If I told you something was born out of necessity, designed by a redneck, and computer generated by NASA engineers, would a fishing bait come to mind? Well most likely not, but for the lucky few that do, they already know all about Jaboom Bait Company. Those new baits are the Beaver Ballz and Boom Bugs, Jeremy Norris and Colby Thompson have put on the market. The complementary team of fishermen formed Jaboom Bait Co. to bring you fish catching baits the likes of which fisherman, and for that matter bait makers, have never seen. The patented design incorporates elements never seen in a fishing lure before, that proved quite difficult to deliver. In talking to Jeremy and Colby, Jeremy tells me “the design took over a year of searching, designing, back and forth trial and error with 3-D printed prototypes and 3-D computer design.” What was so tricky about this bait concept Jeremy just couldn’t get out of his mind? Vertical ribs.
For those who know their baits, you know the rib patterns and shapes are closely held “secrets” during bait design and are almost always patented by the major brands. But every once in a while one of the little guys sticks it to ‘em with a patent of their own. Early in the design process, the team worked with a NASA in developing the bait. Well not really, but sort of. Through mutual family friends, they know a NASA designer who in his spare time was able to assist with bringing the initial design to fruition, at least electronically. From there prototype development was an uphill battle.
JaBoom!
March 2021, Volume 123
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The bait design incorporating the vertical ridges around the full 360 degrees of the bait make for a very difficult shape to mill into aluminum (the most common mold material for soft plastic molds) or really any material. This design, until recently would have been nearly impossible to produce as it requires a full 5-axis CNC milling machine. These machines don’t come cheap and neither does machine time to cut prototypes.
Given these issues the team set out to find someone who was willing to try to take up the challenge. They searched all over the US from local shops to out of state guys, and even across the globe to manufacturers world renowned in mold design and fabrication. The search continued with repeated answers of “that can’t be done with tools we have today.” An unacceptable answer to any do-it-yourself redneck/coonass team! Finally they found just the guy in Steve Bateman. The Idaho native hooked up with the pair online. A skilled draftsmen for a machining company, he had access to the CAD and tooling required to pull of this engineering feat. Together the team worked through months of iterative designs, fragile rapid prototypes that were 3-D printed and only good for a couple of baits before they degraded beyond use, and hours of CAD and machine tooling design. After a year to R&D they cut their first single cavity aluminum mold.
With proof of concept in hand and just the result they were looking for they set out scaling up for production. Playing to their strengths, Colby being a natural salesman, immediately found a market for their unique bait and they’ve been flying off the shelf ever since. To meet demand the guys have worked with another specialty designer to continue tweaking their mold designs to generate higher production levels. The team hopes to soon have full scale production molds to help keep up with demand. This is still a challenge due to the high tech tools needed to cut the molds, and the high expense of time on those high tech machines.
So you are probably now wondering if it was so tough to get these vertical ridges instead of horizontal ribs like all other baits why go through all the trouble? Performance. The Jaboom Bait Co. ribs provide a more streamlined profile than most similar baits on the market by reducing the surface area of the bait coming into contact with cover. This greatly increases the efficiency of the bait when punching through mats and other heavy cover. This increased efficiency was to goal in order to reduce fatigue and extend your time on the water when punching the mats. The ribs also allow a secure weedless rigging, even with an “exposed” hook point between the ridges. This increases your hookup ratio and reduces your snagging ratio all at the same time.
Like many Louisiana products, the Jaboom Bait Co. lures offer a unique take on your everyday bass fishing lure. Born from necessity in the basin and tidal waters, these lures offer you a quality product with increased fishability in those tough situations. So the next time you are setup to Geaux Bassin’ in the basin and punch a few mats, or just out to flip some heavy cover, make sure you check out this Louisiana original and get your Jaboom on – fish on!
Just a few of the unique JaBoom colors and baits available in their lineup. Check out more by following them on facebook at the link below.
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Jeremy Norris and Colby Thompson of JaBoom Bait Co. holding a nice sack of bass that got the JaBoom.
