Kingfisher Manufacturing. The wooden lures come complete with colourful paint jobs. He started making lures more than 20 years ago, really getting into musky lures a decade ago. He used to tie buck tail jigs with his father, and picked up plenty about how to produce quality work instead of quantity. Leonard crafts wooden musky lures up to one pound in weight. It’s creating a vibriant design on the lure that drives Leonard.
“I like the painting and artistic side of it,” the 49-year-old said. “It is functional art. Shaping and painting are the fun parts. Making lures are a great release for me. I use my lures and have caught fish and other people have done so as well. When you put a lot of pride into something you make and it actually works, it’s a good feeling.”
Leonard currently works as a response specialist with the MNR in the aviation, forest fire and emergency services. He has lived all over Northern Ontario, including Chapleau and Sudbury for most of his life. He enjoys custom work the most.
“I like trying to figure out how to make something entirely new for somebody,” Leonard said.
The fishing world is taking notice of Parker and his company, Handlebarz Musky Lures.
It has been a steady rise for Handlebarz and the last two years have seen Parker’s creations reaching lofty status among musky anglers. Earlier this year, at the 2015 Muskie Lure World Championship held at the Muskie Expo in Chicago and Milwaukee, Parker’s White Tiger lure took first place in the Production Builder Blade Bait Division. In 2014, Parker’s lures were named one of the Top-5 Best New Fishing Gear by Outdoor Canada.
“The biggest reward for me and my family has been getting pictures or hearing stories of customers who caught fish using my lures,” Parker said. “The thrill comes when someone says they caught a fish of a life time. A fish they never dreamed of. I love that.”
Parker is demanding and this character trait is paying off for customers of his business.
Parker pays attention to the smallest details of his hand-tied and constructed musky lures. He doesn’t settle for inferior material. He will not have it. He makes the point clear over and over during an interview.
Parker builds bladed musky lures with flasher buck tails.
He insists on using stainless steel and the sturdiest hooks and blades. He uses solid brass for beads and a brass skirt collar. He meticulously ties every lure with the flasher buck tail material and heavy thread and epoxy. This dedication to building the best comes from Parker’s father, Gerry.
“Before my dad passed away in 2011, he told me to never cheap out,” Parker said. “He took a lot of pride in what I did and carried around pictures and showed people. He told me I had a good product and to keep it that way. The lures speak to the quality my father taught me.”
Parker was born in Chatham and moved to Greater Sudbury with his family when he was a kid and lived in the Nickel City into his 20s. He moved out west to drive transport trucks for a living and it has been his full-time job since. He still considers himself a Northern Ontario boy no matter how long and how far away he lives from Sudbury. Eighteen years ago, a job opportunity came up in Chatham, and Parker moved there and has been there ever since. He met his wife, Danna, and they started a family.
When Parker was growing up, he did a lot of tinkering with lures and made his own tackle. At 16, he joined a club with his dad and they tied flies together. Later, Parker started making his own worm harnesses for walleye fishing. This was the foundation that would launch his musky lure business years later.
Parker lost many walleye to musky when fishing on Lake St. Clair. He beefed up one of his worm harnesses and ended up catching a musky more than 40-inches long. It all started there as Parker got more into musky fishing, but didn’t like the cost of many lures on the market. He went about making his own, along with the help of his wife and kids, and it took convincing from a friend to eventually bring them to the retail industry.
“I was a die-hard walleye guy,” Parker said. “I got that musky and shared the moment with my dad. It was a fish I had to catch over and over again. I started by making lures for myself and friends. In 2009, the lures started selling at a local store and it’s been slowly growing ever since.”
Parker hopes his lures will catch on with more musky anglers and it becomes a full-time job.
“Five days a week, I drive truck and see thousands and thousands of cars,” he said. “I would love to see Handlebarz keep growing and growing to where it becomes my full-time job. Each year, we are picking up new customers. It is a great end goal.”
Passion and principles drive lure makers
BY SCOTT HADDOW
Wild Northerner staff
Dan Leonard and Mike Parker have a lot in common. They both hail originally from southern Ontario. They have both lived in Northern Ontario. They both love fishing. They both love make musky fishing lures and learned their craftsmanship values from their fathers.
Leonard works a lot with locally-harvested wood from the Greater Sudbury area, producing works of art out of cherry, basswood, poplar, pine, maple and oak for his company,