Page 5 - Crappie NOW | March 2015
P. 5
Classic Magic - The Pole
Two men had a dream. One man had
a personal goal of making the best crappie
jighead for hollow body crappie tubes. The
other man had a dream of winning the Crappie
Classic, the Super Bowl of crappie fishing.
The Dreamers
David Summer was a schoolteacher in
northwestern Tennessee when he worked on
a jighead that would hold a tube jig better than
other heads on the market. A combination
of good holding ability without tearing the jig
resulted in a two-barbed collar with barbs on
opposite sides. It worked.
Good holding power was only a part of
his design. He wanted a pill-shaped head to
get down quickly and come through limbs a
little better than a ball head jig. A good paint
job and prism eyes gave it the final eye-candy Richard Williams and David Summers show
look that he wanted. off a few Kentucky Lake crappie.
Meeting his personal goal of a high-
quality jig, he started making them by the
hundreds, all by hand. He and his family Cumberland Lake. The following is Williams
poured, flattened the heads with a hammer, story.
hand painted, and placed the eyes on each David Summers and I were friends for
one. many years,” says Williams. “His jigs became
Richard Williams has been around nationally known as a great jig and though he
crappie fishing a long time. He has many days focused on selling them to local fishermen,
on the water as a guide at Kentucky Lake. he ended up selling them all over the country.
Williams has won national tournaments and At their peak, he and his family were hand
qualified for 18 classics. He is retired but still pouring and finishing over 250,000 a year.
runs a Minn Kota warranty center in Paris, Thats a lot of jigs made by hand.
Tennessee. He and his partner, David Jones, I always helped promote his jigs and
fished the 2014 Crappie USA tournament on helped David in any way I could. I encouraged
him to set up his trailer at Mansard Island on
Kentucky Lake so the heavy fishing traffic
there would give him more business. He
would never get rich because even with all the
fishermen stopping there to buy jigs, for every
pack they bought David usually gave them
another one of a different size or color just to
help them catch fish. A truly nice man.
“I got him to go fishing with me. He loved
it out on the water. He also enjoyed teasing
and aggravating me about anything going on.
One time he had been riding me heavy during
one of our trips so I moved off the channel at
An original HotHead TeeZur jig. You can a brushpile and hung all four of his poles up
see the Paris, Tennessee company s at once. After I let him battle them for a while I
current product line at teezurjig.com. reached over and wrapped all four lines around
5 Crappie NOW March 2015
Two men had a dream. One man had
a personal goal of making the best crappie
jighead for hollow body crappie tubes. The
other man had a dream of winning the Crappie
Classic, the Super Bowl of crappie fishing.
The Dreamers
David Summer was a schoolteacher in
northwestern Tennessee when he worked on
a jighead that would hold a tube jig better than
other heads on the market. A combination
of good holding ability without tearing the jig
resulted in a two-barbed collar with barbs on
opposite sides. It worked.
Good holding power was only a part of
his design. He wanted a pill-shaped head to
get down quickly and come through limbs a
little better than a ball head jig. A good paint
job and prism eyes gave it the final eye-candy Richard Williams and David Summers show
look that he wanted. off a few Kentucky Lake crappie.
Meeting his personal goal of a high-
quality jig, he started making them by the
hundreds, all by hand. He and his family Cumberland Lake. The following is Williams
poured, flattened the heads with a hammer, story.
hand painted, and placed the eyes on each David Summers and I were friends for
one. many years,” says Williams. “His jigs became
Richard Williams has been around nationally known as a great jig and though he
crappie fishing a long time. He has many days focused on selling them to local fishermen,
on the water as a guide at Kentucky Lake. he ended up selling them all over the country.
Williams has won national tournaments and At their peak, he and his family were hand
qualified for 18 classics. He is retired but still pouring and finishing over 250,000 a year.
runs a Minn Kota warranty center in Paris, Thats a lot of jigs made by hand.
Tennessee. He and his partner, David Jones, I always helped promote his jigs and
fished the 2014 Crappie USA tournament on helped David in any way I could. I encouraged
him to set up his trailer at Mansard Island on
Kentucky Lake so the heavy fishing traffic
there would give him more business. He
would never get rich because even with all the
fishermen stopping there to buy jigs, for every
pack they bought David usually gave them
another one of a different size or color just to
help them catch fish. A truly nice man.
“I got him to go fishing with me. He loved
it out on the water. He also enjoyed teasing
and aggravating me about anything going on.
One time he had been riding me heavy during
one of our trips so I moved off the channel at
An original HotHead TeeZur jig. You can a brushpile and hung all four of his poles up
see the Paris, Tennessee company s at once. After I let him battle them for a while I
current product line at teezurjig.com. reached over and wrapped all four lines around
5 Crappie NOW March 2015
