Syracuse.com - Makiplastic: Small company, small fishing lures, big purposes

[HuntingNY-News]

The company specializes in "micro-fishing baits," imitations of small bugs, worms and aquatic larvae used mainly by ice fishermen. "This has always been a grassroots operation, with Christian fellowship added in," said owner Scott Brauer. "We actually give away more than we sell." </p>

Mike Greenlar/The Post-StandardThe Maki, one of the top selling Makiplastic lures. It's supposed to resemble a water spider. It’s a small, family-owned company that makes artificial ice-fishing bait for a higher spiritual purpose — and it was formed following a 1997 Oneida Lake fishing trip.

It all began when Scott Brauer met Tony Busco, of Liverpool, on a fishing-related chatroom on the Internet. While online, Busco asked Brauer, who lives in Gasport, northeast of Buffalo, to come visit and check out Central New York’s fishing hotspot.

After the two fished Oneida Lake together, they were relaxing on the porch of a friend of Busco’s, overlooking the lake. Brauer mentioned that he worked as a shop teacher and that in a previous job he used to make molds for plastic products.

“So Tony drags out this bag of plastic fishing baits and says, ‘Dude, we’ve got to be able to do better than this,’” Brauer said.

Mike Greenlar/The Post-StandardTony Busco

And that’s how Makiplastic got its start. The company specializes in “micro-fishing baits” — imitations of small bugs, worms and aquatic larvae used mainly by ice fishermen.

Everything is made by Brauer, his wife, Pam, and their two children. The rubbery baits come in a variety of colors and shapes.

Among the most popular:

- The Maki, an imitation of a five-legged water spider,

- The Spiki, which looks like the back of a dinosaur,

- The Milli, a millipede imitation,

- The Wormi, a cross between a worm and a leech,

- The TOI (Tony On Ice), a paddle-tail bug that Busco initially sketched out on a cocktail napkin.

Early on, though, Busco had to deal with his father’s health problems and bowed out of the company.

Brauer, who teaches automated manufacturing and engineering at the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center, took the idea and ran with it. He and his family now make about 100,000 pieces annually. Their product is sold primarily over the Internet and at a smattering of small “mom and pop” stores and bait shops from Vermont to the Dakotas, he said.

“I have a lot of contract customers, such as professional fishermen on the ice fishing circuit,” he said. Locally, Makiplastic products, which all sell for $2.79 a package, are carried by All Season Sports in Pulaski. Packages contain four to 12 items, depending on their size.

The company name comes from Brauer’s nickname, which he got as a teen while trying to spray-paint the words “making waves” on a boat. He ran out of space and only the letters “Maki” made it on the vessel.

Busco, who two years ago rejoined the company as a publicist/marketer and its main pro staffer, said Makiplastic is a small outfit and that Brauer likes it that way.

Mike Greenlar/The Post-StandardAN ARRAYof fishing lures produced by Makiplastic, a small company that operates out of Gasport.

“You have to be a chemist to get things straight like pouring the right amount of rubber into the mold ... softeners, hardeners, glitter and flakes ... heating things up, cooling it just right. And afterward putting on things such as anise oil,” Busco said. “He’s like Dr. Frankenstein — got it all figured out in his head.”

Brauer, a youth minister at the Covenant United Church of Christ in Gasport, decided early on that he would use the product and its profits to educate others about the joys of the outdoors and to “support other people.”

He said he speaks often about fishing before Christian youth groups, the Boys Scouts and at summer camps. He also donates baskets of Makiplastic items for use in fundraisers benefiting such things as cancer research, or helping out families dealing with illness or the lost of loved ones.

“This has always been a grassroots operation, with Christian fellowship added in. We actually give away more than we sell,” he said.

Busco, who represents the company at outdoors shows and other events, said one can’t deny the fact that ice fishing with plastics is here to stay.

The Makiplastic website has underwater videos of fish gobbling up the company’s various baits, he said.

“I’m just trying to prove that I’m smarter than a sunfish,” Brauer said.

More on Makiplastic Go to the company's Web site.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog