer Tom McNally fished [[Chain O'Lakes|Lake Marie]], which was reportedly fished out, and put a hurt on the fish. Word spread quickly and he began promotions throughout the upper Midwest.<ref name=bassfan/>}}
Perry published in 1965 a 31-page guide ''Spoonplugging: for fresh water bass and all game fish'' and in 1973 a 275-page book ''Spoonplugging: your guide to lunker catches''. He also published a nine-volume ''Home Study Series'' in 1981. His bi-monthly newsletter, ''Buck Perry's The National Spoonplugger'', is still published.<ref name=bassfan/> The fishing lures and the book ''Spoonplugging'' are still sold by the privately held Buck Perry Company in Hickory, N.C.
{{blockquote|Mr. Perry was known to three generations of fishermen as Buck, with his name forever linked to the lure he patented in 1946, the Spoonplug. He sold millions of the lures, which meld two pieces of traditional tackle, the spoon and the plug. ... Mr. Perry's fishing system was called Spoonplugging, but Spoonplugs were not really the most important part of it. His concern was the essence of fishing: the migration of fish, underwater topography, weather, water conditions and much more; "structure fishing," he called it.<ref name=NYT/>}}
Perry was married to his first wife, Marjorie Bud Setzer Perry, for 39 years; she died in 1978. He was married to his second wife, Geraldine Jeri Stowe Perry, until his death.<ref name=NYT/>
He is credited as being the father of structure fishing and was later inducted into the [[National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=aldodesign.com|first1=AldoDesign -|title=Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum - Hayward, Wisconsin|url=http://www.freshwater-fishing.org/hall-of-fame-list|website=www.freshwater-fishing.org|language=en|accessdate=30 December 2017|archive-date=31 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171231155416/http://www.freshwater-fishing.org/hall-of-fame-list|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== <references/>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Elwood L.}} [[Category:Angling writers]] [[Category:American fishermen]] [[Category:People from Hickory, North Carolina]] [[Category:Lenoir–Rhyne University alumni]] [[Category:1915 births]] [[Category:2005 deaths]] [[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]