Fishing has been around as long as man has realized he could eat creatures of the water. Fishing rods originated well over 4,000 years ago across various expanses of the ancient worlds including Egypt, China, and various other places including Rome, Greece, Britain, and several islands such as Trinidad and Tobago. These early fishing rods were imperfect to say the least and mankind has been improving on them ever since. The next torch bearing culture in perfecting the fishing rod you may ask? Cajuns.
Cajun Lures proprietor Zachary Dubois has teamed up with his father-in-law Mr. Larry to continue in the pursuit of the perfect fishing rod. The idea to get into making rods came to Zach from his time working with a few companies he had been sponsored by where he learned the ins and outs of rod manufacturing. Being a lure manufacturer, he knew next to putting a Cajun Lures Bayou Bug 2.0 between a fish’s eye, the next most important thing was how to present that lure to the fish. The most important tool controlling lure presentation is undoubtedly the rod.
So when the opportunity presented itself for him to get into making his own rods he jumped at it. With one of his former rod sponsors going out of business he took on some of the equipment and began making rods for himself. What started as a conversation with the owner of a rod company about making the actions he wanted in a rod quickly turned into another passion. Zach tells us “after about a year of building my own [rods] and few for other people, my father -in-law came over to our house one day and … he was really intrigued.” Being a recent retiree and greatly intrigued, Mr. Larry came aboard and put the L in LZ Rods.
LZ Rods
June 2021, Volume 126
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The collaborative of LZ Fishing Rods now has seven different action rods available from www.CajunLures.com . The designs primarily start with Zach who studied Industrial Design from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Mr. Larry handles the lion’s share of the nuts and bolts construction of the rods. Building a rod is an in depth process requiring high skill, keen observation skills, a feel and familiarity for the differences between each and every rod blank you start with, and a meticulous hand. In addition to that, an exacting process has to be followed to properly spine the blank, measure and layout the guides, fitting the handles, and carefully and securely attaching the guides in alignment by stringing them to the rod blank. It may seem simple when you hold a rod in your hand, but until you watch the process with a true craftsman you can’t fully appreciate the depth of the build.
Once assembled, the final step is to finish the rods with an epoxy sealant on the key threaded parts, and the various decorative embellishments; a process Zach picks up and completes to finish every rod by hand. With that you have an LZ Performance Fishing Rod that is Angler Engineered with a semi-custom build for each rod. With the seven available actions you can undoubtedly “present your lure correctly, in the way you’d want to,” which is the same reason Zach began building rods to begin with. So with an LZ Rod Zach says you get “my fishing experience, combined with input from other good anglers…in the build and design” of these rods.
With the market conditions we have going on with Covid and the extreme demand on the fishing industry lately, coupled with the pinches in the supply chains affecting raw material production, life in the lure industry is a blur right now. With those demands in managing Cajun Lures, Zach says of launching LZ Fishing Rods: “if [Mr. Larry] wasn’t helping, then there is no way I could do it.” An appreciative team launching a new business is always an exciting time. But adding to that excitement is the expectation of a new born baby girl to parents Zachary and Kayla Dubois. With all the new going around Zach says it will undoubtedly be “a completely different world when she gets here, but it’s a world I’m excited for.”
We hope you will check out the new lineup of rods from LZ Fishing Rods and enjoy another product assembled by hand here in our great state by a couple of great guys in the Bassin’ industry.
From us at Bassin’ in the Boot CONGRATULATIONS to Zachary and Kayla on your first child. We wish wellness and happiness for mom, dad and daughter you begin a wonderful new adventure making memories, and of course catching fish!
LZ Performance Fishing Rods
Angler Engineered Built to Fish
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Part of the building process is checking and finding the spine on each blank. This is just another step in the LZ Fishing Rod's process that helps ensure you get a quality, powerful, yet sensitive rod build.
