Les Love is living proof that it is never too late to make a dream come true.
“I was close to 80 when we started this adventure, if you want to call it that,” he says.
An adventure that began with an idea of building a better spinning lure.
“I just felt like there was a better way to make that lure and make it work better in the water. And after several years of messing around with it, I finally came up with this design,” he says.
Les reeled in a patent for his plastic fishing blades in 2015—and Tackle with Love was formed.
“I’ve said it before, it really is a labor of love. It really is. And that’s what keeps me going,” he says.
A labor of love that began with his affinity for fishing. Les was introduced to trout fishing by his father when he was young and began getting into walleye fishing in the mid ’90s.
He says the plastic Back T Back spinner blades make it easier than ever to troll at slow speeds. He has well over 100 colors to choose from.
“I’m the only guy in the country that I know of that is making these. I buy the bead and I hand paint it here in my house,” he says.
It didn’t take long for lures to catch on after hitting store shelves. His first customer was the Minnow Bucket in Huntley.
“When he put them on his shelf down there, the fisherman just went nuts for them. I mean they had never seen anything quite like it. It was really bizarre,” he says.
Les stamps out every single blade by hand—making his own dies from a Ford F-250 spring. It’s pretty much a full-time job.
“And every week he comes up with something new, which I could just shoot him,” his wife, Joanne, says jokingly.
Les calls Joanne the other labor of love in life. They have been married 69 years after meeting at a skating rink on Billings South Side. She plays a big part in helping with the business.
“We got married at a young age. And it wasn’t one of those that you have to get married—we wanted to get married and go off on our own. We have been together ever since.”
Les says one of the things he enjoys the most is the people he does business with. He’s 87 now and doesn’t have any plans to quit.
“We are just going to keep going until we can’t go anymore and then we will see what happens from there,” he says.
Click here to learn more about Tackle with Love.
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