Introduction:
Happy New Year to all our loyal readers! What a season last year was, full of lots of long
distance driving, exciting industry events, a few quality fish and a whole lot
of new tackle to talk about. Our "Creature Fever" put us face to face with more
zany
multi-appendage baits than ever before, and we were only able to get through half
the list of baits and related rods designed for fishing creatures, so
this year we are “going native,” getting back to fishing the bite, and focusing
on a combination of all our previous themes. Anything goes in our pursuit for
the fish and exploring all the new tackle available to anglers in the coming
season.
When it finally came time to settle into our new lab we found a vacant facility,
the rent was reasonable but the only catch was we had to do all the renovation
ourselves
Part of our
expanded coverage includes a more in depth look at tackle by further leveraging the
tools in our lab. If you are a regular reader you have already seen the lab at
work, it is where do all of our preliminary product measurements, break down
reels before and after field tests, cut open tackle in our autopsy series and
conduct our indoor product and event photo shoots.
Zander takes care of the demolition
What you may
not know is that it has also become home base for TackleTour, it is where we meet to plan
out our editorial calendar, process images and even write articles. Over the
last two years we have
received a great many emails asking for a behind the scenes look at the lab, and to
kick off 2013 we are winding back the clock a few years to show you just how the
lab came to be. Come join us for a peek at the place we call “TT HQ.”
Taking down the drywall was the easy part, there is a slow way...
The Lab
Construction: It is no secret we had very humble beginnings and for many
years we were operating out of garages. Zander set up a workspace in his garage
which included our early hand operated rigs to test drag pressure and line strength while JIP
created a photo studio to shoot reels and lures in his garage. Things got even
more complex when Cal joined the staff and we created the rod WRACK to
standardize rod measurements.
...and a fast way
While most of
the exciting stuff happens on our floating offices (AKA our boats), there is a
lot of work and data correlation that goes on in the lab, and then there is the
business of actually writing of course. As we started expanding the metrics in
our tests and ramping up the types of tackle we wanted to cover it became
apparent we needed a new home.
The
initial demo goes quicker than expected
Palo Alto, CA
was selected as the new home for our lab as it was centrally located between all of
us in the Bay Area, and no more than an hour away from our favorite fishing
water of the Delta or the
Coast. We acquired a facility that had most recently been vacated by a cosmetics supply
store. The rent was reasonable for the prime location but there was a catch, it was up
to us to do all the renovation ourselves. We loaded the trucks up with the tools
and got to work.
