Two years ago, Larry Davidson didn’t know exactly what ICAST was all about. Now he champions it, especially after his brainchild won Best of Show there. Davidson’s square-bottom hooks took the Terminal Tackle title in 2016, and Trapper Tackle has been full steam ahead since.
“Oh my goodness, I think it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to us,” Davidson said of the award. “It seems like everything since has been almost overnight.
“A year ago we introduced it, and it’s now in hundreds of stores across the U.S., three in Hawaii, and there are people in the UK who are now wanting to buy the product. It’s crazy. It’s hard to fathom that we went that fast.”
Davidson came up with the idea for the two 90-degree angles, or trap, at the bottom of the hook about 10 years ago. The concept simmered for years before heating up around four years ago. He mentioned the oldest known fishing hook to man was recently discovered in a cave, and it dated back to 42,000 years ago.
“I thought to myself, I have just created something that took 43,000 years to get here, and I’ve now got something that no other hook in the world is capable of doing,” he said. “I said, ‘I’ve got to let the world know.’ ”
SEEING THE PROBLEM AND SOLVING IT
Necessity is the mother of invention, and Davidson, 71, clearly saw there was a problem to fix when he watched a bass attack his bait just 10 feet from the boat.
Davidson hails from Indian Orchard, Mass., and was an avid tournament angler. His accolades include 21 Mr. Bass titles, 13 consecutive club championships and 16 angler of the year titles. His modesty blows them off as “local stuff, nothing regional.”
That lost fish more than a decade ago put his mind into action. In clear water, about 3 to 4 feet deep, a bass came out from under a log and grabbed his lure. He tried to set the hook but witnessed his Texas-rigged worm just pull out of the fish’s mouth.
“I lost it. I saw it all happen,” he said. “When you hide the point of the hook in the worm, I realized the hook would lay flat in the fish’s mouth and it was too easy to pull it out. You’re not exerting the right pressure to get that hook to pop through.
“So that’s why you hear people say to set the hook as hard as you can, so the hook can come through the lure.”
Once a fish is hooked, traditional J-style hooks have a tendency to rotate in the fish’s mouth, create a larger hole and allow the fish a better chance to escape. Readjusting worms or having bait corkscrew through the water also had Davidson wondering how to better secure the plastics. He said he thought the key was figuring out how to lock the bait in place.
The idea was born for two right angles to create a trap, making it difficult for the bait to climb up either direction. Davidson hand-crafted his first prototype, first, sending hooks with his son to take the hardness out. Then he just used a pair of pliers to make the bends and sent it back to get heat treated.
On the hook’s first outing, rigged with a Mann’s 8-inch jelly worm, a fish bit and was brought to the boat by Davidson’s best friend, Alan Chrusciel.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t caught by me,” Davidson said. “The second I grabbed the fish out of the water, I went, ‘It happened!’ You could see how it was hooked, how it was so solid in there. I realized then I had created more than I had bargained for.”
That trap that kept the bait in place also worked on the fish — the lip was stuck in the bottom flat area as the fish had little leverage to escape. It was quite the happy discovery.
“A lot of people want to come up and say I was a genius, but I didn’t realize it would do the same thing to the fish,” Davidson said. “I wish I was that much of a genius.”
BRINGING IN A PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Several years passed since the hook’s conception, with Davidson learning more and more what needed to be done to bring it to market. He said it took a while before he finally told himself he was going to “take the bull by the horns and make it happen.”
A smart move was bringing in professionals, and the first was his nephew, George Catuogno, who has extensive experience running a business. He left two companies to concentrate on being CEO of Landum Outdoors, the parent company for Trapper Tackle.
“Larry approached me and said the one thing I’m lacking is the business leadership and know-how,” Catuogno said, “and obviously, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Catuogno and another associate put up money to get things rolling, and an important step was putting the right people in place for research and development. Former Bassmaster emcee Keith Alan was brought on board, tasked with selecting a team already in the industry.
A key was to quietly have the hooks tested. Alan employed a number of tournament bass anglers, asking them to put the still handmade hooks through the paces. Californian Vince Hurtado, who fished the first Elite season, and Daniel Greene from Jacksonville, Fla., were skeptical.
“My initial reaction was, ‘Ehhhh, really?’ It was almost like the Banjo minnow style gimmick, but I tried it. No big deal,” Greene said. “First tournament, didn’t lose a fish. Second tournament, didn’t lose a fish. Ok, I got something here. I called said, ‘Great hook.’ Finish wasn’t so great.”
Hurtado had a similarly negative reaction.
“When I first saw it, I thought, ‘What are those guys thinking?’ The more and more I looked it, the more I realized there’s some physics and geometry that might work,” he said.
He fished it on Clear Lake, the California Delta, and New Bullard’s Bar, etc., and said the proof was in the pudding. “After a lot of time and a lot of fish catches, we definitely have results,” he said.
Both anglers found it difficult to adhere to the non-disclosure agreement they signed. Greene said he just wanted to tell his buddies, “Dude, you have got to try this hook.”
Hurtado even had a friend stop by his house, pick up a rigged hook he accidentally left out and interrogate him about it.
“He was like ‘What the heck is this?’ ‘It’s just a brush hog.’ ‘No, what is this?’ He ripped it off, held the hook out and said, ‘What is this?’ ” said Hurtado, who bit his tongue, adding only that he couldn’t talk about it and his friend would have to wait.
The angler feedback created only minor tweaks, and the biggest deal was manufacturing the hooks to industry standards.
BACK WHERE IT ALL STARTED
ICAST 2017 begins this week at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., and the Trapper team will be among the expected 10,000-plus industry workers filling 650,000 square feet of floor space.
After winning Best of Show in 2016, the Trapper hook went on to win awards at the Pitman Creek and Big Rock dealer shows.
“To get the trifecta was really instrumental in creating a tremendous amount of promotion,” Catuogno said. “Without a doubt, it added validity to our product. That was really important to us.
“We’ve been really fortunate to receive a great deal of attention from some of the premier sales reps who picked up the line.”
Trapper hooks are available at DICK’S Sporting Goods, Tackle Warehouse and several independent dealers. Catuogno said the first point of business was consumer awareness, which media has helped build.
“It’s a fine balancing act of having products out there,” he said. “We do have a large footprint, nationally, at this point. We’ve got treble hooks coming out this year, which we are introducing at ICAST. And we’re looking at crossing over in saltwater and to keep on going.”
Davidson will be there touting, and explaining, his concept. He’s amazed at the entire line of Trapper hooks, and said the new treble hooks are a sight to behold.
“All I could think is the devil made this hook. It’s really wicked looking,” he said, adding he at first wanted to call it a trident.
But he’s not the pushy type and won’t force any names on the products, or really butt in on the business side of things. He’s simply thrilled his idea came into fruition.
“I’m 71, and all I want to do is go fishing,” he said.
(Check Bassmaster.com all week as our team will brings you the latest in news, features, photos and videos from ICAST 2017.)
