Berk immediately got on a plane and flew to Connecticut and met with the manufacturer, whom he convinced to use the same process to coat thin wire fishing leaders for him. Monofilament line had been available prior to that and had significant advantages over other lines like silk and braid that had to be dried out after fishing. It paired well with the newly invented and popular spinning reels. Problem was, its production was dominated by the industry goliath DuPont.
In fact, Berkley bought large drums of mono from DuPont and wound it on smaller spools for sale to the public. When his fishing line sales started to take off, Berk approached DuPont executives to see if they would license their process to him. Berk happened to mention this snub to a former fraternity brother who was working to get a license as a patent attorney. His buddy checked the Federal Register and discovered DuPont had reached an agreement with the federal government that required the company to license the process to anyone who requested it.
DuPont had flat out lied to the hick upstart from Iowa! In his biography. Ever the bulldog, Berk got his license and started to extrude his own monofilament fishing line, selling sell it for much cheaper than his competitors who had to buy from DuPont.
And then he did DuPont one better. DuPont had come up with an improved mono line it called Stren that was stronger and more supple than regular nylon line, but Berk turned DuPont down when he was asked to become a distributor. Berk experimented and eventually found a way to one-up Stren with his own product he called Trilene.
Trilene proved to be stronger than Stren and won the popularity contest among experienced fishermen. Sales boomed, and years later in Sports Afield magazine would include Trilene in its list of years of awesome gear that rocked the outdoor world. It is still the best-selling line in the world. Ever the modest one, during our lunch, this was a fact was never mentioned by Mr.
As his business continued to flourish, Berk somehow found time to run and win a seat in Congress as a Democrat from Iowa. He served four terms before retiring because he had contracted Lyme Disease.
But like in the business world, he established an impressive track record in politics. He was one of the first politicians of the era to hold town hall meetings and ask his constituents to vote on issues he would be facing in Congress.
He was one of the first Congressman to blow the whistle on the Iran-Contra cover-up by the Reagan Administration. Throughout his career he was a champion for small businesses and the little guy versus big corporations. Just as he was an early opponent of the Vietnam War, Berk signed a petition in with 70 other former Congressmen against military intervention in Iraq, sagely predicting that an Iraq war would be similar to the Vietnam quagmire.
While Berk was carving out a political career, all the while the Berkley Company continued to be a leader in the tackle world, its team of chemists and engineers experimenting and searching for that next breakthrough. Research and development has been a company priority since the early days. I especially liked the story Berk tells of how the famous line of Gulp lures were brought to market.
In , soft plastic lures in the form of imitation worms developed by an inquisitive machinist from Akron named Nick Creme created an upheaval in the tackle industry. Creme had been given an assortment of plastics by a DuPont lab technician and began experimenting in his kitchen, reportedly stinking up the house according to his wife Cosma.
When he finally succeeded in producing a soft, durable plastic imitation worm, it took off like a skyrocket with bass fisherman, especially in the South. Then in , the lure manufacturer Mister Twister patented the Curly Tail concept using a more flexible silicone-based plastic to create a product with more life-like action and better fishing results.
My boys now in their 30s caught their first trout on rainbow-colored Powerbait dough balls, a scene recently repeated with my little munchkin granddaughter Aly. According to Berk, in the early s the company was approached by an amateur angler with the idea to use a lure material that was similar to Powerbait, but made with a water-based resin that would soak up and release more scent. But, at the end of the day, consumers who are equally passionate about the sport — not the casual tackle box stuffer; but the ones who can calculate barometric pressure, water temperature and wind influence in their head — know legitimate quality from smoke-and-mirrors.
In an industry awash with gimmicks, Berkley pairs the real with the reel. Each year since Bedell founded Berkley and Company in has seen impactful additions, but a handful of key products have spurred advancement. With this avenue well established, Bedell turned his attention to fishing line, a course that would deliver industry-leading products such as Berkley Trilene , Trilene XL , FireLine , Vanish and NanoFil Expanding into fishing rods broadened the Berkley profile and yielded iconic creations by the names of Berkley Cherrywood and Berkley Lightning Rod Baits would be the next peak to climb and in Berkley released Strike — the first product to include real baitfish.
About three years later, the culmination of fish biologist Dr. Soon after, Power Worms and other molded plastics would follow, but this initial debut was nothing short of revolutionary. We were the first to bring scent and flavor into the market and show how it is impactful to the fish. All the research was worth it because everything we do is based around that fish research.
No doubt, many PowerBait products have justified the claim, but Sexton points to the Chigger Craw as a true beacon of success. Anyone remember using WD as an attractant? While effective, these early attractants were short-lived once in the water.
The Berkley team began their research by setting up a fish laboratory at Sprit Lake, Iowa, containing between and 3, live fish in aquaria. Cotton pellets that soaked in a liquid attractant were dropped into the pools and the fishs reactions and how long they would hold on to them were recorded. The concept was that the longer a trout held on, the better the attractant. The team, led by renowned ichthyologist Dr. Keith Jones, and the Berkley R andamp; D team increased the effectiveness of the attractants over time by concentrating them and eventually exaggerating them in synthetic moldable putty and dough, which anglers could form around a hook.
After PowerBaits laboratory evaluations were complete, the formulations were brought out to June Lake for testing. Two PowerBait formulations were tested against their leading competitors product and against natural salmon eggs. Some members of the R andamp; D team thought fish would prefer natural salmon eggs, so one formula actually included salmon roe. Next week we will take a look at the results of the field testing that led to PowerBait becoming a huge part of the fishing industry.
Bruce Ajari is a Truckee resident and regular fishing columnist for the Sierra Sun and other area newspapers. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
0コメント