Tackle Trade World - April 2024

ST. CROIX FLY EXPANDS
SALES REP TEAM
St. Croix Rod is growing its sales
rep team with the addition of
HM Outdoors to represent its
fly fishing brand in the Northern
Rocky-Mountain and Pacific
Northwest states of Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming, Oregon,
Washington and Alaska, USA.
The established agency,
headquartered in Bozeman,
Montana has a 26-year heritage
of serving top manufacturers in
the outdoor, fishing, whitewater
and hunting industries
throughout the American
Northwest.
St. Croix fly fishing director
of sales, Zack Dalton, explained:
“The Northern Rockies and
Pacific Northwest represent an
incredible opportunity for us to
reintroduce our brand’s unique
heritage and exciting new fly rods
to a community of anglers for
whom fly fishing is a whole lot
more than a hobby, a passion, or
even a lifestyle.
“Travis and his team at
HM Outdoors have proven
themselves a trusted resource for
the fly shops and professional
guides that provide the core of
the speciality
fly fishing
community
here, and we
couldn’t be more
excited to start
working together
to support
these anglers
with the elitelevel
products,
technologies and
service St. Croix
provides.”
HM Outdoors
owner Travis
Morris has lived
his entire life
in the area he
serves and added:
“I was raised a
fifth-generation
Sheridan, Wyoming kid to
a ranching family. I fished
wherever and however I could
in those early years, and Ritz
Sporting Goods was my hangout
when I wasn’t fishing.
“I eventually moved to
Bozeman and went to school
at Montana State, worked to
establish myself as a fishing guide
and served as general manager
for the Bozeman Angler for 12
years.”
He went to work as a sales
representative in 2006 for
Brooks Montgomery – the
well-known fly angler and
founder of what would become
the Hart-Montgomery Agency
and, later, HM Outdoors, the
company Morris now owns.
He said: “Our team at HM
Outdoors is stoked to be
working with St. Croix Fly
Fishing for so many reasons.
I repped the company for a
number of years and have a
personal connection with the
brand that goes back to the early
days of my own fishing.”
Outdoor company makes leap with Frog factory
GSM Outdoors, the name behind countless
hunting and fishing brands, has released a
new one in the lure sector – the Frog Factory.
With the intent of delivering both proven
and innovative products in the category of
frogs, toads, and hollow-body topwaters, the
Frog Factory offers existing, proven products
in the Boom Boom Frog and the Ribbit
with a focus on upcoming innovation and
development.
Crispin Powley, GSM’s senior vicepresident
of fishing, revealed: “We’re
constantly being asked to develop frogs
and toads by our pros and end-users. After
hearing that we needed to ‘design something
like a Ribbit’ enough times, we decided that
it was better to own the original than try to
design around it.
“This brand will be a fun combination
10 www.tackletradeworld.com
of proven designs and modern innovative
concepts that will ultimately add value to the
frog category in every angler’s tacklebox.”
Major League Fishing pro and Boom
Boom Frog creator Fred Roumbanis added:
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be
working with the gang at GSM to launch
the Frog Factory brand. The foundation of
the brand will be my Boom Boom Frogs and
the iconic Ribbit series, but we also already
have several awesome new products in the
works that I can’t wait to get in my hands.
“Frog fishing is something that I’ve
based my career around and I’m ecstatic to
help start a brand dedicated to serious frog
fishermen.”
Alongside iconic hunting brands like
Truglo, Tenzing, Walker’s, Birchwood-
Casey, SOG knives and Stealth Cam, GSM
Outdoors also offers Gary Yamamoto
Customer Baits, Bill Lewis, Phenix Rods and
Buckeye Lures.
gsmoutdoors.com