Copied with permission of the Grand Forks Herald

Just call him the Sinker Guy
Inventor of popular foam bobber might have another winner
By Brad Dokken
Herald Staff Writer

BELTRAMI, Minn. -- They call him the "Bobber Guy," but now, an entrepreneur in this small town south of Crookston is about to test the waters with a new fishing product that could change that name.

And as far as Bruce Mosher's concerned, the "Sinker Guy" doesn't have a bad ring.

Mosher, best known for the "Ice Buster," a foam slip bobber that hit the market less than two years ago, has taken the concept to a new level with a foam sinker.

That's right, a foam sinker.

Mosher calls his new product the "Foam Walker." It's not on the market yet, but the Foam Walker should hit store shelves in the next couple of weeks. Think of a bobber that's weighted too heavy and you'll get the idea. It's a standing slip sinker -- a thin, pencil-like piece of foam with slotted plastic clips glued to each end.

The top end clips to the line above a swivel. Meanwhile, a barrel sinker or other detachable weight clips to the bottom end. The result is a sinker that stands perfectly upright, thanks to the buoyancy of the foam.

It's ingenious, and it works.

The beauty of the Foam Walker, Mosher says, is that it's quick to rig. It's relatively snag-proof because the foam always keeps the weight upright. And if the weight does get snagged, a quick yank will break the foam. The weight will be lost, but the line and the rest of the rig remain intact.

Reel up, clip on a new Foam Walker and a new weight, Mosher says, and you're good to go.

Mosher, who started toying around with modifying the bobber into a sinker last summer, said he knew he'd landed a keeper last spring when he tested the foam rig on the Rainy River.

After losing a dozen jigs along a particularly snag-prone stretch of river -- the fun meter quickly dropping -- Mosher said he decided to rig up a Foam Walker just to see what would happen. Using a plain hook and a minnow with a 11/2-foot snell, Mosher says he lost only five foam-sinker rigs in the next two days.

"You could feel every rock," he said. "It was like night and day. After two hours of fishing, I was smiling. We caught walleyes. You could feel the 'poink' when they hit and then you'd reel them in."

"Walleye Pros fishing the recent In-Fisherman tournament on Lake of the Woods also gave prototypes of the Foam Walker good reviews", Mosher said.He had an opportunity to show off the product while pre-fishing with one of the pros before the tournament.

"We went over a rock reef and (the pro) got snagged up and broke his line." Mosher said. I got snagged up on mine, I yanked it hard, the foam broke, I snapped on a new one and was back in the water. The pro was still sitting there trying to re-tie."

As the Foam Walker gets ready to hit the market, Mosher says he hopes it can make a splash that's just as big as the Ice Buster. Since hitting store shelves in 1999, Mosher says the Ice Buster sales have hit the 120,000-unit mark.

What started as a kitchen venture gluing plastic pieces to strips of foam has expanded into a budding industry. Mosher now rents manufacturing space in a Beltrami building and has employed six to nine part-time workers. Three major tackle distributors carry the Ice Buster Bobber. It's in bait shops as far away as Michigan, and Cabela's soon will be carrying the product in its mail order catalog.

Now if the Foam Walker flies, Mosher will have landed his second keeper in three years. And perhaps his second nickname- the "Sinker Guy"