Elmer Thompson & the Doll Fly

[Pomoxist]

Have been crappie fishing quite regularly since the 1950s but a recent arm injury makes it too painful to fish. I guess this summer I’ll have to do some armchair angling by posting here (instead of just reading the messages, as I’ve enjoyed doing for a few years.) The first artificial lure I
(and many other anglers) ever caught a crappie on was a great one called the Doll Fly. A Knoxville, Tenn. newspaper has reported the passing this past week of Elmer O. “Doll”
Thompson after a long illness. “Doll” began making the Doll Fly, a jig dressed with polar bear hair, back in the early1950s, which led to a highly successful tackle company. I think the inventor of this great, early crappie lure deserves to be noted and remembered here.

[monkscrappie]

CAUGHT MANY SPECIES OF FISH ON DOLL FLIES. CRAPPIE, SMALL MOUTH BASS, AND LARGE MOUTH AND SPOTTED BASS ON DOLL FLIES WERE JUST A FEW.

POLAR BEAR HAIR HAD AN ACTION THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DUPLICATED.

MONK Welcome to MonksCrappie.com

[wrwest]

Greeting and welcome from California. I think you will enjoy this site. A great bunch here.

[CrappiePappy]

Have been crappie fishing quite regularly since the 1950s but a recent arm injury makes it too painful to fish. I guess this summer I’ll have to do some armchair angling by posting here (instead of just reading the messages, as I’ve enjoyed doing for a few years.) The first artificial lure I
(and many other anglers) ever caught a crappie on was a great one called the Doll Fly. A Knoxville, Tenn. newspaper has reported the passing this past week of Elmer O. “Doll”
Thompson after a long illness. “Doll” began making the Doll Fly, a jig dressed with polar bear hair, back in the early1950s, which led to a highly successful tackle company. I think the inventor of this great, early crappie lure deserves to be noted and remembered here.

First Crappie I ever caught, on a jig of any kind, was with a Doll Fly. Used them quite regularly for White Bass. Oddly enough, it seemed that the white head/white tail version was most useful for White Bass & Crappie, while the yellow head/yellow tail version was more tempting to Largemouth Bass. Granted, this was on the local lake that I grew up fishing on, but it did work out that way over 99% of the time.
It's definitely one of the all time greats, of the fishing lure kind !! R.I.P. Elmer ... you done good. And thanks for all the great fishing memories I have, due in no small part to your "Doll Fly" jig.

.. cp

[rockmike]

Used Doll Fly for crappie, walleye, and sauger. The AR state record walleye was held by a lady from Batesville for several years---caught on a Doll Fly.

[lag]

The largest smallmouth I ever caught was in 1971 on an 1/8 oz black doll fly with the small black pork strip. Used to fish nights with this combo and really did well with it. Thanks Mr. Thompson. Your provided many good hours of fun.

I guess now that global warming is killing all the polar bears we can't get any more of those flies. Sad.

[wbl2014]

Never used a Doll Fly... wish I did.

[SpeckWick]

My dad used to have a bunch of Doll flies in his box when I was a kid. I think I probably snagged and lost every one of them when I was first learning how to jig fish, but we sure did catch a ton of crappie on them. The best we did with them was during spring and fall during the white bass runs in the Little Miami River here in SW Ohio. White head/white tail. Caught them on pretty much every cast on Doll flies. Since then we've used a little of everything from rooster tails to jig and grub, but nothing quite compares to the old doll fly. Man, to think back of the awesome old lures my dad had in that old tackle box......Many of which I probably lost. I didn't actually know who invented the doll fly or their history, but he had enough of an impact that a lot of people call any hair jig, regardless of who makes it, a Doll fly. I guess that's one way to measure a man's importance to the sport he loves.

[Buckeye Mike]

Have caught many a crappie on a Doll Fly. Used to fish a water supply reservoir close to the house for crappie, and all i used was a small white doll fly, 1/64 oz. i think, Zebco 202 and plastic clip on bobber. DANG i caught a lot of crappie on that jig, but that was Many Moons ago.

[skeetbum]

Still have some white/white ones in my box. Bagged about a 10lb cat on one in Tims Ford last year. Great fun on a 4lb, 4'6" ultralite. Thank You for all you gave to us, Elmer. I hope the mark I leave on society when I go is half as good.