COLUMN : THE TINKERER
PHOTO BY BRANDON ROWAN knock it off !
When ‘ copycat lures ’ are more than just copycats
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
If it ’ s creative , national award-winning writer Sean Ostruszka is all about it . He combines mad ingenuity with 20 years of knowledge and experience in the fishing business to design lures for professional anglers and top brands in the bass industry .
“ Eh , it ’ s just another knockoff .”
There may be no more derogatory statement about a lure than this one . Sure , if the lure doesn ’ t swim right or casts like a straw , there are plenty of colorful ways to say it ’ s junk . But to call a lure a “ knockoff ,” that carries a stigma .
It ’ s a term that implies the lure is not as good as the original . It ’ s also an insult to the company that produced it , suggesting the company isn ’ t innovative and just trying to copy others to make a dollar .
Considering this magazine issue will arrive in mailboxes shortly after ICAST 2024 — the industry ’ s new-product showcase — it felt important to address the issue of knockoffs . Attending ICAST means hearing the term A LOT . Full disclosure , I ’ ve said it plenty of times myself while there . To explain , let me ask you a couple questions . First , what ’ s the last original lure idea ? I ’ ll argue there hasn ’ t been one in decades , if not longer . That ’ s not a shot at lure companies ; it ’ s just reality . To quote Mark Twain , “ There is no such thing as an original idea .”
While we all like to think we ’ re creative and have original thoughts and ideas , the truth is everything builds off something else . You may create an original concept , but that concept stems from somewhere .
Take the Z-Man ChatterBait . It was a truly innovative product when it hit the scene , and it ’ s still fooling bass today . But it built off the existing ideas of a skirted jig and a blade that vibrates underneath the water — things that had been around for decades . For whatever reason , no one had ever thought to combine the two until Ron Davis did it .
The Yamamoto Senko is another example . It might be the most copied lure in history . And yet , you could argue it ’ s not exactly original . Gary Yamamoto modeled it after the pen he was holding when he was trying to design a lure . The con-
22 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2024