Garage-born Crystaleyes Fishing of southwestern Minnesota enjoys success of lures

Crystaleyes Fishing has launched into the significant leagues with a number of new products predicted to strike shop shelves in time for the 2021 fishing opener, with new Aura Tungsten ice jigs ideal for panfishing by way of the ice and on open up h2o, a Tubertail panfishing jig, Phenomenon crankbait lures with the signature Swarovski crystal eyes and an increasing line of colors in their Swimbait and Are living Bait jigs.

The level of popularity of Crystaleyes lures has developed so considerably in the past seven many years that its founders have contracted to manufacture the lures abroad — each to satisfy desire, and to extend into the higher excellent, heavier tungsten jigs.

Travis Frazee co-founded Crystaleyes Fishing while operating as a particular education trainer at Worthington Superior College in 2013. At the time, his company partners provided WHS math trainer John Koller and industrial tech trainer John Singler, whose practical experience in personal computer-aided style and design served in creating their jigs.

Now assistant principal at Marshall Superior School, Frazee carries on to be the thought guy of the procedure, designing new solutions and testing numerous coloration mixtures on jig heads. Meanwhile, Koller and Bill Gordon, who turned a small business husband or wife three decades ago, work to drum up new organization opportunities by visiting bait retailers and outside merchants in the Upper Midwest.

“We’re in Scheels in Sioux Falls (South Dakota) and St. Cloud,” Koller claimed. “I believe we’ll get some additional. We have products in Runnings in Worthington, Watertown (S.D.) and Brookings (S.D.).

“When you are doing work with the major box stores, they anticipate excellent packaging and a excellent product,” he extra.

“And a seriously fantastic value issue,” quipped Frazee. “That’s a thing we have uncovered along the way. You want to make it perform with everybody.”

An avid fisherman, Frazee discovered the achievement in utilizing a entice with a flashy physical appearance when on the lake a single afternoon. The entice, while, desired enhancement.

That is when he went to Koller with an plan to attach Swarovski crystals to colorful fishing jigs. The concept sounded straightforward enough, but they swiftly observed it was just about anything but. There ended up a ton of trials and a good deal of problems in advance of they mastered the system.

Koller said their authentic strategy was to make ice fishing jigs, but he quickly questioned, “Why not consider this on some summer time jigs?”

“That’s when it all got begun,” he explained. “I can not convey to you how lots of errors we manufactured. We had a whole lot of entertaining occasions experimenting with hues, and we identified out individuals crystals actually designed a difference.”

Their very first official purchase arrived from a bait store in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and that was the sole place that carried them outside the house of the company’s internet site for the first 3 or 4 several years.

“We worked out of the garage, generating a single jig at a time,” Koller claimed adding they bought loads of their initial — now referred to as classic — style and design that featured a jig with a red sickle hook.

The elevated level of popularity of the jigs led to enhanced desire, and that decreased the time the guys could spend with their family members, shared Frazee.

“But, we knew we experienced some thing fantastic,” he extra. That’s when they began searching for a corporation to do the production for them.

Although it’s been a problem, Frazee claimed things are finding better.

And they nevertheless promote their common style, which means both Koller and Frazee get to make lures in their garage as orders come in.

“The new items are coming to us in a deal,” Koller stated. “We have a full line of swim baits and reside bait jigs and crank baits.”

All of the Crystaleyes goods occur in a choice of eight different shades, and Koller reported they are doing the job to broaden the color line. In fact, 4 new hues intended by Frazee will be introduced in April.

Frazee stated the shade choices are replicated from shade styles he’s used in the earlier, or were picked based mostly on their achievement.

“You consider to integrate a honest quantity of factors into just about every color,” Frazee said, noting color designs that sparkle or glow. “Walleyes like to have many hues on a jig. Our Firetiger is a fantastic example of that.”

Some hues are developed primarily based on distinct sorts of drinking water clarity, these as their new Purpledescent jig, which demonstrates up well in darkish or soiled drinking water, Frazee stated.

“We preferred to appear up with a colour for each and every affliction,” he added. The other new colors include Wonderglow, Pearl, and a walleye color.

The new shades and styles — their Tubertail is a new panfish jig set to debut this spring — are getting launched at a time when extra individuals are using up the hobby of fishing.

“People are out fishing with their people,” Koller mentioned, noting that panfish is 1 of the first things people start fishing for.

The hope of Frazee and Koller is that those people new fishermen and ladies test out the Crystaleyes line of products and solutions. Their moniker suggests it all — the Crystaleyes jigs are “On each fish’s bucket checklist.”

For more information and facts, take a look at crystaleyesfishing.com or like Crystaleyes Fishing on Facebook.