spectr17
01-16-2003, 06:12 PM
Anglers ensure lure-makers have recession-proof careers
Dave Rice, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
11/12/2002
If it wasn’t for people like me and the guys I fish with, the people who own fishing catalog sales companies like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops would not be living in the lap of luxury.
One of the reasons they are so well off is that we are lure-junkies. And even though the economy is struggling, I’ll just bet Mr. Cabela and Mr. Morris (Bass Pro Shops) are still living very well. Why? Because I doubt that my partners and I are the only lure-junkies in the U.S.
We have gone through a number of lure addictions in the last 20 or so years. The last one was “glow-in-the-dark” lures. The story goes that one day on Donner Lake, fishing was really slow. And as he usually does, Don Quilici Jr. started rummaging around in my tackle box looking for something different to try. He comes up with a glow-in-the-dark rubber squid about 6-inches long. I got it in the mail from some clown as a joke. He ran a huge hook through it and over the side it goes to be trolled alongside my more conventional lure. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I just had to rant and rave about how stupid it was that he was using such a ridiculous thing in an attempt to catch a fish that obviously had more class than he did. It couldn’t have been 10 minutes before he was fighting what turned out to be a 19-pound mackinaw.
That’s all it took. We were hooked big time. We bought every lure we could find that glowed in the dark, and Cabela and Morris got richer. We even bought glow paint and made our own lures. That’s all we talked about and that’s all we used – glow lures. And we caught fish. Not more than we had caught on other lures, but we were in lure-junkie heaven and no one realized that the glow lures didn’t work any better than our old lures. Today, I may be the owner of the largest glow-in-the-dark lure collection in the west, hell, maybe the nation. Haven’t used one of them in years.
And there have been other times and other lures, but I’ll spare you the details. It’s that never ending search for that one lure that catches fish every time you put it in the water. It only takes one good day with a particular lure and off we go. Which brings us to a recent fishing trip to Lake Tahoe. Quilici, , Carson City Deputy Fire Chief Steve Mihelic and me in Quilici’s boat with my new Lake Tahoe wonder lure.
Many years ago, a friend told me about a mackinaw trout angler at Tahoe who only used a particular lure and always caught fish. The special lure was described to me in detail, but my friend did not know the name of the lure nor the manufacturer. For the past 15 years I have searched for that lure at flea markets, as well as in junk and antique stores. To date I have found three that seem to match at least the paint color and pattern as described.
Then I met Bill Ronchetti, Reno auto restorer and lure-maker. Some might recall a column about Ronchetti and his lure-making a few months back. Anyway, I took one of the lures to Ronchetti’s shop a couple of weeks ago and he painted up two different prototypes for me to try at the lake. They are yellow with black spots and yellow with black bars that slant backward down both sides of the lure. He used his recently purchased blank, lightweight metal trolling spoons.
So, we get to the lake and Quilici and Mihelic bait up with minnows. That’s when I bring out my four new lures. With total sincerity, I told them the story of the lures and that I was convinced they will fill the boat with fish by the end of the day. I offered each the chance to buy one for $25, but warned that the price would go to $50 as soon one of the lures caught a fish. They said things that can’t be repeated here, but it had something to do with what I could do with my new lures. Neither took me up on my offer to buy one either.
Even though Quilici was doing a decent job of steering the boat for a change and keeping us in what should have been productive fishing grounds, it was a real slow day for the two of them.
It wasn’t long before I lost one of the striped lures, and everything else, when my wire line broke at a splice. Re-rigged, I continued to fish and a few minutes later I caught a 26-inch, 5-pound rainbow trout on one of the spotted lures. This alone, it appeared, was not enough to get my partners to change their minds about my lure. Then, I caught another rainbow that Mihelic says was at least 18-inches. It got off the lure at the boat and Mihelic refused to jump overboard to try to net it. Then I got the third hit. This fish, I convinced my two partners, was at least as large as the first, but it got off as I began to reel it in. We left about 1 p.m. when Quilici became convinced he wasn’t going to catch any mackinaw that day, and apparently $50 was too much to invest in catching a fish.
The two kept up their “I’m still not impressed” facade most of the way home until I offered to have Ronchetti make a few more of the yellow wonder lures that I just might share with them. That’s all it took. We’re all hooked now. The only saving grace this time is that I haven’t seen very many yellow lures with black spots or bars in stores or catalogs. And at least this time it will be Ronchetti the lure-maker who will be getting rich.
Dave Rice retired in 2001 after 30 years with the Nevada Division of Wildlife, 25 years as chief conservation officer. He can be reached at thomascreek@@worldnet.att.net.
Dave Rice, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
11/12/2002
If it wasn’t for people like me and the guys I fish with, the people who own fishing catalog sales companies like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops would not be living in the lap of luxury.
One of the reasons they are so well off is that we are lure-junkies. And even though the economy is struggling, I’ll just bet Mr. Cabela and Mr. Morris (Bass Pro Shops) are still living very well. Why? Because I doubt that my partners and I are the only lure-junkies in the U.S.
We have gone through a number of lure addictions in the last 20 or so years. The last one was “glow-in-the-dark” lures. The story goes that one day on Donner Lake, fishing was really slow. And as he usually does, Don Quilici Jr. started rummaging around in my tackle box looking for something different to try. He comes up with a glow-in-the-dark rubber squid about 6-inches long. I got it in the mail from some clown as a joke. He ran a huge hook through it and over the side it goes to be trolled alongside my more conventional lure. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I just had to rant and rave about how stupid it was that he was using such a ridiculous thing in an attempt to catch a fish that obviously had more class than he did. It couldn’t have been 10 minutes before he was fighting what turned out to be a 19-pound mackinaw.
That’s all it took. We were hooked big time. We bought every lure we could find that glowed in the dark, and Cabela and Morris got richer. We even bought glow paint and made our own lures. That’s all we talked about and that’s all we used – glow lures. And we caught fish. Not more than we had caught on other lures, but we were in lure-junkie heaven and no one realized that the glow lures didn’t work any better than our old lures. Today, I may be the owner of the largest glow-in-the-dark lure collection in the west, hell, maybe the nation. Haven’t used one of them in years.
And there have been other times and other lures, but I’ll spare you the details. It’s that never ending search for that one lure that catches fish every time you put it in the water. It only takes one good day with a particular lure and off we go. Which brings us to a recent fishing trip to Lake Tahoe. Quilici, , Carson City Deputy Fire Chief Steve Mihelic and me in Quilici’s boat with my new Lake Tahoe wonder lure.
Many years ago, a friend told me about a mackinaw trout angler at Tahoe who only used a particular lure and always caught fish. The special lure was described to me in detail, but my friend did not know the name of the lure nor the manufacturer. For the past 15 years I have searched for that lure at flea markets, as well as in junk and antique stores. To date I have found three that seem to match at least the paint color and pattern as described.
Then I met Bill Ronchetti, Reno auto restorer and lure-maker. Some might recall a column about Ronchetti and his lure-making a few months back. Anyway, I took one of the lures to Ronchetti’s shop a couple of weeks ago and he painted up two different prototypes for me to try at the lake. They are yellow with black spots and yellow with black bars that slant backward down both sides of the lure. He used his recently purchased blank, lightweight metal trolling spoons.
So, we get to the lake and Quilici and Mihelic bait up with minnows. That’s when I bring out my four new lures. With total sincerity, I told them the story of the lures and that I was convinced they will fill the boat with fish by the end of the day. I offered each the chance to buy one for $25, but warned that the price would go to $50 as soon one of the lures caught a fish. They said things that can’t be repeated here, but it had something to do with what I could do with my new lures. Neither took me up on my offer to buy one either.
Even though Quilici was doing a decent job of steering the boat for a change and keeping us in what should have been productive fishing grounds, it was a real slow day for the two of them.
It wasn’t long before I lost one of the striped lures, and everything else, when my wire line broke at a splice. Re-rigged, I continued to fish and a few minutes later I caught a 26-inch, 5-pound rainbow trout on one of the spotted lures. This alone, it appeared, was not enough to get my partners to change their minds about my lure. Then, I caught another rainbow that Mihelic says was at least 18-inches. It got off the lure at the boat and Mihelic refused to jump overboard to try to net it. Then I got the third hit. This fish, I convinced my two partners, was at least as large as the first, but it got off as I began to reel it in. We left about 1 p.m. when Quilici became convinced he wasn’t going to catch any mackinaw that day, and apparently $50 was too much to invest in catching a fish.
The two kept up their “I’m still not impressed” facade most of the way home until I offered to have Ronchetti make a few more of the yellow wonder lures that I just might share with them. That’s all it took. We’re all hooked now. The only saving grace this time is that I haven’t seen very many yellow lures with black spots or bars in stores or catalogs. And at least this time it will be Ronchetti the lure-maker who will be getting rich.
Dave Rice retired in 2001 after 30 years with the Nevada Division of Wildlife, 25 years as chief conservation officer. He can be reached at thomascreek@@worldnet.att.net.