All right. Well, give me your background. How did you get into this? When did you decide?
You know what I should open up is a big package store.
Well, it started 25, 30 years ago. I started taking some of my lead jigs to work with me
and showing some of my friends at work. Oh yeah, I can buy some of these. Can I buy some of those?
And I said, sure. And then, well, it just kept on building after a while. And then I got my son involved.
I bought him a fly tying vise. And he started tying flies. And then my friends wanted flies.
So, okay. We started. And then after a while, we did have a little shop up in Michigan for a year.
And it got too hard to be traveling back and forth and everything. So we kind of stepped back for a little while and looked at property down here.
And we decided on a good location like this. I mean, it's near the lake and it's convenient and not very far from the house.
So, did you, you must have grown up fishing or is fishing a part of your life all along?
Well, yes. Being from the U.P., I guess we had more time to go fishing and a lot more fun up there because there's a lot more lakes close by.
And you've walked the summer lakes down here. Some lakes are 20 waffles apart. But yeah, I did quite a bit of fishing up north.
So, when did you start creating your own baits? 30, 30 some years ago, just the snowball, I guess you might say.
Was that something for fun or just to say? It was making baits for myself. And then, you know, I started taking a few to work with me and my friends seemed interesting.
Oh, can you make these here? And can you make something a little bit different? And yeah, make some flies and make spinners and just kind of snowball and a hobby turns into a business.
So, what's great about this is you've got family with you, right? Yes.
Why is that so important to doing this? Well, as a family business, I think you have more personal touch even to the customers that come in instead of being a higher corporate shop as such.
It has like a more personal touch and get them involved. And if they like it, they'll stick around. If they don't like it, they won't stick around.
And it's been working okay for us. And you probably see the same families come back as your customers, right? You probably remember little kids?
A story. We have a customer. When he was a teenager, he would ride his bike with a little cart on the back and he'd come in practically every day or every other day.
And now we've been here in over 23 years. So this is, he started coming in when we first started. And now he's like 35 years old and he still comes in every other day with his wife and his kid. So it's kind of unique that way.
So talk to me about, what is it about walleye that gets people cooked on fishing?
Well, fishing for walleye is a little bit different than fishing for panfish.
While I generally have to go out into the water, sure you can fish from shore, but out in the water, it's probably more enjoyable for the kids.
And they're not quite so restricted as how close you are to somebody else. Like if you fish from shore, they may be fishing elbow to elbow.
And it's just a, walleye is probably put up a better fight than some other panfish. Although, you know, the kids do like fishing for panfish also.
And I mean, when a kid catches a walleye, they pull this huge fish up. What does it do to them?
Well, I just, it's a remembrance that they caught a nice ice fish. Sometimes if they go into the park and catch a five or six or seven inch little panfish, they don't remember that as much as they would be catching a 20 inch walleye because they're so nice and fat.
And they can use it for a meal. Some panfish they can't really use for a meal. And it's just a good remembrance, I guess you might say.
And that's why it's, and for throughout the whole state, walleye could almost be the state fish. And it's just, it's just walleye. Everybody knows what walleye.
You know, while I go for fish, right, I got to have a walleye plate. I don't want to perch plate when I go out to eat.
Just walleye is the one, right? It's number one or number two on the list.
So, if you would, can you show us a little bit of how you make some of the lures? Is that possible? Do you have your set up open to either to put together a rig or something for us just so we can see a little video?
Okay, I'm going to turn that over to my partner. I'll introduce her.
Well, you got to talk over here. We have a microphone over here.