Jerry Rago Interview

SU News · May 17, 2019

Tell us a little about where you are from?

I grew up in Valinda/West Covina, California. In my early 20s I moved up to Bishop, California where I currently reside.

How did you get into the outdoors and especially fishing?

My Dad took me fishing when I was a kid. First fish was a bluegill at Legg Lake and first bass at was at Puddingstone. As a kid I mostly fished for bass and brown trout.

In Bishop, chasing trophy brown trout was my favorite thing to do. After accomplishing that, I started noticing my uncle who was chasing stripers. So I switched to striper fishing because they were bigger and easier to catch than brown trout.

What led you to baitmaking and how long have you been doing it?

Both the brown trout and striper fishing led me to custom painting existing lures in ~ 1982. I’d paint them in rainbow trout colors. People would see them and wanted to buy the baits. I began selling the custom painted baits.

I’ll never forget people telling me that if I wanted a successful business that I should target trophy largemouth bass, so I did.

~ 1982/1983 I found a lure that I snagged deep at a lake, it was a wooden plug. That started me into carving my own plugs. The first fish was a striper over 20lbs on my plug. Blew my mind when I stuck that fish.

Give us some history on your first rat bait?

I was driving home from work and I saw a rat run on the highway. The wind was blowing so hard it blew the rat into the air. It got me thinking of when I get home I’ll carve a rat.

I stopped at K mart to buy supplies. I bought creme worms for a tail because of the natural color.

The rat shape took me about 15 mins on a sander. It was the beginning of the generic rat two piece and one hook. Till this day the generic rat is the same shape.

After completing the bait I drove to a local pond with my step son to fish it. I had him stand on a hill to tell me if it was swimming on a long cast. First cast and he yelled “look out” as a bass began to follow it. That bass ate the rat, 5 lb bass on my first cast. I was scared to lose the lure so I stopped fishing that day.

I started making more wood ones and only gave them to close friends. Mainly keeping it a secret for years.

How about the roach?

I decided to make a rat look more realistic which included the idea of being flatter. The two piece version did not swim with that body style. I decided to try it as a one piece and it swam great. A silent no joint approach to rat fishing on the surface.

We collaborated with you on the roach for a Japan release at Keep Cast 2019 and also in the USA that both sold out. Feeling and thoughts behind the collaboration?

I like Swimbait Underground and what it stands for, swimbait fishing to catch trophy fish. Also spreading the history of swimbaiting. Another part of it was Ben giving it the name, The Roach. Along with the collaboration artwork of RKane, I love his work.

The Japan release was special since Swimbait Underground was flying to Japan and I liked the representation with them. Also it being a single piece bait and people being wary of that style wake bait. Normally a wake has joints and I wanted people in Japan to experience the single piece style.

The success of the Japan release led to the USA collaboration. I’m looking forward to more collaborations with Swimbait Underground.

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