Most high-school students look at jobs as something they do after school or in the summer. However, Alex Palmer of Clinton has found that his current job is a little more than part time. In fact, his after-school job could turn into a permanent career.
Palmer started out during the pandemic school closure, when he was 15, trying to find something that would occupy his time. “I really needed to find something to do,” he said. He liked to fish, so tinkering with fishing tackle had a certain appeal. That tinkering turned into making soft-plastic lures for crappie fishing.
His lures worked so well that Palmer started a business, one that has become lucrative. He makes a line of crappie baits that are selling quite well, enough so that he needs the help of his parents to keep customers satisfied. “Right now, the business is growing like crazy,” he said.
In the interim since the pandemic, Palmer has earned the credits to finish his high school degree; he will be graduating with the rest of his class this spring. Currently, he is taking courses at the Clinton Technical School on CNC machining, a program that could lead to him creating the molds used to produce his lures.
Soft plastic fish lures are created when hot plastisol is poured into a mold. Creating a lure with different colors is a multi-step project, which leads to the popular black-chartreuse color combination in one of Palmer’s most popular lures.
Palmer has four styles of baits: the Minnow Minder, a shad-shaped lure, Single Tail, Double Tail and Teeny Weeny, a small lure that works better on finicky, pressured fish. The other three styles are 2 ½-inches long, while the Teeny Weeny is a little over an inch in length.
What makes Palmer’s lures unique is that the plastic formulation he uses results in lures that are significantly stronger than the usual run of fishing lures from other companies. “What that means to the fisherman is that his baits stay on the jig longer,” Palmer says. “Instead of having to replace the lure after a fish or two, my baits will last for 50 or 60 fish.”
He says that means that he won’t sell a lot of replacement lures, but it hasn’t stopped fishermen from buying his lures, “And that’s because they work.”
Palmer and his father competed in the Crappie Masters Tournament Trail and won the national championship in 2021 in the adult/youth event. The pair won $34,300, which prize included the biggest crappie, weighing 2.55 pounds, taken in the tournament held on Lake d’Arbonne in Farmerville, La.
When asked what the future held for him, Palmer said he wasn’t sure. “I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said. But he did admit it might include fishing.
For more information, go to Palmer’s website: www.palmerscustombaits.com.
