Story by Ken Duke
In any pantheon of bass lures, there must be a place of honor for the Heddon Lucky 13. It was the first mass-produced topwater “popper,” and it’s caught millions and millions of bass of every species.
The Lucky 13 has its origins in an earlier Heddon lure—the Wiggle King—which came out in 1918. The difference between the Wiggle King and the Lucky 13 is subtle. The Wiggle King’s mouth was slightly less concave. The lower lip was about the same as the Lucky 13, but the upper face was flat—90 degrees to the length of the bait. As a result, it would dive on a steady retrieve, and it was marketed and generally used as a subsurface lure.
The Lucky 13 was introduced in 1920 as a topwater bait, at which time the Wiggle King was discontinued. But the early (wooden) Lucky 13s had a problem; the thin lower lip was easily damaged. As a result, Heddon replaced it with the “Basser” in 1922 and took the Lucky 13 out of their catalog. Three years later, it was back … and it’s been in the Heddon mix ever since—a full century!
By the mid 1950s, Heddon stopped making most of its lures out of wood and switched to plastic. In 1983, the legendary lure manufacturer was purchased by PRADCO, and today you can get a plastic Heddon Lucky 13 in any color you want … as long as it’s Baby Bass, Bullfrog, or Red Head. The last two colors are certainly a tribute to the history of the great lure—classic colors for a classic bait—but at one time Heddon offered it in dozens of patterns.
In its heyday, the Lucky 13 was the most popular and best-known surface lure in all of bass fishing. The bait is one of the oldest continuously manufactured lures in the world. It’s taken state record largemouths and smallmouths, and it still catches fish, though the number of anglers using it has dwindled precipitously. In 2025—more than 100 years after it was introduced—you are far more likely to see a Lucky 13 in a display case than a tackle box.
Collectors covet the early wooden models with glass eyes and in rare colors. A Lucky 13 in excellent condition can fetch hundreds of dollars, but since millions were produced and sold, you can get a nice one for less than $100. Original boxes—because they were frail and usually discarded—sell for even more.
