Slinker worm Succeeds Where The Bubble Gum Slugo Blew It

Shawn Clark knew something had to change when he saw a five-pound bass swim around his bubble gum Slugo to “slam” a tiny snake.

How did the fish even know the snake was there in the murky water of the Arkansas River near Maumelle?

Clark decided the snake’s swimming movements must have sent vibrations through the water that the bass could detect. Something made the fish bypass the Slugo, a plastic “twitch bait” that imitates an injured shad, and hit the live snake instead.

So Clark spent the next two and a half years working on a plaster of Paris mold that would serve as the womb for an S-shaped worm — one that would move more like a snake when reeled in and would go into a natural, defensive “S” shape at rest.

Clark melted down some old-fashioned, straight plastic worms that were already on the market, and he poured the substance into the molds.

“It probably took me four or five molds before I got the one I wanted,” he said. “It was actually kind of difficult to get it to do what we wanted it to do and hold that ‘S’ position. But I got it to do what I wanted. I started fishing it and really catching a lot of fish. It was a blast to watch.”

Clark said the invention cost him almost nothing besides time — $5 for plaster of Paris, 25 cents for a pie plate and whatever a handful of plastic worms cost.

Slinker Lures

That was back in 1995 when Clark was working for Southern Farm Services and living in Maumelle. He was also “spending a couple of hundred days a year on the water.”

Since then, Clark has moved to Rogers, taken over Vaughan’s Bait Farm in Springdale from his cousin and founded Clark Ventures Inc., which manufactures Slinker Lures. The company motto says: “Because worms aren’t straight.”

The patent process, trademarking the name and marketing took up much of Clark’s time and several thousand dollars. The Slinker lure finally went on the market in July 2002.

Clark Ventures, Inc. is a private company. Clark declined to reveal the company’s revenue.

Bass Master and Cabela’s

With the help of Taylor Mack, a Fayetteville advertising firm, Slinker was featured on two television fishing shows, on National Public Radio and in a short article in Bass Master magazine in late 2002. The magazine article caught the attention of the folks at Cabela’s, America’s leading mail-order hunting and fishing supplier.

“They’re looking at it possibly for the 2004 catalog,” Clark said. “They read about it in Bass Master and went to our Web site [which is www.slinkerlures.com].”

Clark said he already had the Slinker lures in about 40 retail stores. The Bass Master story landed another 50 retail customers from states throughout the Southeast and as far away as North Carolina and Florida.