THE BLOOD BOMBER STORY

The Blood Bomber is back.  And it’s making its return right where you would expect it, at Gator Jim’s in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

What is the Blood Bomber?  Just ask Jim Bickel, owner of Gator Jim’s Tackle.  He’ll tell you.  “The Blood Bomber was my all time biggest seller and by far the best fish producing lure I’ve ever sold.”

When Bickel owned a 5,000 square foot tackle store in Bradenton, Florida he worked with Pradco to develop a lure of his own design.  He was convinced that a bait that appeared to be wounded and bleeding would be a success.  He had Pradco, the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic lures; produce a variety of prototypes with varying shades of red and blood patterns.  Finally, one dramatically outperformed the others.

Jim tells how he was fishing in the surf one morning with that particular lure.    “My line had gotten tangled”, he said, “As I was getting the line straightened out I got a hit, then another.  When I reeled in the line a cobia followed the lure all the way up to the shoreline.”  Bickel said “I knew I found what I was looking for".   The Blood Bomb was born.

Pradco agreed to produce the lure exclusively for Jim.  His store was the only place you could buy the Blood Bomber and it was his best selling lure until his store burned to the ground in 1996.  Jim quickly relocated to another building not far from his original location.

As soon as the phone was installed in the new location,  Jim said, “our first call was a customer calling to see when we would be reopening because he needed some Blood Bombers”.   There were many calls like that; after all, it was Snook season.   A lot of demand built up in the few months it took to get the new store open after the fire and the Blood Bomber remained a best-seller until Jim sold the business.

In January 2008 Jim and Chris opened Gator Jim’s at Dolphin Village in St. Pete Beach, Florida.  One of their first calls was to Pradco to begin producing the Blood Bomber again.    It took awhile but THE BLOOD BOMBER is back and available at Gator Jim’s Tackle.  The price is right, only $6.99.