Freshwater Fishing Lures on U.S. Postage Stamps

There’s always been something special about postage stamps.

They have celebrated many things in American life. Olympic Games. American Heroes. Actors. Singers. Presidents. Even Mr. Rogers! Americans not only use stamps to send mail, but many of us collect or have collected stamps. I was one of those collectors while growing up in Alcoa, Tennessee in the 1970s!

On March 13, 2025, in Springfield, Missouri, the United State Postal Service added “Freshwater Fishing Lures” to its long history of postage stamps. Considering that one out of every six Americans statistically goes fishing, it’s a proper honor and recognition to a way of life in America.

The “Freshwater Fishing Lures” series includes five stamps: Crankbait, Popper, Spoon, Spinner and Wakebait. Amazingly, two of these lures are PRADCO-Brand lures and available on Lurenet – the iconic Rebel Pop-R and the historic Arbogast Jitterbug. As a former stamp collector and as the General Manager of PRADCO Fishing for the past 23 years, seeing our products on postage stamps is quite a rush!

The Jitterbug and Pop-R have unique stories in the fishing industry. The Rebel Pop-R was actually discontinued in 1978 due to unsensational sales. However, there were anglers in Texas who figured out that the Pop-R was a deadly bass lure. Several tournament anglers used the lure secretly for years until the word got out in the mid-1980s. BASSMASTER Magazine jumped all over the revelation with a cover story, “The Secret Lure of the Pros,” and the rest is history.

The Pop-R enjoys massive national distribution now. It is in 3,303 Walmart stores, commanding 11,369 pegs. The topwater lure is also in several thousand other stores, including Bass Pro Shops, Academy, Dick’s Sporting Goods and other retailers all over North America.

The Jitterbug was born in Fred Arbogast’s kitchen in Akron, Ohio. His first model was made from a part of a chopped-up broomstick and two spoons from his kitchen. When he finally put the lure into production in 1937, it fast became a favorite of bass anglers. The Jitterbug creates a unique “plopping” action when retrieve. And unlike most popular topwater lures, the angler only has to cast and retrieve the Jitterbug for it to work. Its iconic design does all of the “fishing” for the angler. It is generally regarded as the No. 1 night-fishing lure of all time.

Despite its age, the Jitterbug has impressive national distribution and is in 2,418 Walmart stores with 5,757 pegs. It also has a few thousand more distribution points in major retailers and small-town tackle shows.

While the Jitterbug and Pop-R will no doubt be reeling in many big catches and memories for our customers this summer, they will also be popping and plopping into mail boxes all over the world thanks to the postal service!

The Freshwater Fishing Lures stamps can be purchased at post offices across the U.S. or through the Postal Store. Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using original photographs by Sarah Cramer Shields.