Lure hooks grand prize

Brady Vore and his buddy were fishing.
As they waited for the next nibble, they wondered. How could they make one of their favorite hobbies better?
Their idea: Come up with a way to make fishing hooks safer.
Robbey Byers, Michael Dirksen and Vore acted on that idea, and Saturday morning they walked away with $500 as the winners of the grand prize at the inaugural Jay County Innovation Fair.
They were surprised by the win, saying they had hoped for maybe third place. But their idea for a fishing lure with a retractable hook stood out to the judges — Ball State University’s Matt Marvel, Purdue University’s Corey Sharp and local inventor and entrepreneur Dave Poole.
“I really thought the project was really distinctive,” said Marvel, director of the Entrepreneurship Center at BSU. “I’ve got young kids who are interested in fishing, so I could see the market application for that in particular.
“The other thing that stood out, and I think this is the case for most entrepreneurs that are successful, those young men are crazy passionate about the hobby, the problem they’re solving, their product.”
Once Vore had the idea, he started researching design possibilities.
“I was looking on the internet at designs for ... types of baits,” he said. “The one that really appealed to me was the spinner bait, which is what I based it on.”
The prototype he and his teammates presented Saturday included a spinner attached to a tube that is about 3 inches long. The tube has a slider that can be used to release and retract the hook. In its retracted position, the hook hugs the tube so as to keep it from getting tangled with other bait and/or ending up stuck in the fisherman’s finger.
“It seemed like there really aren’t any products like that on the market today,” said Poole. “It’s something that addresses safety … From the innovation standpoint, it just seemed like a good idea.”
Honors were distributed Saturday at the conclusion of the innovation fair at John Jay Center, with Dylan Rose, Richard Hummer and Andy Kohler taking second place for their TiO (two-in-one) bottle and Destiny Butler, Troy Glattli and Andrew Rockwell picking up third for their Locklet (a new device to lock plugs into electrical outlets).
Other innovations included a social-networking app for mentoring, an organizational hub for home computer cables and other office supplies, a couch that redirects air from heating/cooling vents, using an air-pressure differential engine as a campfire generator and a chair with a built-in cooler.
The judges were pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the ideas in the first year of the event.
“Each of the ideas were different, completely different,” said Poole. “You could see the personalities of the students coming out in their ideas and their designs. You could tell they put some work into it, some thought into it, and some of them were really passionate …”
The process lit a spark in some of those who took part, with Dirksen, Byers and Vore saying that once they got started they just kept building off of the initial idea. They hope to continue, both with their new fishing lure and with other innovations.
“You can always improve on your idea,” said Byers. “There’s no stopping. There’s always something new.”
“(We’ll) see if we can improve it a little bit,” said Dirksen. “And then maybe someday we’ll end up putting into market.”