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Welcome to The Complete Angler, your source of information on the outdoor industry in Central Canada.
With over 35 years in the field, host Don Lamont covers topics and issues with industry leaders and influencers to bring you up to speed on what’s happening in the outdoor world.
And now, here is your host, Don Lamont.
Our guest on this episode of The Complete Angler podcast hails from Alberta.
Brad Pallister is the fourth-generation owner and president of Thompson Pallister Bait Company.
They are the makers of Len Thompson and Northern King Lures.
He co-manages the company with his sister, Jessica Pallister-Drew, out of their facility located in Lacombe, Alberta.
Their 35 employees work to manufacture around 800,000 lures a year.
These are sold across Canada and throughout the world.
Hey Brad, welcome to The Complete Angler podcast.
Great to have you on the show.
Well, thanks for having me, Don.
Now, I was, as you know, I used to have a television fishing show and I don’t, I don’t have them all on a disc.
And I, unfortunately, Brad, I had them on a VHS because that’s how old I was.
And I was watching a show last week from Knee Lake down my basement.
I have a VHS and an old television.
It is color.
And there I was at Knee Lake with my guest and we were catching this huge, massive northern pike on a five of diamonds, yellow and red.
That is the most classic fishing lure in the world.
Tell us, Brad, how it all got started.
Well, in a nutshell, Len was a returned World War I soldier from Europe and he was badly injured.
Len was my great grandfather and badly injured in the lungs in a, in a mustard gas attack.
And the doctors told them to get lots of fresh air in open spaces.
And he took that as a prescription to, to go hunting and fishing and, and he, he wasn’t happy with what could be bought commercially at that time in the twenties.
And so he started bagging away and tinkering at pieces of metal and pieces of wood until he found something that seemed to outperform everything else on the market.
And he turned it into a part-time business from 1929 to 1945.
And by 1945, it had, it had, uh, grown into a full-time business and, uh, four generations later, here we are four generations.
And you recently celebrated in, uh, 2019, your nineties anniversary as a company, and you did something pretty special.
Tell us about the special five of diamonds.
So, uh, we were debating on what to do fun for our nineties anniversary, nine decades.
And, and we had, uh, uh, uh, uh, one of our, our employees who comes from a part of Alberta that has, uh, you know, a big, uh, a big Easter egg and a big, uh, uh, uh, pierogI and all that sort of fun stuff.
And he said, you, you guys should think about a big, a big, the world’s largest fishing lure.
And we thought about that and he, well, that’s a good idea.
Uh, so we went up to the local menu, uh, uh, uh, uh, metal fabricator just up the road.
And I said, I got this crazy idea.
What, what do you think?
And he said, well, I think we could do that.
And eight months later, we had a, uh, 41 foot long, uh, five of diamonds installed at the, uh, Len Thompson trope pond, which is just 300 meters away from the factory.
Here and, uh, Guinness certified, uh, about a year later.
So it was a pretty, pretty fun, special project for sure.
And we have a, uh, a picture of it and a story about it because you, uh, just got, uh, that lure published in the Guinness, uh, world record book.
Yeah, so to, to get a world record and I, and I didn’t know much about the process, you just need to apply to get a world record.
And then they do Guinness does their due diligence and, and says, yep, this is good.
And you now have a world record, but to get into the book is pretty, uh, unusual because there’s thousands of world records that get submitted every year.
And, uh, usually you have to pay for the privilege privilege to be in the book.
And so two years after it was actually, uh, declared the world’s largest, uh, um, one of our colleagues actually sent us a picture of it.
We had no idea it was going in and flipping through the book.
And there it is page 99 of the, uh, 2002 Guinness book of world records.
There’s a big, the world’s largest lure slash big five of diamonds right there on page 99.
So it must be quite a tourist attraction outside your company.
I would imagine.
Yeah.
So it’s not far from where we are.
Uh, like I say about 300 meters, we did it as a community project.
Uh, primarily we wanted to draw attention to, um, the, the fishing pond, which is a Lacombe fishing game managed pond that just happens to share our name.
And, and we, we helped stock it every year.
Um, and we wanted to bring a tourist attraction into the, to the, to the, to the city of Lacombe because, you know, in the prairies, it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a birthright.
If you have a world’s largest attraction in your community.
So, uh, we pitched it to the city and, and, uh, we were able to, to manufacture something that looks pretty awesome.
And, and yeah, it brings, uh, it brings in a lot of people, um, last count, there’s, uh, well over a hundred thousand people that have sought out how to get to there, uh, on, uh, on, uh, Google maps.
So it brought some people into town for sure.
Well, that’s not the only charitable work that you guys do.
I know you and your sister, uh, Jessica, um, have done some great work, uh, in these hard times with fishing for food banks.
Talk about that breath.
So right at the beginning of the pandemic, uh, we, um, we had all of our purchase orders canceled, uh, temporarily, um, this is kind of March, April.
And, uh, as the world was kind of trying to grasp with what to do next and we wanted to keep all of our staff employed and, uh, but we didn’t know what we were going to get them to do because we didn’t have any orders.
So we thought, well, why don’t we do this, uh, special edition, uh, Len Thompson lure because Len Thompson doesn’t come out with new colors very often.
They’re pretty, uh, few and far between.
So we thought, well, why don’t we do these six colors and, and we’ll sell them to keep our staff busy and we’ll donate 50% of the, uh, of the, uh, uh, revenue of the project to, uh, to food banks across, across the country.
And it kind of snowballed, we, uh, we brought it, we brought it on as a make work project and, uh, you know, by the end of the summer, um, we’d raised a just shy of $25,000 and we’d helped, uh, to support, uh, Ooh, I think it was, I think it was 32, uh, food banks, uh, across, uh, almost every province.
We didn’t hit every province and territory, but we, we, we almost hit every province and territory.
Um, it was a fantastic program.
So, uh, we did it the second year this year and, uh, $16,000 and, uh, and, uh, I think, uh, I think it was, uh, 22 different communities.
I might be a little bit wrong on those numbers, but, uh, it’s been a wonderful project and, and, uh, you don’t realize the impact that food banks have until, uh, I had no idea.
Until we got the good fortune to tour a bunch and, uh, and, uh, it’s been a really good feel, feel good project.
Yeah.
We were so glad to be able to participate as Hooked magazine, uh, Kevin and I went to the local co-op.
We picked up a thousand dollars worth of groceries and we delivered it to a Winnipeg harvest and they were so glad to see it.
And, uh, this has happened just before Christmas and, uh, it was a great feeling and glad we could participate in it.
And also, uh, Brad, as you might know, uh, the fact that you saw the picture of, uh, what vehicle it was loaded in.
It was the old red Ford F-150.
I hear you, I hear you happen to own one of those.
Ruby red.
Yeah.
Ruby red.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is, uh, it’s, uh, it’s, it hasn’t, it hasn’t caused me a lick of problems and a quarter million kilometers.
I love that truck.
It’s been wonderful.
So, uh, it, it also had the good fortune to donate a bunch of, uh, a food bank, uh, deliveries itself too.
So in here, here in Alberta.
So, yeah, actually that’s the first, uh, this is a sidebar note.
That’s the first Ford that I ever owned.
And I’ll tell you what, it’s, uh, won’t be the last.
It’s fantastic truck.
It’s been so good.
It’s just a great vehicle.
Anyway, moving on.
Let’s, let’s talk about, I have a, a trivial question for you and I don’t know where that you can answer or not, Brad, but I would like to know how many five a diamonds you guys have sold over, over 90 some years.
Well, we’ve, uh, we’ve sold approximate, uh, approximately, uh, 55 to 58 million lures over 92 years.
Wow.
Uh, and we don’t have a very good record of the entire history of how many five of diamonds we’ve sold.
But what I can tell you is approximately 40 to 35 to 45% of everything that comes out of the factory has five diamonds on it.
Wow.
So, uh, in a variety of different colors, I might add, but, uh, uh, it’s, uh, many, many millions would be the answer, but, uh, I don’t have a, uh, I don’t have an actual number for you, but many millions.
Well, I have a few down my basement.
And speaking of which I managed to have a five of diamonds Pilsner when I was up at Ena Lake Lodge.
The first time I’d ever, uh, I’ve seen that beer.
How did that happen?
That was a cool project too.
We, uh, so the local, uh, brewery here in Lacombe, uh, approached us and, uh, uh, uh, they’re, uh, a really, really well-known brewery in Alberta.
They’re one of the top five largest and they do a really good job.
And they said, we want to make a, uh, uh, uh, five of diamonds Pilsner.
We want it to be a, a nice kind of, uh, beer, beer and something that an angler would really like to enjoy on a, on a warm day.
And, uh, what, what do you think about the idea of doing that?
And we thought about it and we said, you know what, uh, we’ll do that.
Uh, we’ll license your intellectual property.
end and so we get a modest royalty off of every can and 100 of that royalty
we donate back to conservation projects so we don’t put a penny in our own product
pockets but we stock fishing fish ponds we’ve contributed to a couple of fish hatcheries
and we’ve got another we’ve got several other conservation related projects on the boat for this summer coming up so not only is it a good beer but it brings us in some extra resources that we can distribute help fishery and be social to uh to supporting our business.
Well that’s uh that sounds like a fantastic project um and and it’s actually a a perfect beer for the summertime too and when you’re
up in a fishing lodge and enjoying the great outdoors. You mentioned in 2019 Brad that you had all
your orders cancelled because of the pandemic what what have been the challenges in the last since
Since that time as a manufacturer in Canada so uh cancelled or paused um good good yeah uh they um
it didn’t take too long for it was may long weekend actually 2020. I think everybody was just
unsure what was going to happen and the floodgates opened up uh right after that and so we went from
building nothing to getting orders that we’ve never seen before so we struggled the through the first
summer with the crew that we had and then in the fall of 2020 we started hiring so we’ve always
been about 2020 employees give or take four and uh we’re up to 35 now so in uh 14 short months we uh
we nearly doubled our entire workforce and uh we’re thankfully in a position now that we we’ve got really
good horsepower and we can uh fulfill all the orders we need to um and it’s a great team um everything’s
uh moving moving moving smoothly now because supply chain issues were uh a regular headache throughout
2021 um getting brass was extremely difficult to actually get it let alone the price of it
and components and packaging was also a challenge but uh we’re we’re we’re cooking with gasoline now
what makes those uh those spoons that you make what what makes them so special you mentioned brass but
they just have such an incredible action to them and that they just they catch fish that’s all there is
to it well I think yeah we we use uh the best components and heavy weighted brass is definitely
part of the uh equation to getting a a good quality uh spoon not only from a uh performance ability but a
lasting ability but I think the answer is uh we haven’t deviated from lens uh research and
development um the die sets we use are still the same that len put in
thousands of hours of r and d on and uh len was a very good angler and cecil’s also a very good angler and
we just haven’t deviated from those products and the design that they’ve made we just keep the specs the
way they are and I think the answer to your question is just thousands of hours of r and d from our
founder and uh and uh and his son-in-law well what are uh some of the exciting new things maybe that you
could talk about that are happening with your company right now Brad well uh I think we’ve been a
we’ve been a little boring the last two years from a uh new product point of view just because we had to
focus on getting things out the door that I could I could fully understand that
so uh you know from that perspective the new things are every year we’re we’re going to continue on with
this uh fishing for food banks campaign it’s it’s a great way to give back and it gives our our fans
an ability to get a new colored spoon uh without having to uh upset the apple cart from uh from a
product point of view um but we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis and effort on our trolling spoon
brand northern king lures that uh is a 30 year old plus trolling spoon from uh the great lakes and we
bought them uh kind of out from the we brought them out from the ashes I guess they we have the exact same
spoon uh blank uh that uh the founder made there and so we’re trying to we’re focusing quite a bit on
assortment and distribution of this brand um len thompson we’re always gonna we’re always gonna
focus on making sure that that we’re doing we’re giving consumers what they need there but the biggest
kind of upward potential is this trolling spoon brand and so we’re putting a lot of time and effort into
new colors there and new markets there and and new customers and whatnot there so so when you look back
on the last three years has the pandemic been a and I know this is a tough question almost been a
blessing in disguise from a manufacturing standpoint well i’ll tell you that um we’re very very we’re very
much one of the fortunate businesses that that has um that has had an increase in business due to the
pandemic as as so many in our industry so i’m definitely not complaining uh about the circumstances
but it has not been without um you know stress and and uh you know I lost a few more hairs over the
last uh over the last few couple years because it’s it’s a lot of moving parts and juggling and making
sure that you’re doing everything to um you know fulfill ultimately the the consumers uh demand but uh
you know making sure your customers are taken care of and your employees I mean it’s been a really rough
been a rough few years for everybody um you know from mental health point of view from a just a life point of
view and uh uh not to mention not to mention the health point of view too like making sure everybody’s
safe and feels comfortable so it’s been it’s been a it’s been a challenging two years but uh certainly
I I much prefer it this way than say uh one of our poor uh colleagues in the restaurant industry or service
industry for example yeah no kidding so uh yeah one of the things that uh we all used to do that be
interesting to see how it it goes forward we used to go to shows like icast we used to go to different
outdoor shows we used to go to some certain specific tackle dealer shows and stuff like that what do you
see the future there brett I love shows personally like I I love seeing people I love getting uh good
and bad uh feedback on or constructive feedback on on our products and and our services um and I love
hearing stories I love relationships and one of the things that I really enjoyed the last two years is I got to
spend uh every single day with my young girls uh six and and uh three years old uh but the one of the
things that I really missed is the the friendships and the camaraderie and and uh you know going out to
going out for a nice uh smokehouse dinner with the Hooked guys after an icast show and you know I really
missed that part to answer your question um I think consumer shows will come back uh in a hurry um I know
that the um the one in edmonton is going uh again this uh april I think and that’s a big deal um in terms
of uh dealer shows and and icast uh that’s an interesting one i’m i’m not sure how that’s going
to lay out in in the end I think that there’ll be some uh distributors that think that it’s still
very important to have those in-person um dealer shows uh and then I think that there’s some that uh
will think that that digital is the way to go in that case and and um i’m not really sure how the cards
are going to um follow on on that side of our business but the consumer uh the consumer shows
i’m sure will be back as soon as it’s safe safe to do so well Brad I would like to echo those sentiments
because that is the biggest thing that I missed over the last two and a half years is the fact that I i
built my industry I built my reputation on interacting with people doing seminars doing trade shows uh asking
questions answering questions uh you know understanding what the public wants and uh and just rubbing
shoulders with everybody and and and getting to know the mood of the industry and and the anglers and
and and what’s going on and so uh it’s been tough I think uh this last summer was um was a reawakening for
for me especially when I got to go to uh meets a bunch of old friends up at eno lake lodge and I got
to uh fish with some some friends that I hadn’t fished with for two and a half years and I think
that’s a huge part of the industry and and it’s something that I hope we we can certainly get back
to and and one day again that uh me and you can uh share our smokehouse meal again somewhere in uh in
the world for sure yeah I echo that very much so and actually i’m excited i’m going to eat a lake
this uh this uh june um we we actually had a trip booked just before you guys but the ice hadn’t gone
out yet by the time we were supposed to fly out so yeah it was uh it was a special trip and it was
great to uh great to get out there again on the landscape and that’s so important uh Brad I want
to uh thank you for coming on the show and I want to grad uh congratulate you and your and your sister
for all the uh great charitable work that you’ve been doing over the last few years well thank you i
I mean it’s uh it certainly uh feels good to do that and give back to the to the uh communities
that give so much to us so well uh appreciate you coming on the show and uh I hope you have a
great trip to ena lake lodge i’m looking forward to it already I bet you are thanks don thanks Brad
Thanks for tuning in visit hookedmagazine.com to subscribe to the complete angler and never miss an episode.
With over 35 years in the field, host Don Lamont covers topics and issues with industry leaders and influencers to bring you up to speed on what’s happening in the outdoor world.
And now, here is your host, Don Lamont.
Our guest on this episode of The Complete Angler podcast hails from Alberta.
Brad Pallister is the fourth-generation owner and president of Thompson Pallister Bait Company.
They are the makers of Len Thompson and Northern King Lures.
He co-manages the company with his sister, Jessica Pallister-Drew, out of their facility located in Lacombe, Alberta.
Their 35 employees work to manufacture around 800,000 lures a year.
These are sold across Canada and throughout the world.
Hey Brad, welcome to The Complete Angler podcast.
Great to have you on the show.
Well, thanks for having me, Don.
Now, I was, as you know, I used to have a television fishing show and I don’t, I don’t have them all on a disc.
And I, unfortunately, Brad, I had them on a VHS because that’s how old I was.
And I was watching a show last week from Knee Lake down my basement.
I have a VHS and an old television.
It is color.
And there I was at Knee Lake with my guest and we were catching this huge, massive northern pike on a five of diamonds, yellow and red.
That is the most classic fishing lure in the world.
Tell us, Brad, how it all got started.
Well, in a nutshell, Len was a returned World War I soldier from Europe and he was badly injured.
Len was my great grandfather and badly injured in the lungs in a, in a mustard gas attack.
And the doctors told them to get lots of fresh air in open spaces.
And he took that as a prescription to, to go hunting and fishing and, and he, he wasn’t happy with what could be bought commercially at that time in the twenties.
And so he started bagging away and tinkering at pieces of metal and pieces of wood until he found something that seemed to outperform everything else on the market.
And he turned it into a part-time business from 1929 to 1945.
And by 1945, it had, it had, uh, grown into a full-time business and, uh, four generations later, here we are four generations.
And you recently celebrated in, uh, 2019, your nineties anniversary as a company, and you did something pretty special.
Tell us about the special five of diamonds.
So, uh, we were debating on what to do fun for our nineties anniversary, nine decades.
And, and we had, uh, uh, uh, uh, one of our, our employees who comes from a part of Alberta that has, uh, you know, a big, uh, a big Easter egg and a big, uh, uh, uh, pierogI and all that sort of fun stuff.
And he said, you, you guys should think about a big, a big, the world’s largest fishing lure.
And we thought about that and he, well, that’s a good idea.
Uh, so we went up to the local menu, uh, uh, uh, uh, metal fabricator just up the road.
And I said, I got this crazy idea.
What, what do you think?
And he said, well, I think we could do that.
And eight months later, we had a, uh, 41 foot long, uh, five of diamonds installed at the, uh, Len Thompson trope pond, which is just 300 meters away from the factory.
Here and, uh, Guinness certified, uh, about a year later.
So it was a pretty, pretty fun, special project for sure.
And we have a, uh, a picture of it and a story about it because you, uh, just got, uh, that lure published in the Guinness, uh, world record book.
Yeah, so to, to get a world record and I, and I didn’t know much about the process, you just need to apply to get a world record.
And then they do Guinness does their due diligence and, and says, yep, this is good.
And you now have a world record, but to get into the book is pretty, uh, unusual because there’s thousands of world records that get submitted every year.
And, uh, usually you have to pay for the privilege privilege to be in the book.
And so two years after it was actually, uh, declared the world’s largest, uh, um, one of our colleagues actually sent us a picture of it.
We had no idea it was going in and flipping through the book.
And there it is page 99 of the, uh, 2002 Guinness book of world records.
There’s a big, the world’s largest lure slash big five of diamonds right there on page 99.
So it must be quite a tourist attraction outside your company.
I would imagine.
Yeah.
So it’s not far from where we are.
Uh, like I say about 300 meters, we did it as a community project.
Uh, primarily we wanted to draw attention to, um, the, the fishing pond, which is a Lacombe fishing game managed pond that just happens to share our name.
And, and we, we helped stock it every year.
Um, and we wanted to bring a tourist attraction into the, to the, to the, to the city of Lacombe because, you know, in the prairies, it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a birthright.
If you have a world’s largest attraction in your community.
So, uh, we pitched it to the city and, and, uh, we were able to, to manufacture something that looks pretty awesome.
And, and yeah, it brings, uh, it brings in a lot of people, um, last count, there’s, uh, well over a hundred thousand people that have sought out how to get to there, uh, on, uh, on, uh, Google maps.
So it brought some people into town for sure.
Well, that’s not the only charitable work that you guys do.
I know you and your sister, uh, Jessica, um, have done some great work, uh, in these hard times with fishing for food banks.
Talk about that breath.
So right at the beginning of the pandemic, uh, we, um, we had all of our purchase orders canceled, uh, temporarily, um, this is kind of March, April.
And, uh, as the world was kind of trying to grasp with what to do next and we wanted to keep all of our staff employed and, uh, but we didn’t know what we were going to get them to do because we didn’t have any orders.
So we thought, well, why don’t we do this, uh, special edition, uh, Len Thompson lure because Len Thompson doesn’t come out with new colors very often.
They’re pretty, uh, few and far between.
So we thought, well, why don’t we do these six colors and, and we’ll sell them to keep our staff busy and we’ll donate 50% of the, uh, of the, uh, uh, revenue of the project to, uh, to food banks across, across the country.
And it kind of snowballed, we, uh, we brought it, we brought it on as a make work project and, uh, you know, by the end of the summer, um, we’d raised a just shy of $25,000 and we’d helped, uh, to support, uh, Ooh, I think it was, I think it was 32, uh, food banks, uh, across, uh, almost every province.
We didn’t hit every province and territory, but we, we, we almost hit every province and territory.
Um, it was a fantastic program.
So, uh, we did it the second year this year and, uh, $16,000 and, uh, and, uh, I think, uh, I think it was, uh, 22 different communities.
I might be a little bit wrong on those numbers, but, uh, it’s been a wonderful project and, and, uh, you don’t realize the impact that food banks have until, uh, I had no idea.
Until we got the good fortune to tour a bunch and, uh, and, uh, it’s been a really good feel, feel good project.
Yeah.
We were so glad to be able to participate as Hooked magazine, uh, Kevin and I went to the local co-op.
We picked up a thousand dollars worth of groceries and we delivered it to a Winnipeg harvest and they were so glad to see it.
And, uh, this has happened just before Christmas and, uh, it was a great feeling and glad we could participate in it.
And also, uh, Brad, as you might know, uh, the fact that you saw the picture of, uh, what vehicle it was loaded in.
It was the old red Ford F-150.
I hear you, I hear you happen to own one of those.
Ruby red.
Yeah.
Ruby red.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is, uh, it’s, uh, it’s, it hasn’t, it hasn’t caused me a lick of problems and a quarter million kilometers.
I love that truck.
It’s been wonderful.
So, uh, it, it also had the good fortune to donate a bunch of, uh, a food bank, uh, deliveries itself too.
So in here, here in Alberta.
So, yeah, actually that’s the first, uh, this is a sidebar note.
That’s the first Ford that I ever owned.
And I’ll tell you what, it’s, uh, won’t be the last.
It’s fantastic truck.
It’s been so good.
It’s just a great vehicle.
Anyway, moving on.
Let’s, let’s talk about, I have a, a trivial question for you and I don’t know where that you can answer or not, Brad, but I would like to know how many five a diamonds you guys have sold over, over 90 some years.
Well, we’ve, uh, we’ve sold approximate, uh, approximately, uh, 55 to 58 million lures over 92 years.
Wow.
Uh, and we don’t have a very good record of the entire history of how many five of diamonds we’ve sold.
But what I can tell you is approximately 40 to 35 to 45% of everything that comes out of the factory has five diamonds on it.
Wow.
So, uh, in a variety of different colors, I might add, but, uh, uh, it’s, uh, many, many millions would be the answer, but, uh, I don’t have a, uh, I don’t have an actual number for you, but many millions.
Well, I have a few down my basement.
And speaking of which I managed to have a five of diamonds Pilsner when I was up at Ena Lake Lodge.
The first time I’d ever, uh, I’ve seen that beer.
How did that happen?
That was a cool project too.
We, uh, so the local, uh, brewery here in Lacombe, uh, approached us and, uh, uh, uh, they’re, uh, a really, really well-known brewery in Alberta.
They’re one of the top five largest and they do a really good job.
And they said, we want to make a, uh, uh, uh, five of diamonds Pilsner.
We want it to be a, a nice kind of, uh, beer, beer and something that an angler would really like to enjoy on a, on a warm day.
And, uh, what, what do you think about the idea of doing that?
And we thought about it and we said, you know what, uh, we’ll do that.
Uh, we’ll license your intellectual property.
end and so we get a modest royalty off of every can and 100 of that royalty
we donate back to conservation projects so we don’t put a penny in our own product
pockets but we stock fishing fish ponds we’ve contributed to a couple of fish hatcheries
and we’ve got another we’ve got several other conservation related projects on the boat for this summer coming up so not only is it a good beer but it brings us in some extra resources that we can distribute help fishery and be social to uh to supporting our business.
Well that’s uh that sounds like a fantastic project um and and it’s actually a a perfect beer for the summertime too and when you’re
up in a fishing lodge and enjoying the great outdoors. You mentioned in 2019 Brad that you had all
your orders cancelled because of the pandemic what what have been the challenges in the last since
Since that time as a manufacturer in Canada so uh cancelled or paused um good good yeah uh they um
it didn’t take too long for it was may long weekend actually 2020. I think everybody was just
unsure what was going to happen and the floodgates opened up uh right after that and so we went from
building nothing to getting orders that we’ve never seen before so we struggled the through the first
summer with the crew that we had and then in the fall of 2020 we started hiring so we’ve always
been about 2020 employees give or take four and uh we’re up to 35 now so in uh 14 short months we uh
we nearly doubled our entire workforce and uh we’re thankfully in a position now that we we’ve got really
good horsepower and we can uh fulfill all the orders we need to um and it’s a great team um everything’s
uh moving moving moving smoothly now because supply chain issues were uh a regular headache throughout
2021 um getting brass was extremely difficult to actually get it let alone the price of it
and components and packaging was also a challenge but uh we’re we’re we’re cooking with gasoline now
what makes those uh those spoons that you make what what makes them so special you mentioned brass but
they just have such an incredible action to them and that they just they catch fish that’s all there is
to it well I think yeah we we use uh the best components and heavy weighted brass is definitely
part of the uh equation to getting a a good quality uh spoon not only from a uh performance ability but a
lasting ability but I think the answer is uh we haven’t deviated from lens uh research and
development um the die sets we use are still the same that len put in
thousands of hours of r and d on and uh len was a very good angler and cecil’s also a very good angler and
we just haven’t deviated from those products and the design that they’ve made we just keep the specs the
way they are and I think the answer to your question is just thousands of hours of r and d from our
founder and uh and uh and his son-in-law well what are uh some of the exciting new things maybe that you
could talk about that are happening with your company right now Brad well uh I think we’ve been a
we’ve been a little boring the last two years from a uh new product point of view just because we had to
focus on getting things out the door that I could I could fully understand that
so uh you know from that perspective the new things are every year we’re we’re going to continue on with
this uh fishing for food banks campaign it’s it’s a great way to give back and it gives our our fans
an ability to get a new colored spoon uh without having to uh upset the apple cart from uh from a
product point of view um but we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis and effort on our trolling spoon
brand northern king lures that uh is a 30 year old plus trolling spoon from uh the great lakes and we
bought them uh kind of out from the we brought them out from the ashes I guess they we have the exact same
spoon uh blank uh that uh the founder made there and so we’re trying to we’re focusing quite a bit on
assortment and distribution of this brand um len thompson we’re always gonna we’re always gonna
focus on making sure that that we’re doing we’re giving consumers what they need there but the biggest
kind of upward potential is this trolling spoon brand and so we’re putting a lot of time and effort into
new colors there and new markets there and and new customers and whatnot there so so when you look back
on the last three years has the pandemic been a and I know this is a tough question almost been a
blessing in disguise from a manufacturing standpoint well i’ll tell you that um we’re very very we’re very
much one of the fortunate businesses that that has um that has had an increase in business due to the
pandemic as as so many in our industry so i’m definitely not complaining uh about the circumstances
but it has not been without um you know stress and and uh you know I lost a few more hairs over the
last uh over the last few couple years because it’s it’s a lot of moving parts and juggling and making
sure that you’re doing everything to um you know fulfill ultimately the the consumers uh demand but uh
you know making sure your customers are taken care of and your employees I mean it’s been a really rough
been a rough few years for everybody um you know from mental health point of view from a just a life point of
view and uh uh not to mention not to mention the health point of view too like making sure everybody’s
safe and feels comfortable so it’s been it’s been a it’s been a challenging two years but uh certainly
I I much prefer it this way than say uh one of our poor uh colleagues in the restaurant industry or service
industry for example yeah no kidding so uh yeah one of the things that uh we all used to do that be
interesting to see how it it goes forward we used to go to shows like icast we used to go to different
outdoor shows we used to go to some certain specific tackle dealer shows and stuff like that what do you
see the future there brett I love shows personally like I I love seeing people I love getting uh good
and bad uh feedback on or constructive feedback on on our products and and our services um and I love
hearing stories I love relationships and one of the things that I really enjoyed the last two years is I got to
spend uh every single day with my young girls uh six and and uh three years old uh but the one of the
things that I really missed is the the friendships and the camaraderie and and uh you know going out to
going out for a nice uh smokehouse dinner with the Hooked guys after an icast show and you know I really
missed that part to answer your question um I think consumer shows will come back uh in a hurry um I know
that the um the one in edmonton is going uh again this uh april I think and that’s a big deal um in terms
of uh dealer shows and and icast uh that’s an interesting one i’m i’m not sure how that’s going
to lay out in in the end I think that there’ll be some uh distributors that think that it’s still
very important to have those in-person um dealer shows uh and then I think that there’s some that uh
will think that that digital is the way to go in that case and and um i’m not really sure how the cards
are going to um follow on on that side of our business but the consumer uh the consumer shows
i’m sure will be back as soon as it’s safe safe to do so well Brad I would like to echo those sentiments
because that is the biggest thing that I missed over the last two and a half years is the fact that I i
built my industry I built my reputation on interacting with people doing seminars doing trade shows uh asking
questions answering questions uh you know understanding what the public wants and uh and just rubbing
shoulders with everybody and and and getting to know the mood of the industry and and the anglers and
and and what’s going on and so uh it’s been tough I think uh this last summer was um was a reawakening for
for me especially when I got to go to uh meets a bunch of old friends up at eno lake lodge and I got
to uh fish with some some friends that I hadn’t fished with for two and a half years and I think
that’s a huge part of the industry and and it’s something that I hope we we can certainly get back
to and and one day again that uh me and you can uh share our smokehouse meal again somewhere in uh in
the world for sure yeah I echo that very much so and actually i’m excited i’m going to eat a lake
this uh this uh june um we we actually had a trip booked just before you guys but the ice hadn’t gone
out yet by the time we were supposed to fly out so yeah it was uh it was a special trip and it was
great to uh great to get out there again on the landscape and that’s so important uh Brad I want
to uh thank you for coming on the show and I want to grad uh congratulate you and your and your sister
for all the uh great charitable work that you’ve been doing over the last few years well thank you i
I mean it’s uh it certainly uh feels good to do that and give back to the to the uh communities
that give so much to us so well uh appreciate you coming on the show and uh I hope you have a
great trip to ena lake lodge i’m looking forward to it already I bet you are thanks don thanks Brad
Thanks for tuning in visit hookedmagazine.com to subscribe to the complete angler and never miss an episode.
Brad Pallister is the fourth generation owner and President of Thompson-Pallister Bait Company, makers of Len Thompson Lures and Northern King Lures. He co-manages the company with his sister Jessica Pallister-Dew out of their 16,000 square foot factory located in Lacombe, Alberta. Approximately 35 employees work to manufacture around 800,000 lures a year that are sold across Canada, and and throughout parts of the world. Brad spends his free time with his wife and two young girls, as well as lots of time outdoors with friends and family.
