A Visit With Red Alert Lures
December 2019, Volume 108
Somewhere in a bar pit or bayou the bream are biting. You’ve caught over a hundred and they are still biting. As the old saying goes, “you don’t leave fish biting” but you’re out of bait, so what do you do? Well if you’re Keith Fussell you improvise and you build your own bait out of a twig, some fishing line, and smear it in the bottom of the cricket bucket to make it smell perfect. Then you catch another sixty bream.
Keith made that first “lure” at age 11 and from that point on he was hooked. This is further explained on the back of his packaging as a “lifelong dream of a young country boy raised in the backwaters and bayous of central Louisiana.”
I visited with Keith at his home in Georgetown, a small community in Grant Parish in central Louisiana. Google directions were easy enough to find the location but in all honesty you’d need to be headed there to get there. The reason that I was headed there was to talk with the owner of Red Alert Lures.
I first met Keith at the Louisiana Outdoor Expo in Lafayette located inside the Cajun Dome back in July. We talked and had planned to reconnect but time, schedules, and life had gotten in the way until this day.
I pulled into the driveway and up to a modest country home located in the pine woods on the edge of the Kisatchie National Forest. Soon I was greeted by Keith and his four legged companion, Jax, that seldom left his side. As I entered the front door of the house, I immediately stepped not in to his living room but into his workshop. His passion was spread from one side of the room to the other atop several lure making and assembly stations.
We first turned our attention to the Louisiana Triple Threat lure where he was in the middle of assembling what looked like several hundred at a time. The bass catching contraption, lightly based on the famous “Alabama Rig” was designed to be lightweight, easy to use, versatile, and foldable. The stiff wire umbrella has 3 arms that extend about 2 inches into the swivel and hook assembly that comes pre-rigged with the Red Alert’s Bayou Shad 3.5” paddle tail swimbait, or one of the other plastics offered by Red Alert Lures. Hanging from the middle of the tripod is a single spinner blade to attract the bass ready to ambush the lure. If you untie the Louisiana Triple Threat it will fold neatly into a tray of your tackle box, rather than taking up an unruly amount of space in your tackle trays. I listened skeptically as Keith continued to talk about the versatility of this bait.
A venture out to the utility trailer he pulls to every trade show revealed a mass collection of all of the Red Alert Lures inventory including lures, plastic baits, popping corks, crankbaits (even ones that light up), and the Red Alert Inline Spinner – the maiden lure bearing the company’s name. An inline spinner with a gold blade, swivel connections and a quick lock tied to a fully customizable swim jig. A must have in any bass angler’s arsenal.
Of all the baits, the Bayou Shad caught my eye. As a guy that throws a lot of moving baits, I am always looking for different trailers. The 3.5” paddle tail swim bait comes in at least 11 stock colors covering all the basics, and then some. Bayou Shad colors include: Thunderstruck, Trout Gravy, Cayenne Mad Shad, Skin and Bones, Yak Slime, Shadow Recruit, Cajun Sky, Mardi Gras Mambo, Louisiana LaRou, Ivory Slick, and Gator Puke. I will soon try out
The Red Alert Lures “Louisiana Triple Threat” folded compactly, even with three soft plastics fully rigged.
Once I found fish I pulled out the underspin and threw it and caught a few. The bait ran true and did what I expected it todo. I’ll pair it with my favorite plastic swimbait and use it from time to time no doubt.
Next I turned to the inline spinner bait. I have to say it takes a little getting used to but I did eventually get a fish to bite but failed to land it. I’ll be practicing more with this particular lure.
Lastly I tried the Louisiana Triple Threat. Let me sum it up by letting you know I called Keith and ordered enough to put the miniature “A Rig” on our website so you guys can try it too. I caught fifteen plus on this bait with the Thunderstruck Bayou Shad that came pre-rigged right out of the package. I treated the bait basically like a spinnerbait and tossed it at laydowns, cypress trees, and drug it across grass landing fish way more than I expected. I’m sold on the effectiveness of the Louisiana Triple Threat and I love the fact it’s made right here in Louisiana by a U.S. Veteran.
Keith Fussell is a Disabled American Veteran making his living as the owner of a fishing lure company. He exemplifies the characteristics of a proud American, living in smalltown, USA, putting his blood, sweat and tears into his business each and every day. This is the type of company and man we at Bassin’ in the Boot can get behind and support. If you are interested to find out more about Red Alert Lures look them up on Facebook or online at http://redalertlures.com and get you some products that are Man Made...Fish Approved!
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The Red Alert Lures “Louisiana Triple Threat” is one of the most versitle multi-drop rigs you will find.
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The Red Alert Lures “Louisiana Triple Threat” is the only umbrella rig that will fold up and fit in one space in your tacklebox
I will soon try out the Thunderstruck color to mimic shad on the back of my bladed jigs and spinnerbaits.
A second soft plastic, the Cobra Floater, is designed to look like a small King Cobra snake and has magical powers to entice fish to bite as a slow falling or floating plastic (with a light wire hook). It comes in colors such as Blue Blood, Piroux Magic, and Rougarou, to name a few, and can be fished in a variety of ways including weightless or Texas rigged as a worm.
Red Alert Lures offers a variety of custom baits and lures, but there’s more to this company. Keith, a disabled veteran, has prototyped a lure that combines several of his passions. Those two passions are helping veterans and his faith in Jesus Christ. The lure, “Follow Me”, is in the shape of an ichthys. It has a spinner inside and atop the tail, with hooks under the belly and on the bottom of the tail, and will be engraved with “Follow me, I will make you fishers of men!” Keith is hoping to get the lure stamped out of brass once the prototype is perfected. He plans to donate half of the profits from the lure to the Wounded War Heroes of Louisiana.
I left Georgetown with a bag of goodies and an open mind. I specifically was interested in fishing three of the baits as soon as I could get on the water. I took the Louisiana Triple Threat, the Original Inline Spinner, and the Kajun Kwivver Underspin to a local favorite fishing spot where I usually catch fish. I started searching for fish with a War Eagle Sexy Shad spinnerbait to make sure I could find fish where they normally are located.
Red Alert Lures “Cobra Floater Worms” that will float when rigged unweighted on a light wire hook, or will slow the fall rate enticing strikes.
