Engineers in fishing industry

So i figured i’d ask my fellow group of fishermen, and fishing companies on this awesome website. does anyone know of any fishing companies looking for mechanical engineers? I will be graduating from UMD this spring with a Bachelor or science degree in Mechanical engineering, and my dream job would be to design fishing products, or the molds that make them.

Not sure if anyone can answer/knows the answer to this question, but i figured the people on this website are great and may just have that inside scoop i would need to get my foot in the fishing industry door!!

thanks in advance for any comments!

The best thing to do, obviously is look in the career sections of the american fishing manufacturers websites, especially the ones that are big. The small companies aren’t going to be able to support an engineer.

One I can think of off the top of my head is Water Gremlin here in the twin cities. Berkely in Spirit Lake, IA. Rapala I think is headquartered out of Minnetonka…

you say a small company cant support an engineer, but my question would then be who works on the machines that make the products? I see what you are saying though. I would think that a company like northland or Berkley like you stated, or even marcum, would have engineers working for them.

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you say a small company cant support an engineer, but my question would then be who works on the machines that make the products? I see what you are saying though. I would think that a company like northland or Berkley like you stated, or even marcum, would have engineers working for them.

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WELL IF YOUR READY TO RELOCATE TO CHINA AND WORK AT THERE RATES..

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you say a small company cant support an engineer, but my question would then be who works on the machines that make the products? I see what you are saying though. I would think that a company like northland or Berkley like you stated, or even marcum, would have engineers working for them.

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I know a fella working for Federal Cartridge in Anoka. He works on all their dies and presses, no diploma or GED…

Being the job market is pretty tough right now you may want to think about working for a fishing tackle company as your second or third job. Maybe find something you like in design or manufacturing to gain some knowledge and skills sets. Once employed, you can then start looking at tackle companies.

Another thing to consider is that most tackle manufacturers outsource some of their design and components to other companies and/or manufacturers. For example, I am sure many plastics (grubs, twisters, even moxies) are manufactured by third parties because of the injection molding expertise (expensive tools/dies, processing knowledge, etc.); many different brands probably come from the same third party. I guess what I saying is also look at these companies as well. Sadly though, I would venture to say most of the manufacturing (not all though) would be done overseas.

By the way, I also graduated from UMD with an Industrial Engineering degree.

PM me if you would like.

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Rapala I think is headquartered out of Minnetonka…

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I agree that Normark would be one of the companies worth researching in the Twin Cities.

I looked into the RAPALA idea and will be sending them an application for that minnetonka location. i think that would be a fun place to work, maybe come up with a few new ideas for them!

Well if you can’t find a direct link into a fishing industry, ill bet you could find something that would give you experience that you could more easily move into the area field someday.

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Rapala I think is headquartered out of Minnetonka…

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The thing about Rapala out of Minnetonka is that if you research it you may find it is only their distribution center…I beleive most of their value add (RandD/manufacturing would be in Finland.

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Rapala I think is headquartered out of Minnetonka…

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The thing about Rapala out of Minnetonka is that if you research it you may find it is only their distribution center…I beleive most of their value add (RandD/manufacturing would be in Finland.

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That would be correct, Due North Outdoors did a cool show detailing the Rapala corp office/manufacturing facility in Finland. Here is a link to the episode its pretty cool: http://www.duenorthoutdoors.tv/watch-the-show/2012/4/3/due-north-outdoors-1214.html

Pallets of balsa wood and bins upon bins of Rapala crankbaits!

Maybe a move to Finland is in order?

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Maybe a move to Finland is in order?

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I could deal with the monster pike and huge Zander!!

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Maybe a move to Finland is in order?

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I could deal with the monster pike and huge Zander!!

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Don’t forget the moose hunting! And they make some awesome handmade knives! My Dad picked up two from some Finnish guys we was working with in the 90’s…I’ve often told him if he gets very sick I’m moving in on them!

I know its not fishing, but would something in other outdoor products interest you? I was on the Polaris website not too long ago and saw quite a few Engineer positions.

yeah that would be something i would be interested in as well. it sounds like my options would be very limited if i wanted to do something with a fishing company and stay in minnesota, or in the US for that matter