Background info.
When I read an article in a book called
Pier fishing in California, 2nd addition, written by my friend Ken Jones, I had to give it a try.
Apparently back in sixties there were so much barracuda around Los Angeles beaches that the tackle shops ran out of lures for barracuda.
An idea was born to use a “church key” can opener as lure. With the use of split ring/s a hook was installed and shape of the key
allowed for swimming action. The silver color was a plus as well.
Side note: Before the advent of pull tabs on beverage (especially beer) cans, a tool with a triangle shape sharp beak at one end was used to puncture a triangle opening in the can. The other side was for bottle cap opening.
The name church key was a reference to monks in Europe that had their beer stock locked in storage rooms and a key was required to get access to the beer.
1-The first fish that I caught with the lure.
2-Caught this needle fish while trolling.
John M was kind enough to take this picture when my camera battery was depleted. It turns out that not only he had heard of this lure, he actually had used it.