On the Origin of Mediator Lures

Although fishing is not listed in the Bible as a spiritual gift, it is not to be overlooked that several of the disciples of Jesus were fishermen.  Neither is it to be missed that in the original commands of the Lord, Adam and Eve were told to “rule over the fish” (GEN 1:28).  Some of us are born with this command in our blood and a giftedness in fishing that the uneducated regard as mere luck.  Personally, I regard the whole matter as a singular blessing straight from the creative fellowship of the Father, Son and Spirit.  From day one I was a determined fisherman and from day one I was intrigued with the whole idea of a fishing lure.  By my early teens I was already at work trying to make a lure that looked like a bream.

My interest in fishing and fishing lures, however, always played second fiddle to what I assumed was a higher calling.  To put it simply, I have always wanted to know about God.  That desire lead me to seminary and eventually to Scotland to study theology with one of the great theologians of our day, Professor James B. Torrance.  The beauty of it is that the more I came to understand who God is and what “fires God’s rockets,” so to speak, the more I understood that my love for fishing was not an aberration from spirituality, but at the very heart of it.   

In Scotland I made a discovery–a liberating, and I should say, a lure-producing discovery.  After years of serious thought and reflection, I finally came to see that the Holy Trinity invented fishing. It finally dawned on me that the chase, the fellowship, the joy of fishing do not originate with me but with the fellowship of the Father, Son and Spirit.  It all starts there, in the creative and joyous circle of life that they share together.  I call it “the Great Dance.”  The thing that blew my mind was the discovery that the Father, Son and Spirit created us so that we could share in the Great Dance with them.  The whole point of creation and redemption is that the life shared by the Father, Son and Spirit would be shared with us, and would come to personal expression in our lives.  And the greatest part is that the arena of that personal expression is our humanity–from laughter and friendship, to work and play; from relationships and romance, to music and creativity.   

Freed from the shackles of a warped theology that divided the world into sacred and secular realms, I was poised to embrace my early passion.  In January of 1993, as I dragged our Christmas tree to the street, I heard a clear statement: “Cut off a piece of cedar and make a lure.”  I did.  Finding an old Xacto knife my brother hand given me, I started carving.  Although, from my youth I had wanted a lure that looked and acted like a real bream, my first lure took the shape of a large minnow.  The carving came surprisingly easy.  The finish, however, was another matter altogether.  I had a clear picture in my mind of what I wanted, but I had no idea how to produce it on the sides of that minnow-shaped piece of cedar.  That mental picture haunted me.  There was no satisfaction until the lure in my hand matched the lure in my head. Trial and error and perseverance were the order of the day.   It took months and months of research and failed attempts, and several more of those suggestive ideas, before the process for the finish fell into place.  When it did, there emerged the very first Mediator Lure.  Originally I called the lures “ Dr. K’s Hawg Calls” and then “Dr. K’s Klones” but these never seemed to fit.

Of course, I had to try it out.  Believe it or not, the first fish I caught with that minnow lure was a 6.12 lb. bass.  My friend David Upshaw was there as a witness.  When the fish hit, it looked like the Loch Ness Monster.  Sheer panic struck my heart.  I was as much afraid of losing the lure as the fish, although, if the truth be known, I was more afraid of the ridicule I would take if I claimed to have hooked a big bass on my lure and lost it. 

Needless to say, I realized that I was on to something and soon began work on other shapes–gizzard shad, baby bass and crappie, and my dream lure, the bream.  By this time, my friend Steve Horn was as obsessed with the lures as I was.  We spent hours and days and weeks experimenting with painting techniques and ways of perfecting different parts of the lure, even down to collecting specimens that we could study to make sure the gill plates were correct.

The original minnow (I think we called it “Dr. K’s Hawg Call–Darting Shad”) had a spinner for a tail.  That was good, but not good enough.  A life-like tail was required and that proved to be the most difficult part of the whole process.  We experimented with everything, from rubber tails to plastic leaves and artificial flowers, until settling on a combination of buck tail and synthetic hair.  The tail, now patented, is one of my favorite features of the lures. 

Another favorite feature is the lipless design, which is patented as well.  The early lures all had plastic lips protruding from the throat area.  I discovered, however, that the combination of certain design features gave the lure far more realism and action than one with a protruding plastic lip.  With a steady retrieve, my lipless lures simply swim like a fish.  With a slight twitching of the rod the lures will dart from side to side, even turn completely around.  With a quick sweep of the rod tip the lure will dart away, stop and turn around as if afraid of what is behind them.  The action is remarkable.  So the lipless design became a central feature of all my lures. 

I continued to fish the lures with great success and make them for friends.  But none of my friends would fish the lures.  “This is for the wall,” they would say.  “I want three to put in a shadow box.”  “This is too beautiful to fish with.”  The next thing I knew, our State paper ran a feature article on me and my lures.  The next day, art lovers, collectors and wives of husbands who have everything began to call.

Demand.  A new problem that I had not anticipated stared me in the face.  Given that it took many hours to make a single lure, I could not meet the demands.  So began the long process of learning how to make the lures in plastic without one sacrifice of realism or action.  It has taken me years to work out the details.  But now “The Bream,” the first Mediator Lure is available in 14 beautiful colors.  

Dr. K. (C. Baxter Kruger) is married and has four children.  He and his family live in Brandon , Mississippi where he is the director of Perichoresis, Inc., an international ministry equipping leaders and teachers, artists and musicians, pastors and missionaries around he world.  He is author of 7 books.  For more information on Perichoresis and Dr. Kruger’s ministry visit the web site www.perichoresis.org and www.perichoresis.org.au.