Cuba, MO's a small town with big ideas? Just ask Ozark Ed. - Cuba, MO

Cuba, MO Ozark Ed's World's Ozark Shiner Lure

Ozark Ed, local fisherman and craftsman, spent the summer crafting a record breaking Ozark Shiner lure. The sign says his lure is two feet longer than the official World’s Largest lure., which is 10’10” long.

Cuba, MO may only have a population of 3400 and have the smallest WalMart in the U.S., but we’ve got some big stuff too. And people with big ideas. Maybe not big like the Willis building in Chicago or the Empire State Building in New York, but big.

Here are some examples:

The Fanning Outpost Guinness World’s Largest Rocking Chair 42+ feet tall

World's Largest Rocking Chair Fanning, MO

The World’s Largest Rocking Chair brings many to take photos.

The Hayes Shoe Store Robert Wadlow Shoes Size 35 & 37

Hayes Shoe Store has two Robert Wadlow shoes on display. This souvenir pin shows one of them.

The Three Mile Creek bed & sign (size unknown)

Three Mile Creek, crafters of custom furniture, uses its oversized bed as part of their signage.

And we’ve got some old stuff

The Wagon Wheel Motel– the oldest continuously operating motel on Route 66 since 1935
The Wagon Wheel Motel has been welcoming travelers since 1935.

And now Cuba has one more mega-artifact thanks to Ozark Ed Smith who crafts handmade lures at his country home north of Cuba. Ed’s son Patrick thought that it would be neat for his dad to build the “World’s Largest Fishing Lure” in keeping with many of the other large artifacts in Cuba. Ed can build just about anything, so he took the challenge. This is a really big fish (lure) story.

The base of the lure is wooden, and Ed molded fiber glass screen to build the form, and then covered it with foam. The inside of the lure holds old cans and other filler. The lure is a larger replica of one of Ed’s Ozark Shiner lures. Of course, after it was built and painted, Ed and his son had to test it out. They tied it to the back of their boat and away they went. It lure performed admirably with good action. Now, Patrick is dealing with the application to Guinness World’s Record. The current record holder lure is 10’10”, and Ed’s is two feet longer.

Where it makes the record or not, Ed built the lure for fun. “Even if I get the record, I know someone will come along and break it pretty quickly,” he stated.

The smaller Ozark Shiner is for smallmotuh bass. Ed wasn’t sure if you could catch anything on the giant lure but if you did, “it would have to be a whale of a fish,” according to Ed.

Ozark Ed plans to be at Cuba Fest 2012 with his handmade lures and with the big Ozark Shiner lure. He is working on a way that kids can sit on it and get their pictures taken.

Cuba Fest is October 20-21, 2012 in the Recklein Commons area. Make sure you stop by Ozark Ed’s space to see his lures of all sizes. You can’t miss this one.