Sharkman Blog

Every fall for the past 12 years, Suzanne and I go into the bush for about a month to cut wood. We do it for a lot of reasons; we need the wood to heat the house and burn in the foundry to make Sharks. That one month of exercise is the only thing that has kept me alive over the years, next to fishing cutting wood is my most favorite thing to do in the world. The spectacular fall scenery, the escape from reality, we see it as our vacation every year, I wouldn't trade it for a month on the beach. My neighbour Ernie gave me his old Husqueverna chainsaw after he dropped a tree on it, and he also gave me his old farm truck; an 1983 Ford pick up with a straight six block. I welded up some chains (mud grips) and have hauled over 300 cords of wood from deep in the bush over the years. I hooked up a home made trailer with a five ton axle on it and would load that rig to the "nines" a ton and a half on the truck, three tons on the trailer. That's a good day's work....

We started the business in the spring of 2001 bright eyed and very naive thinking we have a winner here with the Shark and let's just go for it, simple; right? My son Carl often says: " if he knew then what he knows now, there is not chance he would have committed to this project". A world without Sharks, it just about happened. We figured the first thing we need is a good distributor; got in touch with the folks at Triple S in New York. The package of sample Sharks was sitting on the kitchen counter ready to be delivered to New York, when we got a call from the neighbor; "turn on your TV! We just caught a live glimpse of the second plane slamming into the World Trade Center. The world changed forever that day, and at times it seems like it has been going on a downward spiral ever since. The samples didn't go out to New York for about two months. We thought about packing it in, it seemed like there was no point continuing. We were wrong, fishing took on a whole...

Downrigger Companies: I used to do the rounds at fishing shows, in store events etc. Generally I was invited to attend by a local dealer. The reps from Big Jon, Scotty, Walker, and Cannon were there most of the time. I tried to get along with everybody; most of you can remember seeing Sharks hanging off all the riggers at the shows. The Shark had a way of making all their products look better; it was definitely a show stopper. In an attempt to ingratiate ourselves with the "big" tackle companies, we made it a point to return the favor for them displaying our product at their booths; we would often give away a few Sharks with downriggers that were sold by the dealer that invited us. Big mistake! Found out about six months after one of these shows, one of the big 4 got their noses out of joint by this seemingly innocent gesture. This company got their butts kicked by another rigger company, and we became the scapegoat. Apparently, we “stabbed them in the back” after all ...

Bring It On! No more Mr. Nice Guy, no more turning the other cheek, no more taking the moral high ground; the gloves are off and the last man standing wins; regardless who has the best product! For the past eight years my kids kept throwing all this stuff back in my face that I taught them about being decent people, how they should conduct themselves in the world, especially in the business world: don't stoop to the same level as the competition when they attack with the negative ads etc. The same crap my old man drilled into my head when I was a kid. Well, we tried that and it didn't get us very far; this is a different world than the one I grew up in. Wake up kids, I was wrong, none of that is true, none of it matters. Nowadays, the public likes a good fight, turning the other cheek is a sign of weakness. A lot of folks say John Kerry lost against Bush because he didn't fight back when the negative ads started. Maybe there's something to it. Last year the GLA message...

My wife says: "Get a job, talking to guys about fishing is not work" I have personally met over 6000 charter captains and tournament fishermen over the years, and talked to them at length about all aspects of downrigger fishing. I met them at fishing shows, in store promotional events and salmon derbies across the country. For starts, I gotta tell you it was the experience of a life time, just from the social perspective; some of these guys are the most incredible people I have ever met. But my son did not pay my travel expenses so I could fly around the country and socialize; my job was to get out there and sell Sharks. I found out quickly it was not going to be an easy task. Having a great product was a good start, but convincing anybody to buy one, that was a different story. Your typical charter captain is a grumpy old salt, retired, bought into the concept of buying a dreamboat and paying for it buy chartering. To make a long story short, there ...

Sharkman and daughter Tara shooting Shark Video on the shores of Georgian Bay So Why Now? April 20, 2009 So why am I writing this blog now? I generally say what is on my mind, but I have been muzzled for the last few years by my family (for good reasons: I guess) for speaking about certain issues in the downrigger sport fishing industry. Apparently much of it is politically incorrect. Apparently you can't say a damn thing about anything in the fishing business without stepping on some very important toes; I can. My kids told asked me to make sure the disclaimer is out there that all this stuff is my opinion and is no way connected to them reflecting the policies or opinions of their company. There have been many wonderful people who have gone to great effort to help our company and there are those who went to great efforts to trip us up. Both sides of this story need to be told. Read all about it in this blog. Disclaimer: The opinions and statements contained in ...