Tackle Craft

  Several years ago my good friend and golfer extraordinaire Alec Katzman, espoused that "all serious golfers should have a hand in building their own clubs". He didn't give a reason why...but I know why. It's because, among other things, it creates a more intimate and personal connection between the instrument and its user. I have felt very strongly about this for a very long time. In fact, it has created a fair amount of psychological havoc in my life. For close to 26 years now I have not been able to bring myself to fish with a factory-built rod. Nothing against factory-built rods...many of them are finely crafted tools. I just don't feel the personal connection to the time spent on the water in the same way that I do fishing with a rod that I built.

  The same goes for tying flies. With all of the thousands of dollars in fly-tying tools and materials I have amassed over the years, it is SO hard for me to justify buying a mass-produced pattern in a fly shop. Besides, I like to tie some pretty wacky stuff, and it's fun and interesting to see how far outside the bounds of traditional patterns you can go before a fish just flat-out refuses to eat.

  Way back in 2007, I played around with pouring soft plastic baits for conventional tackle fishing. It was a very enjoyable pursuit, but at the time there just wasn't a lot of variety in terms of what molds were available to the home hobbyist. And, what was on the market was quite expensive. Jack and I still do a significant amount of fishing with spinning gear, and recently he has shown an interest in pouring soft plastics. After doing some research, I was amazed at the variety of molds available on the open market these days. And as a bonus, the cost has come down A LOT. This week saw four aluminum open-pour molds for us to start with along with a plethora of colorants, glitter, pearl additives, and plastisol. Jack spent most of the day Sunday working out the techniques required to produce a professional-looking bait.

  All this to say that like Alec, I believe that the more an angler can become connected to the experience of fishing through the act of designing and creating as much of his equipment as possible the better. Not only does it enrich the on-the-water experience, but it also can fill the days when circumstances beyond one's control simply won't permit one to go fishing.

  As my good friend Bil Falconer likes to say; "It's a way for me to be on the water, when I can't be on the water".

Hope you all are having a great week!

Andy