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Grants Pass Daily Courier
March 7, 2006
by Jim Moore
Using larger lures from the bank now the reality – Gold Hill man invents Bank-Ease Planer
There’s nothing more frustrating to an angler than having no luck in a stretch of water that should be yielding fish. It’s even worse if other anglers are having success, especially if the reason is something beyond one’s control.
Take fishing from a riverbank, for instance, and watching boaters landing fish while bank anglers are being skunked.
In that case, the cause is often the in ability of the bank angler to use the same gear in the same manner as the boaters.
But Robyn Moulder of Gold Hill decided to try to do something to change that.
The heavy equipment operator invented the Bank-Ease Planer, which allows anglers to use large lures from the bank in the same manner they are used from boats.
“I was specifically looking for something to fish with a Kwikfish from the bank,” said Moulder, who works for his father at Thomas L. Moulder Construction.
The planer, which can also be used in a boat, holds the lure steady in both slow and fast current and releases the line when a fish strikes. It can use bait, plugs, spinners and flies.
A ring with a tow line at one end of the planer hooks to the bank and the large, yellow planer floats while the outrigger holds it in the current.
“It carries the bait from the bank sideways out from you and holds it steady,” Moulder, 35, said. “It makes it so you can fish larger lures from the bank.”
Once the planer is positioned in the stream, the angler can either hold the rod or use a rod holder as if plunking. And there’s no worry about boats coming across the line or the planer.
“You don’t long-line the planer,” Moulder said.
It’s also easy user.
The planer began as a germ of an idea in September of 2002 and with the creative help of his father, Thomas, and Ron Oachs, a local river guide and former Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy, it became a reality.
And after he tried it, Moulder was convinced it would be a hot item with anglers.
“The first day I went out with it, I caught a 5-1/2 pound cutthroat,” he said.
By last October, it had grown to marketable fishing method and he formed Moulder, LLC and began selling the planer on a small scale, mostly at regional outdoor shows.
“I sold my 100th last weekend at a show in Redmond,” he said. He’s also set up booths and sold product at shows in Roseburg, Eugene and in Central Point at the Jackson County show.
The retail price of the planer is $44.95 and the handle and line that accompany it go for $8. Since nearly all of the planers that have been available on the market have been sold, the price certainly hasn’t been a problem.
Very few of them have been on store shelves, but Bradbury’s Gun and Tackle in Grants Pass stocked a half dozen planers two weeks ago, but you won’t find any there now.
I’ve sold them all,” said Dave Bradbury on Monday. “I wanted to try one, but didn’t get the chance. I think it looks pretty good. It’s a nice idea to be able to fish with a big Kwikfish from the bank.”
Moulder also said that Backlash Tackle in Grants Pass will be carrying the planers and that Setyr Rods in Merlin is building special rods designed to allow access to the tow line at the rod.
While Moulder’s long-range goal is to market his product to as many retail stores as possible, that won’t happen until a couple of hurdles are crossed.
First, the planer is now constructed by hand and it takes about 40 minutes to make one, though Moulder is developing a method to mass produce them, which should lower the retail price.
Also, he’s in the process of securing sole rights to the planer and the device is now in it’s provisional patent stage, he said. Moulder doesn’t expect any problems in securing the patent itself, which could eventually cost about $10,000.
Information about the planer and a demonstration video is available on the Web at www.moulder-llc.com.
Moulder, who was born in Ashland and returned to the Rogue Valley in 1992 after attending Santa Rosa High School in California, is optimistic about getting his invention on the market.
“The biggest testimony I have is from tackle sales reps – who are the hardest to convince – who took it out and caught 12 steelhead near Spokane,” he said.
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