HOT THIS MONTH

Bechhold and Son is currently based out of Durham California not far from some of the finest king salmon fishing in the world. The company was founded by Jerry Bechhold more than 20 years ago. Jerry grew up in northern California where at a young age found a passion for the outdoors. He spent most if not all of his free time hunting and fishing the beautiful terrains of northern calif as a young adult. Jerry went on to become a lawyer in the state of Montana only to realize that the life style that came along with being an attorney wasn’t something he could do forever. Eventually several years later Jerry was residing in Petaluma California where he decided he wanted to make a career doing what he loved.

Jerry Bechhold spent hours upon hours daily at the neighbors pool testing ideas he had that might be the key to attracting Salt water salmon. Soon enough Jerry had invented the very first fish catcher flasher with a rudder and a fin. The designed proved to be one of a kind and no one had a clue the way this product would revolutionize the trolling flasher market. It wouldn’t be easy but several years later people throughout the United States started to realize how effective this product was compared to the competition. Jerry flashers were designed with a beveled edge to produce the best prismatic effect through the water. He also designed the flasher to have three different actions by use of the 3 eyelets at the bottom of the flasher. One of the many benefits to his flashers is that you can troll them at any boat speed. Any forward motion will cause the flashers to engage their rotation. The action that is produced from the flashers is what really drives the salmon crazy. The consistent whipping off the tail end of the flasher produces tournament winning salmon every year. After 20 plus years in the fishing tackle industry and revolutionizing the way people fish for salmon Jerry step down as the owner and let his son Jay Bechhold take the reins . Jerry spends most of his time now at his beautiful home in the Tahoe national forest or Salmon fishing for Trophy size king salmon.

Br,
Jay Bechhold

Going back in time to 1990, I had decided to leave the practice of law in Montana....didn’t care for the judges, and attorneys....wanted to do something I actually enjoyed fishing.....and the development of new ideas I had for the international fishing world.....

I lived in Petaluma, California, and had a small 16 foot salmon boat, with an Evinrude motor on it....the Pacific Ocean was a short 1 hour drive away, and there is Bodega bay , there.....at that time there was a hot spot flasher, a les Davies flasher, and Lure Jensen, dodger.....I thought to myself I can improve on the design of these devices.....I later in life got to meet the grand son of Luhr Jensen, Phil Jensen, who was an old man then....

It is late 1990, my neighbor in Petaluma, had a swimming pool next door....and I was given permission to test various products out in the pool.....in the Great Lakes fishermen went to great lengths not to let a dodger spin....well, the first product I developed was called a fish chaser by a large group of charter boat captains out of Michigan....I had developed my “Fishcatcher...”....had a rudder, and rear fin on the ass end...and three eyelets on the very end of the flasher....it was a huge success on the west coast, including Alaska, that took 5 years of doing sportsman’s shows on the west coast, including Alaska....many promotions......then the great lakes....and a lot of hard headed Fins, Al Laaksonen to name one....I was invited to a tournament in Manistee, Michigan.....and was given the opportunity to speak to roughly a 100 plus hard heads, mostly charter captains...to this day I can still hear them laughing at me as I spoke how this device spun in the water and had a 3 to 1 ratio from the front to the rear.....and glided through the water in a funnel configuration....oh did the crowd start hollering “fish chasers, not a Fishcatcher.....” .....it was no more than 3 months later each captain had a gross of my fish archers on his boat in a 100 different colors.....they quit laughing....

Then the copy cats came out, and copied my work.....making minor changes to the design......

We are still the number 1 flasher in Alaska.....for that matter in the USA.....

I am semi-retired in the Tahoe National Forest....spend my summer on my 25 foot Evans boat out of Bodega bay, doing research and development on a new flasher that I plan on putting into production in 2021....I promise it will be different in design than anything out there.....more to come at a later date.....if there is any interest I can explain various methods of fishing with various inventions I have come out with over the past years....where does time go....

Kindest regards
Jerry Bechhold