By the 1920’s Creek Chub’s catalogs included infrequent references to the company’s policy of selling through jobbers (wholesalers) rather than directly to smaller sporting goods shops or individuals. Overall, this was their general policy although retail giants such as Wards or Sears assuredly had a direct tie to the factory. 

Nevertheless, an angler could order a specific lure from the factory if his local dealer didn’t have his favorite catalog bait in stock. This extra service was discontinued for a time after WWII due to the overwhelming demand for lures.

In addition to their regular line, CCBCO offered their clientele custom color & rigged baits known as Specials. Although I don’t have all catalogs available, I found the earliest reference to Special order baits in a 1925 catalog. Page 46 has a list of the catalog colors followed by this statement “We make to order special baits & special colored lures...” The company changed the wording but not the meaning over the intervening years. By 1970’s they had this to say: “When requested in dozen lots, any Creek Chub bait series may be requested in assorted color finishes. For special colors- not listed in a series-add 20% to the regular price”.  Translation: If a customer ordered a lure that was made in, say, 15 catalog colors, he could order up to twelve different colors by placing the minimum order. Or if a customer wanted a color not offered in a particular series, the buyer was required to add 20% to the price. The customer could ask for a color that Creek Chub already made for ANOTHER series or it could be a totally custom color. 

These above-mentioned catalogs were produced for the retail trade, proving that anyone could order Specials directly from Creek Chub without working through a jobber. And if the client ordered 144 like kind Specials the premium price was eliminated. A 1965 wholesale sheet to jobbers offered them the chance to purchase Specials at a 10% premium with a minimum order of a dozen. 
 
Also, any combination of hardware could be ordered. If someone asked for extra hooks, spinners or other rigging the company had in stock, it could be added to a standard or a custom painted lure. Can you imagine today’s huge bait conglomerates accepting a unique request for a minimum order of twelve lures! 

Actually, there was a method to their madness. Sometimes a certain lure/color combination would be a smashing regional or local success. One trial order of twelve baits that caught fish like crazy could eventually bring the company orders for hundreds or thousands of baits in this pattern. It didn’t happen often but Creek Chub was always “fishing” for new ideas. If the special order color became a huge success the company could incorporate it into their regular line of CATALOG colors.
          

We now enter a controversial area of Specials. Are unusual body variations & size differences of known Creek Chub lures considered Specials? A few good examples are the never-advertised Baby Jigger, Jointed Husky Musky, Musky Darter, etc. These lures (and others) are listed in the Creek Chub collector’s reference book as “non-catalog” baits. 

Some CCBCO experts don’t believe these lures should be part of the Specials category. 
This group argues if CCBCO spent money on setting up lathes & jigs for a unique size (even if it was a style they had in their regular line) or a new configuration, the costs would be too prohibitive to be considered a Special.  This process wouldn’t be feasible if someone was only ordering one or two dozen baits. Obviously, the company had to manufacture hundreds or thousands of baits to make a profit. One astute collector has the following definition: a non-catalog bait is a variation of a catalog bait & nothing more. Many of these baits (but certainly not all) were produced in a greater quantity than one would expect from a Special.

Other old time collectors are convinced it’s a matter of semantics. They say unique size non-catalog lures & custom order colors or riggings are ALL Specials because they aren’t listed anywhere in the regular CCBCO offerings! 

Let’s face it, there is a fine line between a lure called a Special & the category known as a non-catalog bait. The non-catalog lures have already been defined so let’s look at the following breakdown of Specials.

Catalog Colors I: This sounds like a contradiction of terms. The color is a standard catalog color on another series but NOT on the ordered lure. An example would be the Natural Crab motif that is standard on the #300 Crawdad & the #400 series Baby Crawdad. If it were painted on ANY other series, it would be a Special.
  
Catalog Colors II: Sometimes a lure is found in the original CCBCO box marked “Special” but the color is a catalog color for that particular series! What gives? Some colors were made for decades on certain series but not made on others until much later. A good example is #14 Yellow Spot. Creek Chub first offered it in the 1920’s but it wasn’t introduced on the #1500 series Injured Minnow until 1950. If someone ordered a Yellow Spot Injured Minnow before 1950, the lure box would have been marked “Special”. The opposite is also true. The company often discontinued colors altogether or on a particular bait because it no longer sold well. If this color were ordered afterward, it would be a Special, too.

Variations of Standard Colors – A slight variation of a standard color may change the bait’s appearance dramatically. Sometimes a customer believed a unique combination of catalog colors would work best in his local waters. Instead of a cream belly he may opt for a yellow one. Or the customer might ask for sparkle on a color that never employed it. These Specials weren’t too difficult for the company because they had the colors or ingredients on hand.  

The Sky Is The Limit - Quite often these lures were ordered in limited numbers by inventive clients as an experiment to see if a custom color or another strange combination would be the “secret potion” to landing the big lunker. The rationale could have ranged from trying to match the color of a local bait fish to marrying the ideas of two or more baits that were successful on local waters. Most in this category employed colors or patterns that weren’t regular colors or motifs used on standard CCBCO baits. 

Special Riggings -Certain lures ordered with unusual hardware are considered Specials. New Jersey passed a law that allowed no more than three barbs per lure. Anglers & dealers from that state were mandated into custom ordering lures in that configuration. Buyers from other states simply thought they had a better idea of positioning hardware on their baits based on the local conditions & species. Therefore, a customer could order a different lip, spinners, larger or smaller hooks, reinforcements to hold the hooks in place (especially on earlier baits), etc. Or the baits could be ordered without some of the normal features. Baits have been observed with the through-wire rigging left straight where it emerges from the tail instead of the normal twisted detail. Similar to other Specials,  the options were endless.