MILTON -- Bill Showers is a self-described river rat.
"I've been on the river all my life," he said.
The licensed fishing guide spends as much time as he can on the river, fishing for bass, pike, muskie and walleye.
A guy who's spent as much time fishing as he has would know a thing or two about what attracts the big ones. He knows what kind of bait or lure brings them in.
One thing he learned was that commercially available baits made with piano wire tend to break, especially after being hit by a big bass.
"A bass will eat anything, and they hit the bait hard," he noted.
In an effort to make a better bait, Showers began experimenting.
He got some stainless steel wire, bent it to the correct shape, attached two metal blades, then cast a lead weight that also secures the hook and added a colorful skirt to camouflage the hook.
"The blades spin when it's pulled through the water, and the vibration and the flash attract the fish. They see that skirt and bite at it," he said.
The prototype worked. He caught fish after fish on it, and the stainless steel wire held up.
"I can catch 30 or 40 fish in a day and fish for months without it breaking, " he said. "You pay $6 or $7 for other lures. I went through 51 in one year."
"I sell mine for $4.25," he went on. "They have the same action and the same quality. They're durable."
"I didn't mean to get this deep into this," he said. "I was making them for myself and my friends."
He bought enough materials to make about 100 of the baits, he said, but then things broke loose.
He was invited to appear on Ken Hunter's "Pennsylvania Outdoor Life" show on Channel 16, and then the orders began to roll in.
"I've sold 2,000 since April," he said. "I've been working three or four hours a day on them."
Showers is a guard at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. He works the night shift so he has time to make the baits during the day.
He makes them in a workshop in the basement of his Hepburn Street home, bending the wires himself. Everything is hand made, and he can supply the baits in 27 colors and with 107 blade combinations. His wife prints the labels on a home computer.
"I can't believe how this has taken off in the past year," he marvelled. "People take them to Canada, out west, everywhere. They say the fish love them."
In addition to making the baits, Showers is also a licensed fishing guide, taking people to hot spots on the West Branch and the North Branch.
"I've fished the river from Three Mile Island all the way to Lock Haven," he said. "I know exactly what to throw. I really enjoy taking people out and watching them catch fish."
He described a recent day, when he took an elderly man and his grandson out on the river.
"That 12-year-old had a ball, and so did his grandad. They had a contest going to see who could catch the most fish. Just seeing that made my day," he said.
He also fishes competitively, taking part in fishing tournaments on the SRT circuit. He won The Daily Item's NIE Tournament two years ago.
The Kickin' Bass Baits are available at the Blue Heron in Milton, Young's in Northumberland and at Southside Bait and Tackle in Sunbury, as well as on line at www.kickinbassbaits.com. Showers also attends a few sports and fishing shows to sell his products.
Sports
Outdoors: Milton man develops new fishing lure
Milton man develops new fishing lure
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