SELINSGROVE — Fortunately those annoying television commercials about the guy who claimed to be not just a client but the president of a hair replacement company are now just a memory.
After spending a few hours recently night fishing for smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna River with J.T. Patkalitsky and Koinonia Guide Service president Rod Bates, one’s faith in advertising was restored.
A few years ago, Patkalitsky and Andrew Moist, a fishing buddy, began teaming up and entering bass tournaments near their home town of Lewistown. Looking for an edge, the two anglers began working on a spinner bait design that was more productive than those they were using.
Well, nothing says success in the world of amateur bass tournaments like winning, especially when the winning is achieved week after week in tournament after tournament. Not surprisingly, the success enjoyed by Patkalitsky and Moist brought out the worst from some of their envious fellow anglers as the usual accusations soon followed.
“A lot of our friends found it hard to believe that we were winning so many tournaments, which at one point was like 19-of-22, and a few people actually accused us of cheating,” Patkalitsky said. “We told everyone what was making the difference and helping us was that we were using our own spinner baits that we had designed.
“Of course, very few people wanted to believe that and we got comments like ‘a spinner bait is a spinner bait,’ so we decided to expand and start selling them. We began slowly and put them in a few shops, but it didn’t take long for the demand to grow.
“Best of all, one of our biggest doubters began using them and winning tournaments with them. One guy actually told us ‘Man, these baits are sick,’ and with that we had the name for our company.”
The Sick Custom Spinner Bait Company has been in operation for little over a year and the demand for the baits has grown mostly by word of mouth. With the added exposure the baits have received, there is now a waiting period to fill orders that have been received on Facebook.
“A few people were upset when it took longer to fill their orders than they thought it should, but we’re not going to sell baits to someone or put them in a shop unless we would fish with them,” Patkalitsky said. “Since we began making them we’ve made modifications with the beads and shaping that have improved performance, and we’ve added more productive blade configurations and designs.”
Rod Bates, founder of the Carlisle-based Koinonia Guide Service and a pro-staff member for Bass Pro Shops, is among the professionals who have made the switch to Sick Custom Spinner Baits. On a recent evening bass trip on the Susquehanna River, he matched the baits with Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris CarbonLite Series medium heavy spinning and bait casting tackle loaded with Silver Thread AN40 12-pound test line.
“I’ve been fishing all my life and these are without question the best spinner baits I’ve ever used,” Bates said. “They’re solid and hold up to the abuse of day-in and day-out use of clients, and they’re light enough that anyone can make hundreds of casts without being fatigued when we pair them with the new Johnny Morris carbon rods.”
Patkalitsky and Moist have clearly come up with a winner with their Sick baits, but there is one drawback. When in charge of producing baits this successful, there is little time to be a client.
For information on Sick Custom Spinner Baits, access the company Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Sick-Custom-Baits.