Little Cleo

Spoon lure made by the Acme Tackle Company

The Little Cleo is a small spoon lure made by the Acme Tackle Company which comes in nine sizes from 1⁄16 oz to 1 1⁄4 oz, and in different color combinations. Created in 1953 by the New York City songwriter C. V. "Charlie" Clark, Little Cleo according to Outdoor Life is one of the most popular lures in use today and is one of the 50 greatest lures of all time according to Field & Stream.

C. V. "Charlie" Clark, a songwriter and music publisher based in New York City, founded Seneca Tackle Co. in 1951. Clark observed Little Cleo doing a hoochie coochie dance in the 1930s. In 1953, he created a spoon lure that had a swaying motion, naming it Little Cleo after the dancer he had seen. Acme Tackle stopped printing the illustration on Little Cleo that year to allay the retailer's concerns and maintain them as a buyer. Little Cleo comes in nine sizes, ranging between 1⁄16 oz and 1 1⁄4 oz. Because of Little Cleo's thick metal and narrow width, the lure goes deep under the surface of the water. He called it "a great all around spoon" that is "a deadly secret for deep dwelling brook trout in early summer". The author Steven A. Griffin wrote, "Acme's Little Cleo quickly became a favorite when salmon fishing ignited in the Great Lakes almost 30 years ago, and it remains a favorite of many trout and salmon fans there. Its hump back shape makes it wiggle through the water like a fat bait fish—a meal big fish just can't resist." Rich Giessuebel said in the book Great Fishing in Lake Ontario & Tributaries that the Little Cleo was among the "most popular" lures in the region, writing, "As for the Little Cleos, you will see them fished where anglers have a large concentration of salmon swimming around in a pocket of water in a non snatching section (such as beneath the power plant in the Oswego River). Here, fishermen cast Cleos with rather low expectations of a salmon actually chasing and striking the lure."