Iconic Florida Lure Company Changes Hands
Big companies started trying to buy Mark Nichols’ DOA Lures about 30 years ago, and he resisted all this time because he did not find the right mix of devotion to the brand and assurance that his small cadre of long-time employees would be retained at the home plant in Stuart, Florida, on the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon where Nichols first developed the DOA Shrimp and other famed baits starting some 37 years ago.
Nichols announced just before ICAST last week that he had finally sold the company to a local investor, Mitch Dreisbach, who will keep him on as advisor and designer as well as keeping the business local for the employees. Dreisbach reportedly has a long history in the industry with well-known names including Pure Fishing and Danco Sports.
Nichols is an incredible angler who grew up on his dad’s shrimp boat and spent years on sailing vessels bouncing around the Caribbean in what most would consider a vagabond life before settling in Stuart, Florida, and starting his Dead On Arrival (DOA) lure company with a shrimp that was more lifelike both in shape and in movement through the water than anything on the market.
Nichols got around Stuart in those days on a rusted out bicycle and lived a very simple personal life in part made possible by his bachelor status. But he soon met a thoughtful—and very pretty--local school teacher and finally decided to settle down, just about the time his foundling company actually started making serious money.
One of the reasons Nichols was able to grow the company so effectively is that he is a truly avid saltwater angler, and one of the most knowledgeable anywhere when it comes to finding and fooling giant snook, trout, reds and tarpon. He also enjoyed an amazing fishery in the Indian River Lagoon at the time, which was the best place in Florida to catch leg-long seatrout and snook.
He guided me to wadefishing personal bests on both trout—a 9-pounder—and snook, a mid-20-something, both caught in water less than 2 feet deep. Nichols caught fish like that almost daily, and the photographs of his exploits with the soft plastic bait imitations sold a ton of lures.
Sadly, that fishery has changed drastically in the last decade due to destruction of water quality both from excessive polluted water released from Lake Okeechobee and from local septic tanks.
But Nichols’ lures are now known and fished nationwide, and they catch fish where ever they’re tried along the coast.
It’s one of the American dream stories that keep so many young lure designers going. Of course, few ever achieve Nichols’ success and most quickly go out of business. But Mark is a guy who shows that with talent and perseverance—and 37 years of very hard work—achieving the dream is still possible.
Another Dream Succeeds
Another example from the fishing industry popped up this year with Brian McKinnon’s PacBak cooler/vacuum packer combo, which not only one best of category but also Best of Show against some 900 items entered in the ICAST New Product Showcase this year in Orlando.
McKinnon is a survivor of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting who lost a close friend in the carnage, suffered from PTSD after the incident and wound up homeless before working in the Alaska oil fields. Despite all, he came up with a beautifully-designed and built, heavy-duty cooler that also includes a portable vacuum sealer complete with lithium rechargeable battery designed for use in the field.
The idea is to seal in the flavor of fish right in the field, then drop them on ice in the cooler, preserving that fresh-caught taste all the way to the table. The device also includes a fold-out cleaning table, and two separate compartments so that one can be kept as a dry box, the other as an icebox.
One of the most unusual aspects of the ICAST win is that the PakBak is going to require a Kickstarter approach to get to full production and distribution. Given the amount of promotion the Best of Show designation earned, it’s likely that the financing will be forthcoming, but it’s the first time in ICAST history that a product not actually in production won the coveted honor. (As of Monday noon, they had already received some $22,000 in pledges after only aiming for $15,000 to get things rolling.)
You can see McKinnon’s story, and the product, here: https://pacbak.com.
-- Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com