LadyRattleHead

Wanting to silence rattles in a hard plastic baits. What is the best material to fill chamber with that will not affect buoyancy and weight? Epoxy, supper glue, expanding foam, JB plastic weld, What is works the best? Thanks, RHB.

I am surprised in a fishing seminar demonstration using a fish tank that they would actually try to catch the fish. For example, in the Berkley tank, if a fish takes a lure while they are demonstrating it they will not set the hook and gently pull it out of the fish's mouth. In addition, I learned at the FLW Outdoor show that these large companies allow fishing personalities to demonstrate other brands of lures in fishing seminars using the Berkley tank. For example, Berkley does not sell spinnerbaits, so they came by our booth one morning at the FLW Cup and asked if they could have a few of ours for Hank Parker or Jimmy Houston (not sure which one, didn't get to watch the show) to demostrate. However, have seen a Berkley fishing seminar before and as they demonstrate each lure, they show and talk about diffent ways of rigging and fishing it, the advantages of the brand of lure they are using and general things to look for in this lure type before purchasing. Thus, I am a big fan of tank demonstrations conducted in this manner. I think they allow consumers to both see how to correctly rig and fish different types of lures with which they may not be familiar and to observe how these lures look in the water. For example, in a water tank demonstration, you would be able to check out first hand before purchasing, such things as how the skirt flares on a spinnerbait, how easily a football jig stands up on the bottom, and whether or not a plastic floats, while at the same time learning some techniques for fishing them. As far as the demonstator catching the fish in the tank, I think it is an irrelevant and unnecessary factor in the demonstration, and, I for one, would not give it a second's thought when deciding whether or not to purchase a new lure.

Dad, caught these 2 good fish on a jig in on a area lake in East Tenn. The large mouth went 4.8 and the small mouth 4.3 lbs and were caught in 12-15 foot. He was the one that took time to take my brother and I fishing when we were little. Now we get to take him and our boys.

I guess, I will give my two cents on this, on the lure stocking aspect anyway, since I deal with mom and pop retailers. Most of the basics have been covered, but thought I would add that for you to compete with BPS, etc. you would need to sell good quality lures, etc. that they don't sell. And, since most of the baits that they sell are manufacturered overseas you might want to look for Sm. American manufacturers. Many Sm. Am. Manufacturer do not enforce their miniumum orders, but will charge you shipping on a small order. Most sm. manufacturers will also expect you to pay upfront on your first order, and then if your credit app. is approved, offer you a 30 day credit for subsequent orders. In addition, there are generally 4 price ranges. 1) Lg. Distributor, 2) Sm. Distributor/ Lg. Retailer 3) Small Retailer and 4) end user. The general profit margin of any product for a retailer is between 25% to 40%. Last, most sm. manufacturers do not enforce. msrp's. But, be very careful on pricing for if you price products too high, you will price yourself right out of business. In addition, you will probally need to look for a few local custom manufacturers and sell their products in your store. Regardless, be prepared for working 24-7 and a huge expense. Most businesses do not make a profit for 3-5 years if they ever make a profit at all. Thus, as with anything, my best advice is too have a fallback plan that will feed you and your family.

Being a manufacturer, I could write pages on this subject, but will try to be brief. But thought, you guys might like a little inside knowledge on various tackle review sources. Bass Resource- As most already know, Excellent! We have advertised with several forums and I have to say I don't know of any other forum that restricts their advertisers to ones that they feel sell quality products. You have to give Glenn a thumbs up for sticking with his principles! Tackle Tour- Excellent! You can not send Tackle Tour product samples and ask them to do a review. They will not respond. If they do choose to do a review on a product, the first time the product's manufacturer will actually hear anything about their review is after it has already shown up on their website. Magazines- Have had dealings with BassMaster, Bass Times, FLW Outdoors, Bassin', North American Fisherman and Heartland. Was impressed with the integrity of the information published in ALL of these magazines. Why? Because we are a small company and to this day, have yet to spend a dime advertising in any of these magazines It simply costs more that we have to spend on advertising. Yet, our spinnerbait has been featured in all of them. This tells me that the focus of their articles is more on the quality of the product itself than on how many advertising dollars a company has spent with them. On the downside, I've have had one magazine, (not one of the ones mentioned above, but one I shalll leave nameless) tell me that they wouldn't even look at our product unless we advertised with them first. So , to sum up, As a manufacturer, I have been pleasantly surprised with the integrity of most media resources pertaining to the sportsfishing industry.