Chris Niedzinski works on a drill press in his basement fishing lure assembly shop. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Chris Niedzinski was looking for a way out. After leaving Harvard 10 years earlier, he’d wandered through Rhode Island, New York, Colorado, and California. Now he scanned the San Diego docks for a boat to take him farther west, out into the blue Pacific.

The most impressive craft in the harbor was the 124-foot, gleaming white sportfisher named Excel. Chris approached the captain, who looked 10 years younger than he.

“I’d like a job on your boat,” Chris declared. “I’ve caught cod out of Gloucester, stripers off Rhode Island, marlin in Florida, and crewed a lobster boat in Maine.”

“Maybe we can use you,” the kid offered. “Can you tie a Bimini Twist?”

On Bare Hill Pond, where Chris fishes now, there’s no need to tie Bimini Twists, Albright Specials, or any of the other deep-sea fishing knots Chris spent countless hours practicing before that fateful day. Nor does he see the yellow tail tuna and mako sharks he pulled into the Excel during his four years of service on the Pacific.

Chris shows off a finished lure. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

He mostly catches bass from a 1975 Sears rowboat, using a lure he designed and made himself. Given Chris’s wealth of experience and know-how, it’s not surprising that his lure, known as the Rattle Clacker, is extremely effective. And despite its complexity, with four hinged sections, a bill and tail for stability, and two dangling treble hooks, Chris is prepared to mass-produce it for retail sale. His company, Troutman Swimbaits, is just getting off the ground.

He’s proud to give tours of his basement shop. Opening a desk drawer, he pulls out a flat piece of plastic.

“I use this jig on my lathe to shape the tail.”

He pulls out another. “This sets the angle of the bill in the head.”

Every lure he’s ever made hangs from a copper pipe on the wall. And in a brown, leather-clad notebook he’s recorded everything about building the lure, including locations and depths for eye screws, different bill shapes, and the results of pull tests.

“I’ve been fishing my whole life,” says 37-year-old Chris. “I have pictures of me fishing on Bare Hill Pond when I was four years old.”

Chris glues eyes onto painted lures. He buys eyes from a taxidermist for a startlingly realistic look. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

After graduating from Bromfield in 1988, Chris earned a business degree from Bryant University in Rhode Island. He spent a year working for his uncle in Manhattan, and then moved to Steamboat Springs, Colo. There he spent five years, “being a ski bum and fly-fishing in the Rocky Mountain streams.” Chris relocated to San Diego in 1998.

The Excel was chartered for long-range trips by serious deep-sea fishermen.

“These guys came out with 200-pound tackle boxes and 14 or 15 different fishing rods, each costing more than $1,000,” he said.

Chris spent multiple weeks at sea on those trips, working 18-hour days. Starting as a deckhand, he worked his way up to engineer, constantly learning more about fishing.

After a while, Chris felt too far from home and found his way back to Harvard, moving into the same Brown Road house where he grew up. His mother and stepfather are happy to have him, since Chris knows carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work, everything necessary to keep the old house in good repair.

Chris decided to build his own lure two years ago, after having great success with a giant wooden lure he borrowed from a friend. To buy one like it, he had to go all the way to Seekonk and pay $60.

He said, “I thought, ‘I have all these tools and experience, I can make something better than this.’ And that’s how my quest started to build the ultimate large-mouth bass fishing lure.”

He’s since invested $10,000 in parts and packaging, and provided 30 lures to key customers.

His best customer is tournament fisherman Joe Queen.

Each lure has four joints. Chris has made hundreds of prototypes to develop the most realistic play when the lures are pulled through the water. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

“I saw Chris using his lure on Bare Hill Pond,” said Joe. “I’d never seen anything have such great live action. I could tell just by the way it swam through the water that it was going to slam big fish. I bought one and took it to Newburyport, where I caught a huge fish my first cast.”

He’s since bought five more, “I’ve dumped all my other lures and use these exclusively.”

To get his business going, Chris needs to do more marketing and finish his website, he said; having a business degree will help. He’s also just completed his next lure, which is shaped like a rat, with two sections and a tail.

“Anyone can catch fish with live bait,” Chris says. “It’s more challenging to make something that’s not alive act alive. The ultimate thrill is to fool nature as you cast one out, wind it in, and get hammered by a big fish.”