Bloodlike beads serve as bait

LINCOLN — Midwesterners are snapping up Jim Mayer's invention so briskly, you'd think he invented a better mousetrap.

But mousetraps don't belong in tackle boxes, drifting for walleye or arching into a panfish pond from a crappie pole.

Mayer's invention is a bait rig featuring tiny red chains designed to resemble a stream of blood droplets trailing out of wounded bait, triggering a fish's predatory instinct.

He calls the invention Hippy's Bleeder Chain. His inspiration came from years of doctoring bleeding patients in a hospital emergency room.

“Everyone's seen someone drip blood from the bloody nose. This is how I see true bleeding occurring,'' said Mayer, a 45-year-old practicing physician in Lincoln.

Mayer is a native of Mitchell, S.D., and an avid angler. He grew up walleye fishing with his dad in the Missouri River's Lake Francis Case from a 16-foot boat powered by a 20-horsepower engine.

Two years ago, he and a fishing partner chatted about the popularity of red hooks, feathers, beads and other lure features intended to mimic bleeding bait in water. Mayer said he thought someone could do better at imitating blood in water.

It didn't take long before the eureka moment hit. That night when closing Venetian blinds in his bedroom, Mayer noticed the stainless steel ball chain in his hand.

“That's it!'' Mayer said he realized. A red chain made of 4mm or 5mm balls could resemble blood droplets.

A patent search found nothing to dash his dream, and Mayer went to work with $50 worth of chains, beads, hooks and fishing line.

He tested stainless steel and chrome ball chains — popularly used as key chains or necklaces — in a home aquarium. He drilled holes into tiny foam floats with a hand drill for fishing line and a short length of chain. He tested the rigs with minnows on the hooks. They sank. Too heavy.

Eventually he found an East Coast manufacturer who could supply aluminum ball chain — in red. The buoyant aluminum passed the aquarium test.

Mayer and his father, Eugene “Hit'' Mayer of Mitchell, tested prototypes in October 2007 before the Missouri River reservoirs froze. Jim used his invention and outfished his dad by a 3-to-1 ratio. Hit was impressed. The father and son fishing partners became business partners.

They formed Mayer Tackle, LLC, based in Mitchell. Jim creates new rigs and designs from a hobby table in a spare bedroom in his southwest Lincoln home. A fishing tackle division of hometown Mitchell Manufacturing produces the rigs. Hit, an 84-year-old retired businessman, lines up retailers and ships orders from the company's corporate headquarters — his Mitchell garage.

The Mayers opened online sales a year ago with about a fifth of the 33 different product packages — components to complete rigs — they sell now.

This year they're hitting their stride. Hit loaded his truck with inventory two months ago and stopped at South Dakota bait shops from Yankton on the Nebraska border up river 370 miles to Pollack on the North Dakota line.

More than two dozen bait shops on the reservoir system now carry Hippy's Bleeder Chain. Some are reordering to replenish low stock in time for Fourth of July fishing. Cabela's carries the line in its Nebraska, South Dakota and other Midwestern stores. Anglers call from Ohio, Minnesota and Wyoming to restock their tackle boxes.

Jim said about 85 percent of his bleeder chain rigs are designed for walleye anglers, but he is working on ideas for the bass market. A line of ice-fishing rigs is in production for release in October.

“It's a matter of trial and error,'' Jim said.

Spin float rigs are designed to twirl slowly in water with the two chain arms resembling blood droplets trailing a minnow, night crawler, leech or plastic grub on a hook. Ball float rigs are best fished trolling with a bottom bouncer, or fished from the shore beneath a bobber with a small split shot pinched 18 inches or so above the hook.

If the ball chain is too long and appears to interfere with the hook, it's easily snipped shorter with an angler's nail clippers or scissors.

Mayer said he is a firm believer in tipping hooks with live bait.

“A minnow, crawler or leach always is a major attractant to get fish to bite, but it appears the Bleeder Chain seems to entice fish to strike bait a bit harder,'' he said.

Mayer said his goal is to produce affordable rigs useful to anglers on boats and on shore. Complete jig rigs, including leader line and hook, sell for $2.99 for two. Bait rigs are $3.69 for a pair.

“It's not like a $10 crank bait,'' Mayer said.

Daryl Bauer, a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission fisheries biologist, said he hadn't used Mayer's invention, but he said color can make a difference in angler success.

“There may be some truth to the blood thing,'' he said. “It should have wide appeal to different species of fish. A lot of predator fish are those we fish for.''

Bauer said new products greet anglers constantly.

“There are dozens of new lure ideas out there. Some work great. Some are gimmicks,'' he said. “But until you buy and use them, you don't know which is which.''

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com