While most people see things as they are , we ask " what if " and " why not ” — and then we ask follow-up questions to understand the understanding .
We ’ re exhausting people to be around at times , I ’ m sure . It probably only gets worse when you realize our curiosity rarely stops with questions . It almost always spurs action .
When a fishing buddy wishes a lure could be more weedless , the tinkerer goes home and spends the whole night ( or many nights ) drilling , glueing , and / or tweaking the lure until it ’ s more weedless . Or , after learning what makes a particular lure so good , the tinkerer will go home and modify dozens of lures to have that new trait .
Every problem is a challenge to be solved , even if the challenge is against ourselves and whether or not we can create it . One of my favorite examples of this was the first lure I designed for a company , the 6th Sense Splashback popper . I originally created some homemade balsa versions for myself after learning about the discontinued Rebel P70 Pop-Rs . I ’ d asked around about what made them so great , learning all the little nuances and idiosyncrasies . Then I pulled out some balsa wood , and I started carving ( using a utility blade ). I started sanding ( covering my living room coffee table in dust ). I started
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER weighting ( melting lead with a spoon on my stove ). I started testing ( learning very quickly balsa wood does NOT do well with water and needs to be sealed really well ).
I had some utter failures , but pretty soon , I also had balsa versions that cast better , walked tighter ( some could turn 180 degrees in place ), could both spit and pop and had one-knockers in them ( a secret quirk of the old P70s ). And once professional anglers found out , I couldn ’ t make enough of them .
Could I have just coughed up the $ 100 to buy an original off eBay ? Sure . But that ’ s not what tinkerers do .
There ’ s little enjoyment or pride from going the easy route . To us , the problem and the solving of it are more fun than the finished product . I ’ m not sure there ’ s a lure or piece of tackle out there I haven ’ t looked at and thought , “ I wonder how it can be better ?”
Hence why , instead of buying a lure in a color I kind of like , or I ’ ll often buy the ugly version of it ( even from the bargain bin ), learn how to paint it and then paint it to a color I love . Or I ’ ll look at the hook placement on a lure and wonder if I can increase the hook-up ratio by moving it .
Do I sometimes ruin lures with my cutting , drilling and gluing ? Oh yeah ! I have whole piles of Frankenstein ’ s monsters I ’ ve ruined through the years . But I also have lures more valuable because of their uniqueness than 1,000 lures combined .
I know many of you will think I ’ m crazy . If I ’ m being honest , that ’ s one of the disappointments of the industry as a whole : How tinkerers are becoming fewer and fewer . They ’ re being forced out by “ experts ” — people who just recreate exact replicas of what true tinkerers create or who embrace what pro anglers tell them to do as gospel , no questions asked .
Remember the story at the beginning ? Well , it didn ’ t end there . The guide shared something that has stuck with me just as much as his sort-of compliment about my curiosity .
After apologizing for asking so many questions ( I was 13 after all and deathly afraid of being perceived as being annoying ), the guide said the following :
“ Don ’ t apologize for it , Sean . It ’ s a good thing . I spend more than 300 days a year in the boat with ‘ experts ’ who brag nonstop about how much they know . They know everything . They know more than me , despite the fact they ’ re paying me for my expert knowledge . And I ’ m no expert . If I was , I could guarantee fish every time I go out , and I can ’ t . None of us are experts . We should always be asking questions and trying to learn . Few do , though .” After building and designing lures for myself and companies for more than 20 years , I can tell you with full honesty , I ’ m no expert . And I never will be .
I still design lures that absolutely , flat out suck . But that ’ s part of being a tinkerer — understanding you ’ re going to fail and continuing to do it anyways , because every failure is an opportunity to learn .
And what makes me proud is that even if I ’ m creating something similar to another lure , it ’ s never the same . I ’ m always looking to improve it . I didn ’ t want to create a P70 Pop- R . Those already existed . I wanted to create something better .
There is always a better way . It ’ s just a matter of asking the right questions and not being afraid to get your hands on things , testing and learning until you solve the problem .
That is being a tinkerer .
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2024 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 27