Recently I have been looking for a fair dinkum lure maker that makes a variety of different lures for our Freshwater Impoundment dwellers. After much research and speaking to a few companies, Alex from Viking Lures was a stand out. To my suprise, not only does he cover freshwater scene, but his range is massive and extends to saltwater fishing also. Based not far from Thompson Creek Dam, NSW Alan is going to be a valued business supporter of this site we welcome Alan to the ActiveAngler.net community.
Below is a bit about Viking Lures that will give you a great introduction.
Originally a hand carved timber lures born on the banks of the MacquarieRiver and its many tributaries.
Keen outdoorsman, Ian Cranny, made these lures for himself and fishing friends to begin with but it wasn't long before the word spread of not only the success of these lures, but also the build strength and paint quality too.
Ian Cranney is a toolmaker by trade and after supplying local shops and a few other regional areas it was obvious that to expand and let more anglers enjoy the virtues of these lures, increased production levels would be needed. Ian built a plastic injection mould that sported the 50mm and 60mm Talisman models.
After completing the mould, Ian took a sea change and headed north to Darwin where he resides today.
The mould was packed in grease for storage where it remained until I spoke to Ian a couple of years after his move. Due to my involvement as a freelance angling journolist with most of the Australian fishing glossies (and not so glossy) I did a write-up for a regional magazine on a guiding business Ian was setting up (circa 199
, taking guided clients fishing on the Abercrombie and Lachlan Rivers. A friendship was struck immediately between us. Obviously I was doing a lot of local fishing and I was already aware of Ians hand carved timber lures, a number of compartments boasted umpteen of these trinkets in my tackle box. I would have never guessed that a couple of years down the track I would be making these lures and sending them around Australia to catch fish! While the mould was complete no testing had been performed on the new plastic lure.
A solid year of testing bib designs and internal weighting was performed before a few lures began to leave the shed and go into a small number of shops.
Over the next two years sales began to filter out past local areas. A number of product representatives asked if they could add Vikings to their product inventory and once production levels came up enough we put on one of the reps to take care of local and regional areas south west of Lithgow, all the way down to Wagga Wagga.
We now have three independent product representatives working an area between Bundaberg in QLD down to northern Victoria and are currently looking to put Viking Lures in to the hands of another keen representative in South Australia.
The New 80mm Talisman is our latest asset. This lures is set to be our current top fish catcher. Sales and results are definitely heading in this direction rapidly!
To ensure this lure was going to be built with the perfect lines of Ians previous lures, Ian hand shaped the copper electrodes that were used to create the cavities that would ultimately give this lure its unmistakable
Viking profile.
Lure body: Two piece ABS plastic, hollow with sonic rattle.
We use best quality stainless hardware on all our lures. Hooks are Eagle Claw or Mustad. Bibs are lazer cut polycarbonate for accuracy and strength. The bibs are fused in with a solvent and will not pull out! Our paintwork and finish speak for themselves, we strive for quality!
What do Viking lure catch? While it is possible to attach a long list of salt and freshwater fish to their credit Viking lures to this point have been squarely aimed at the Australian native fish market. This predominantly being Murray cod, Australian Bass and Golden Perch. With the number of growing Stillwater available to anglers and with licensing fees being used to further stocking levels and other stocking research we feel that this market is solid, here to stay and currently growing! This is not to say we are resting on our laurels here at Viking. We have two new lures being tooled as we speak the exciting one for me is the 48mm Viking minnow.
This will be an all Aussie built bream bait that has been designed for the tournament angler that wants to upgrade his fish. More on this lure soon.
NEW RELEASE
Viking Crank Minnow
Welcome to Viking Lures!!
Threaded Mode
