10-year old developed Lure Buddy to help anglers avoid getting stung by fish hooks

By Michael Hammond
Waterloo Region Record

Published Saturday September 15th, 2007

Appeared on page F1

WATERLOO, Ont. - Leigh Zink has the great Thomas Edison beat by 12 years.

Leigh Zink of Waterloo, Ont., displays his invention, the Lure Buddy - a plastic tube that anglers can clip to their belts and use to safely hold spare lures while they're fishing.

The nine-year-old Waterloo, Ont., inventor got the idea for his Lure Buddy device last year and has since developed a business selling it. If he decides to get his invention patented, he will have a 12-year head start on Edison.

The famed U.S. inventor received his first patent for an electric vote counter in 1868 when he was 21. Leigh's Lure Buddy is obviously not as complex, but the Grade 5 student's enterprise would likely make Edison smile.

After all, the Lure Buddy has sold out at a store in Honey Harbour, Ont., on Georgian Bay and was a big hit at a summer fair there as well. And two Waterloo, Ont., shops are stocking the product.

Leigh is confident he's come up with something entirely new.

"I looked to see if there was anything like it or anything similar, but there wasn't," he says.

His mother Donna says she's most impressed that her son not only came up with a clever idea, but had the drive to follow it through to the point where he's making some money.

The Lure Buddy is a simple device but one that solves a couple of problems for avid anglers.

It's a piece of clear plastic tubing that clips to your belt loop. Anglers who don't want to lug around a tackle box while they're fishing can attach one or more lures to a small chain inside the tube where the sharp barbs can't catch on clothing or cause an injury.

And if they wade into a river to fish, it allows them to change lures without having to head back to a tackle box on shore.

Leigh, who turns 10 in October, says he came up with the idea because he's had fish hooks dig into his pants. He developed the idea last year while participating in an inventors' club at school.

In the months that followed, he investigated to learn if there were similar devices on the market and whether there were any patents for such a product.

Once he realized he had something unique, he began to study what materials he might use for the Lure Buddy.

In a plastic storage container at his home, Leigh has a couple of prototypes. One was made with thick plastic tubing that is too heavy, he says. Another was made with a piece of tubing that is too short.

Leigh even experimented with reusing pieces of plastic bottles for the tubing.

Eventually he found that the most inexpensive tubing was the most effective, and he began producing his lure protectors.

Along the way, Leigh has received valuable feedback from a store owner, Chad Dosman.

Dosman, who opened Rainbow Sports last November, recalls how the young entrepreneur came into his store shortly after it opened.

"I think it's a neat invention," Dosman said. "He's got a lot of ambition."

Dosman says he's not often approached by people off the street about stocking their inventions. The fact that Leigh is nine played a part in Dosman's decision to stock the Lure Buddy, but he says he was motivated more by the ingenuity behind the device.

Dosman helped Leigh learn about retail sales, explaining that the store usually receives about 40 per cent of the purchase price for each sale while the company behind the product, in this case Leigh's company Zink Ink, gets 60 per cent.

"Chad really liked my idea and gave me some good ideas," Leigh recalls.

Over the last two months, Leigh has refined his product, making changes based on feedback from customers and retailers. For example, he now sands the end of the plastic tubes so they aren't so sharp.

He is considering his next step. He's thinking of making a bigger Lure Buddy to hold the bigger lures used to catch large fish such as muskie and pike. He's also been approached about making promotional lure protectors that show store logos.

The soft-spoken boy is thinking about taking his product to more fairs next summer. And the business has become a family affair.

The family's backyard has been transformed into a production line where Leigh's brothers and his sister have chipped in. Donna says she was particularly impressed that Leigh paid his siblings for their work.

Right now, Leigh has more on his mind than his fledgling business as he's in a new school this fall.

Also an avid soapstone carver and a budding bagpipe player, Leigh won't have to fret when he's asked what he did over his summer holidays.