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Livingston brings Rago into fold

Livingston brings Rago into fold

Livingston Lures continues to make waves in the fishing industry. Recently, they inked Jeff Kriet, Randy Howell and reigning Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Brent Chapman to its pro staff.

Now, the Texas-based company is bringing one of the top lure designers in the business into the fold. Jerry Rago, known across the industry for his large swimbait designs, will work with Livingston on a new Pro Series of hardbaits with considerable input coming from Kriet, Howell and Chapman.

“It’s exciting to get to build these baits to what they want instead of trying to get them to fish what I want them to fish,” Rago told BassFan on Sunday. “I think it’ll come together really well.”

The California-based Rago, who operates his own company (Rago Baits), has designed baits that have won three Elite Series events, including consecutive tournaments in early 2010 (Bryon Velvick at Clear Lake and Skeet Reese at Smith Mountain Lake). He presently holds six lure design patents, including one for his Rago Bait Ball umbrella-style rig that was formally awarded earlier this month.

"We sat down with our pros a few weeks ago and discussed their ideas,” said Livingston Lures CEO Fred Battah. “After that meeting, we knew we needed someone special to design these baits. We have some great concepts in the works, and they should be ready to preview at ICAST in July. When we looked for bait designers around the world one name kept coming up – Jerry Rago. There are very few single bait designers that have made tour level event-winning baits, and even fewer that have won multiple tour level events. What we found most amazing is the number of wins that have come on his baits, and he only has a few dozen baits in total. That ratio of wins to designs is amazing."

Rago has crossed paths before with Howell and also Chapman as he worked with Tightlines UV (one of Chapman’s sponsors) on soft-plastic designs. He’s anxious to get started on crafting some hardbaits, which will feature Livingston’s unique sound vibration technology.

“It’s just a little, tiny thing and that part just blows my mind,” he said. “It’s not just about one sound either. It’ll be a match-the-hatch type of deal. I've been designing hard baits of all shapes, sizes and actions for years. I have many customers who are extremely successful with many of my non-swimbait designs. Truth be told, non-swimbait style baits are easier to design than swimbaits. With swimbaits we are looking to replicate the exact movement of a fish. With traditional baits, swim actions are much easier to create. Using lips, body shape and weight dispersion I can create baits to exactly match the action and look that the Livingston pros want."

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