July 2009
The box may be stained with this lure, but I am proud to have this lure in my collection due to its history.

Roy Kimble came from a very large family (14 brothers and sisters) and quit school early to work and help support the family.  At the age of 40, he purchased his first home in 1947 near South Bend, Indiana.

Roy was a hard-working man and was always active.  Many times he worked 3 jobs at a time to help support his family. Many of these jobs were “odd jobs” such as a food trailer in a parking lot of a cannery, a fruit stand, a popcorn machine on a trailer that was used at county fairs, and he even made a furniture polish he called “Kimroy”.

Sometime in the early 1940’s, Roy began carving his own fishing lures.  He carved the lures out of necessity and to help put food on the table.  When he got a good job in the late 1940’s, fishing was more for pleasure and not sustenance…and that was something new to him.  With this added time, he perfected his plugs and would often give them away when people saw his huge stringers of fish. 

Roy experimented and worked hard on his new and unique square plug.  It had to be easy to carve, make a nice “popping” sound, and work!  He designed the back of the lure to sink slightly in the water while the top (square head) floated.  With some encouragement from fishing friends, he decided to commercialize his square plug design.

Roy built a 10 foot by 10 foot shed in his backyard being there was no room in his small house for the lure operation.  The lures were made by hand by him with the help of his family.  He named his surface lure “Ole Krok”, the name he gave to a very large bass that was very hard to entice into biting.

Roy made some other lures too and planned on doing more after he retired.  Unfortunately, a cancerous growth in his liver ended Roy’s life way too early.  Roy passed away in 1966…before he was 60 years old.  After he passed, his family found many more lure designs and experiments he left behind.  No records are available on how many lures Roy made or sold.  His son assumes they were in the thousands.
Ole Krok
Roy L. Kimble and Sons Bait Co
South Bend, IN
Late 1940s and 1950s