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Yesterday I finished up four days of kayak fishing in Tampa with guide Neil Taylor of Strike Three Kayak Fishing. Neil is well connected with several tackle companies. On Tuesday he took me to the headquarters of L&S Lures, the parent company for MirrOlure lures, in Largo, FL (a Tampa suburb). Neil introduced me to Eric Bachnic, the owner of MirrOlure. Eric gave me a short tour of the plant. The Largo facility makes some of the parts and does the final packaging and shipping. Most of the lure manufacturing and assembly is done in their other facility in Costa Rica.
MirrOlure is well known for their hard plastic baits that have a flashing, reflective appearance underwater. The first specs I ever caught decades ago were on MirrOlure plugs. I'm sure that many members of this forum use MirrOlure lures. As I wrote in my book, I am not a frequent user of hard plastic plugs, primarily because I dislike treble hooks or multiple hooks on the same lure. Nevertheless I recognize the high quality and catching success of MirrOlure products (my largest speckled trout from this trip [20.5"] was caught on a MirrOlure C-Eye Poppa Mullet surface popper).
Here are a few photos from the plant. Eric is showing me the machines that make the plastic bodies for the lures. The machine spits out three types of plastic parts every few seconds. One part is a cross-shaped carrier that holds the two pieces for the body. The lures are made in two halves. While these look simple, the internal structures are complicated and allow the lure to hold rattles, weights, and hooks, and to balance well.
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Another machine makes batches of the red eyes used on most MirrOlure lures. Pieces of the reflective tape on the shelves are placed inside the plastic bodies to give the lures their characteristic reflective patterns.
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These components are sent to Costa Rica and assembled, painted, and finished into the final product. They are shipped in bulk back to Largo for packaging and distribution.
20160621_125926_resized.jpg
In addition to the regular line of MirrOlure plugs, the company makes offshore Iland lures, Paul Brown lures, and Tidal Surge lures. They also make a line of soft plastics. Neil uses a different brand of soft plastic lures (12 Fathom) so I have no experience with the MirrOlure soft plastics.
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In the back of the plant they have a test tank. All of the large lures with bills are dragged through the tank to make sure they swim well. If not the bill is adjusted. This is clearly a labor-intensive step.
20160621_130501.jpg
Eric gave me several key chains that use the same plastic bodies as the lures. I show four color patterns plus a MirrOdine lure in my own tackle collection.
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It was great to see the home of a well-known lure and to learn how things are made. More information on the product lines and the manufacturing process is available on the MirrOlure website at http://www.shopmirrolure.com/product_overview.php.
MirrOlure is well known for their hard plastic baits that have a flashing, reflective appearance underwater. The first specs I ever caught decades ago were on MirrOlure plugs. I'm sure that many members of this forum use MirrOlure lures. As I wrote in my book, I am not a frequent user of hard plastic plugs, primarily because I dislike treble hooks or multiple hooks on the same lure. Nevertheless I recognize the high quality and catching success of MirrOlure products (my largest speckled trout from this trip [20.5"] was caught on a MirrOlure C-Eye Poppa Mullet surface popper).
Here are a few photos from the plant. Eric is showing me the machines that make the plastic bodies for the lures. The machine spits out three types of plastic parts every few seconds. One part is a cross-shaped carrier that holds the two pieces for the body. The lures are made in two halves. While these look simple, the internal structures are complicated and allow the lure to hold rattles, weights, and hooks, and to balance well.
010.jpg 20160621_125738_resized.jpg 003.jpg 004.jpg
Another machine makes batches of the red eyes used on most MirrOlure lures. Pieces of the reflective tape on the shelves are placed inside the plastic bodies to give the lures their characteristic reflective patterns.
20160621_125617.jpg 20160621_125528.jpg
These components are sent to Costa Rica and assembled, painted, and finished into the final product. They are shipped in bulk back to Largo for packaging and distribution.
20160621_125926_resized.jpg
In addition to the regular line of MirrOlure plugs, the company makes offshore Iland lures, Paul Brown lures, and Tidal Surge lures. They also make a line of soft plastics. Neil uses a different brand of soft plastic lures (12 Fathom) so I have no experience with the MirrOlure soft plastics.
20160621_130253_resized.jpg
In the back of the plant they have a test tank. All of the large lures with bills are dragged through the tank to make sure they swim well. If not the bill is adjusted. This is clearly a labor-intensive step.
20160621_130501.jpg
Eric gave me several key chains that use the same plastic bodies as the lures. I show four color patterns plus a MirrOdine lure in my own tackle collection.
002.jpg
It was great to see the home of a well-known lure and to learn how things are made. More information on the product lines and the manufacturing process is available on the MirrOlure website at http://www.shopmirrolure.com/product_overview.php.
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