October is the month of Halloween, so what better lure to have than a 100 year old witch?

The Water Witch, or as it is typically called by collectors...the Lake George Floater, is a very odd lure. 

This lure is wood with a large metal blade in the front that spins the entire body on retrieve.  Then, it also have a cork ball attached to the front of the lure on a piece of wire.  It appears this does not spin with the lure and I would assume it keeps the front part of the lure fronm sinking deep due to the metal lip?

Someday I will have to cast this old lure in the lake...just to see the action in the water for myself....





October 2009
The Water Witch
The Water Witch Co
Odessa, MI
1912
UPDATE ON 8/8/2014

I purchased this odd lure sometime in the early 1980s.  I purchased it at an auction and had no idea what the name of the lure was.  Several years later, I met a man who had one of these lures in the box.  The box stated it was called the “Water Witch”…so I had a name.  The box was not for sale, but I always remembered the name.

When I finally purchased some fishing lure books, I was surprised to find this lure in the books…and it was called the “Lake George Floater”.  I was a little confused as to why a different name, but I knew mine was a “Water Witch”.  At a lure collectors show in the early 1990s, I brought in my lure and mentioned the name…and was “kindly” told I was wrong by many people.  It was a “Lake George Floater”, according to them.
 
Still, to this day…people tell me that I am using the wrong name.  But, now I have a few collectors and a published book that agree with me.
 
From what I read recently, this is how it got the “Lake George Floater” name:
 
Sometime in the late 1980s, a well-known collector found some lures at a home on Lake George, MI.  The man who originally owned the lures said he bought them right there on Lake George.   Because this lure had no name associated with it and no known history, the collector called his newly purchased lure the “Lake George Floater”.  That name stuck and spread, and each time this lure came up for identification, it was called the assumed name.  
 
Since then, a couple more boxes have been found (although these are very rare).  The boxes have a picture of the lure on the outside of the box and they clearly state the correct name, company, and city:  Water Witch, Water Witch Co, Odessa, MI.  Also, they made a metal lure with the exact same name…to just add a little more confusion.
 
On a side note, Odessa is under 100 miles away from Lake George.
 
It is nice to know that the correct name is finally known and hopefully will spread throughout the lure collecting community.