A collector from South Carolina last weekend paid more than $100,000 for an 1859 copper fishing lure, a record price for an American fishing collectible at auction.

The buyer, Tracey Shirey of Pomaria, outbid 18 others for the one-of-a-kind, 10-inch-long Haskell minnow at Boxborough, Mass.

Shirey, 33, called the saltwater lure the “Holy Grail of fishing lures” because of its age, rarity and uniqueness. The lure now sits in a safe-deposit box.

His bid of $92,000 beat 18 others, according to John Ganung, owner of Lang’s Sporting Collectables of Waterville, N.Y., which auctioned the lure. With commission, Shirey paid $101,200.

“I got it at a lot cheaper price than I anticipated,” said Shirey, who was willing to go higher in the bidding.

He figured the Haskell minnow would have fetched about $200,000 three or four years ago during a stronger economy.

Shirey also bought a smaller, 31/2-inch Haskell minnow for $19,000. Five or six are known to exist.

He intends to purchase the two other sizes that gunsmith Riley Haskell of Painesville, Ohio, made in the 1850s.

Ganung said the larger Haskell minnow is the only one that’s surfaced. The lure’s spinning, double hook was the first patented hook in the United States.

He said an individual in West Virginia, whom he would not identify, owned the lure.

The previous high price paid for a fishing collectible, according to Ganung, was a 1920s Chautauqua minnow, which in September sold on an eBay Internet auction for $45,855.

Shirey, a self-employed builder in Pomaria, about 35 miles northwest of Columbia, likes to fish for catfish and striped bass.

Does he ever plan to fish with his six-figure Haskell minnow?

“That lure,” he replied, taking the bait to the whimsical question, “will never be in the water.”