A look inside B-N-E Tackle

Written by Kari Sundberg, Eagle Editor

This quaint red shed sits on the Philipp farm in rural Good-ridge. It’s a common sight to see Brent, Crystelle, Elliot and Norah coming and going through the door but what’s happening on the inside?

It’s time to find out.

It’s none other than the B-N-E Tackle headquarters! You’ve probably heard some chatter about B-N-E Tackle lately and that’s because they are making some great-quality, highly sought-after products. Especially their LED fishing lure, also known as “the blinking thing!” More on that in a minute.

A couple of years ago, Brent Philipp, who farms in Good-ridge, had just gotten out of basketball coaching. He was sitting around a campfire with his friend, Greg Monson, who also had just gotten out of coaching. The topic came up about what Brent would do next. “We had been fishing a lot. Greg suggested making tackle and the idea just kind of fit,” Brent shrugged. He decided to give it a go and started making spinners, which is his go-to item. Summer fishing was the main goal with Lake of the Woods being the main lake in mind. Well, Brent quickly decided he needed something that would set his tackle apart from the rest. Cue the personalized fishing tackle. Partnering with Universal Screenprint, out of Thief River Falls, B-N-E Tackle made a few custom samples for local businesses and the lures were a hit. CHS in Thief River Falls was the first to place a big order in 2015. Dr. Kainz soon placed an order to give out to his patients around Christmas time, and Cenex soon followed with a promo deal of giving away a hook to customers who purchased 10 gallons worth of gas!

(The Grygla Eagle Newspaper is now among businesses who have personalized lures as B-N-E Tackle presented a couple packages as a surprise gift! It’s so true that you can only have so many pens or coffee mugs, right? Fishing lures are, indeed, a unique giveaway that are sure to please.)

The homemade tackle is also sold in many area school stores with each sport logo/mascot being printed directly on the lures. One family from Newfolden actually bought one of all the rival schools to see which school would fish the best! Brent says a lot of people stop back and give him the fishing reports on what’s been catching.

Right now, the Goodridge business operates more by supply and demand. There are  enough orders coming in, however, where Brent needed to hire two employees. Drew Kjono and Travis Smith started helping with a few orders in the beginning, but now try to get to B-N-E every couple of weeks to help out. The group gets together every couple of weeks to work on orders, but Brent tries to spends 1-2 hours a day working out in the shop alone. When all of them working together, they can get about 50 lures done per hour. Last Saturday’s work day included making approximately 200 spinners for the upcoming Home, Sport & Craft Show in Thief River Falls.

The tackle company offers a variety of products with a variety of prices – depending on what you are after. Their best-selling item is the gold-hammered spinner, which is most popular on Lake of the Woods.

In addition to spinners, other items include casting spoons, round head jigs, floating jigs, lead weights, bobbers, crank baits, steel leaders, certain styles of buzz baits, glow in the dark and LED lures, to name a few. 

“We are just getting into the ice fishing stuff,” Brent says. “At this point, everyone is calling our newest LED lure “the blinking thing!” It made its debut right before Christmas and we’re already coming up with some ideas on how to make it work for summer fishing,” he disclosed.

Making custom fishing tackle started at Brent & Crystelle’s kitchen table. It then overtook an entire bedroom and got to be a lot of unpacking/packing back up. Every couple of months, they’d think “let’s try these out” and new product would get added.                    B-N-E Tackle outgrew its allocated space.

Last June, the Philipps got their little red work shop. It took only one month and it was insulated, sheet rocked, textured, painted, heat/air installed, electricity and floors in. Because business was taking off, Brent could no longer buy items he needed at Cabela’s or Scheels. He switched over to a tackle company out of Ohio where he could order in bulk. “I mentioned to Drew that we didn’t have any red beads. He ordered 28,000,” Brent laughed.

As mentioned, a lot of promotional items are being made with some exciting jobs on the horizon! Things are still in the works with a couple of things, but hopefully soon you’ll be seeing B-N-E Tackle in the limelight. Brent promises to share when the time comes...

For now, you can get in touch directly with the business through phone or Facebook; they also just started a Twitter page. There is a full line available at Fleet Supply in Thief River Falls, along with Erl’s Market selling items in the summer. This is the third year B-N-E Tackle will have a booth at the Home, Sport & Craft Show in Thief River Falls, which is on April 14-15.

Last summer, the group of men were invited to an area youth fishing tournament as the featured speakers. Jesse Westbrock joined Brent, Travis and Drew in teaching youngsters how to tie fishing knots. B-N-E partnered with Erl’s Market and handed out free tackle to all the participants that day. 

 B-N-E Tackle has made for some great stocking stuffers, graduation gifts and, most recently, wedding favors!

They are also visible in the American Federal Bank System catalog where their products can be ordered as promotional items.

How big will the Goodridge business get? I guess it all depends on how much they want to work! What was initially supposed to just be a winter job is now turning into year-round. “It got pretty real once the building went up,” Brent says. He added candidly, “Once there’s a bathroom in here, we’ll know we’ve made it.”