Fishing - Slightly OT Jim Bagley went to the great fishing hole in the sky

Jim Bagely died Saturday at 80.

The following is the obit that appeared in today's Orlando Sentinel. He was
a resident of the Orlando area. The part about dropping lures from a
helicopter cracked me up. He must have been quite a guy.

James `Jim' Bagley brought ideas, salesmanship to world of fishing
By Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writer

February 18, 2004

Inventor, master salesman and fishing legend James "Jim" Bagley, founder of
Bagley Bait Co., never met a lure he couldn't improve.

Frequently stirred from sleep by an idea that just couldn't wait, Bagley was
also the rare individual who could make those ideas a reality time after
time.

"He had things going on in his mind all of the time," said his wife, Vera
Bagley.

Jim Bagley, a Winter Haven native, died Saturday. He was 80.

He worked as a meat cutter, tree surgeon and master electrician before
finding his calling in Winter Haven's lakes -- or rather a couple feet below
the surface, where hungry bass roamed.

What would become Bagley Bait Co. in 1954 and celebrate its 50th anniversary
this year started in a one-room concrete building with Bagley and his mother
making fishing lures.

Bagley introduced scores of varied lures from pork rinds (Black Magic Eel)
to the plastic purple worm -- the result of accidentally mixed colors -- to
the Bagley Bang-o-lure, a variation on a Finnish balsa wood lure Bagley read
about and then improved to mimic baitfish.

But designs only accounted for half Bagley's success. He crisscrossed the
country selling his lures or giving them away to get anglers hooked. Bagley
appeared to approach potential customers like the fish they preyed upon by
swooping down on them in a helicopter and dropping his lures into their
boats.

Bagley also used his helicopter to make what he liked to call the greatest
catch of his life -- his wife.

"Everybody loved him who ever met him," Vera Bagley said of her husband, who
flew 51 missions on bombers over Europe during World War II.

In addition to his wife, Bagley is survived by sons James Bagley Jr. of
Orlando and Dean Bagley of Winter Haven; daughters Kelly Willard of
Nashville, Tenn., Fonda Randall of Lakeland and Dawn Kilgore of Oviedo; a
sister, Juanita King of Winter Haven, and four grandchildren.

Ott-Laughlin Funeral Home Winter Haven is handling arrangements.

Christopher Sherman can be reached at or
863-422-3395.

Copyright © 2004, Orlando Sentinel