Late last year, the Duck Commander crew and popular jig pole manufacturer B’n’M got together to develop and market a whole new line of crappie fishing poles.
“We were all sitting in the duck call room one day, and our licensing guy came in and told me there was a man on the phone that wanted to talk about doing a crappie jig pole with us,” Duck Commander production manager Jay Stone said. “I asked old Godwin about it, and he said, ‘That’s what I’m talking about, man. Free crappie poles!’
“At first, that was all he was thinking about.”
The man on the phone was Jack Wells, president of B’n’M Fishing, who had heard about the men’s love for crappie fishing, was aware of the popularity of our business and TV show, and wanted to see if we could develop a line of custom Duck Commander rods and poles.
“He made it very clear right up front that he didn’t want this to be a gimmick because of the show or our popularity,” Stone said. “He wanted it to be a quality product that reflected what we wanted in a crappie rod.
“He said he wouldn’t do it just to put our name on it, but wanted our input.”
The duck-call crew put their crappie thinking caps on, and their input included some pretty simple but innovative design elements.
For starters, all the rods were marked with bright-chartreuse marks around the rod at 1-foot intervals to help crappie fishermen measure exactly how deep they have their bait out.
Previously, you would see fishermen would Sharpie marks or electrical tape every 5 or 10 feet on their line or pole to show how much line was out.
That chartreuse was also included in the last 2 feet of the tip so fishermen could better detect when fish hit the bait.
On the popular Double Touch rod, the reel seat was moved back to help with balance, but enough rod was left sticking out so a fisherman using two rods could set one down in the rod holder while landing a fish on the other and not worry about losing the rod overboard.
Of course, the rods are in a green camo color.
“The other thing we did with the trolling rod was add backbone to the rod, but (we) left a fast tip to help with detecting bites and working on shallow-water fish,” Stone said. “We’ve been thrilled with the response and are thankful that Godwin and I had so much input.”
And yes, Godwin gets his free fishing poles.
