Hey everybody, my name is John “Crappie Hippie” King and with my wife Kathy we are the co-founders of Glasswater Angling LLC. Glasswater Angling began as Glasswater Lead Free Lures in 2015 and we put our first design, a double under spin named AngleKing, on the market in 2017 and changed the name of the company to Glasswater Angling LLC. AngleKing was followed by a smaller double under spin named Crappie Dueller in the fall of 2019. Along with these two amazing fish getting lures we also have created BizJig, our line of bismuth/tin alloy jig heads, Jester Jigs which are hand tied jigs for crappie, trout and panfish, Slick Weights, polished hematite sinkers that slide right through vegetation and will not distort on rocks and King Tin Split Shot.
Our goal as a company is to change the way we fish in the USA by offering lead free alternatives to lead lures and weights. We are constantly designing and prototyping fishing tackle made from bismuth, tin, hematite, stone and mineral aggregates. And we do our best to support lead free fishing advocates who reach out to us including the Maine Audubon Society, The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, The Hackensack Children’s Fishing Contest and most recently the Beaton’s Lake Riparian Association. We are all out for the same thing. To reduce the footprint left by fishing in the form of toxic lead litter which kills millions of birds and small mammals every year. Fishing lead free at any level of participation is an actionable way to do one’s part to keep our favorite pastime environmentally friendly.
Not only do we support the lead free education initiatives of environmental groups but I also have traveled around the Midwest speaking to business groups about the importance of lead free fishing and how growing interest in lead free fishing can be translated to success in the free market. In terms of media exposure I am a frequent co-host and producer of The Fish Nerds Podcast, a show about “fish, fishing and eating fish that is always entertaining, usually funny and mostly true”. Glasswater Angling also has a YouTube channel Glasswater Angling feat. Crappie Hippie where I do jig tying tutorials. Whatever the media the message is always the same, lead free fishing is the way to go whenever you can make it happen. Our company is scaling up a bit every year and we eventually hope to manufacture or retail every item a fisher needs to completely replace the lead tackle in their lives with non lead products. Because lead free is the way to be.