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When Ken Murphy’s job in the oil and gas industry began to falter, he was hooked on an alternative career.
Rather than go back to work for someone else, the 39-year-old decided that the Covid-19 slowdown had given him the opportunity to pursue his dream of starting a fishing lure business.
“I’ve been too scared to do it for a long time,” Murphy said. “He would be kicking me if he didn’t try.”
ANDY JACKSON / Stuff
After losing his job due to the Covid-19 slowdown, Ken Murphy began turning his passion for making fishing lures into a business.
Now, instead of spending up to three weeks working away from his family, he feels at home in his workshop making high-end lures for marlin and tuna.
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The lures are made up of different colors, have realistic eyes, and are designed to move through the water like normal fish.
Before turning to lures full time, Murphy had worked in the oil and gas industry for the past 15 years.
He regularly worked abroad and on the high seas, and found himself fishing and making lures in his spare time.
Covid-19 stopped his work and just “never ended up coming out again.” He began to spend more and more time making his lures.
The career change has more benefits than catching more fish.
Now he can see his sons Levi, 2, and Blake, 1, more often, and he spends his days in his garage-turned-workshop listening to music and refining the lures.
“It’s starting to take off and get bigger and bigger.”
Murphy’s love of fishing began with surf casting when he was young and he grew up like the fish he caught.
ANDY JACKSON / Stuff
Murphy makes every part of his lures except the skirts.
Now he chases game fish like marlin and bluefin and yellow tuna.
Murphy got into decoy making by accident. For years he had been searching for a lure that a friend of his had used to successfully catch big game fish. But he could never find it.
Then years later when he told his partner Kushla Deuzing about the lure, she met the man who used to make them.
ANDY JACKSON / Stuff
Murphy said that making the lures is “like origami” and one batch can take two to three days.
The man made Murphy the most wanted decoy, then gave him the equipment and supplies to start making his own.
So he started making them for his family and friends and using them himself, with outstanding results.
Murphy said that since 2016 he had caught 49 billfish with his lures. They also work for others.
The KM Lures Facebook page is full of photos of new lures and satisfied customers with large marlin, yellow and blue tuna.
ANDY JACKSON / Stuff
The 39-year-old spends his days in his garage-turned-workshop making the lures, instead of working offshore for up to three weeks straight in the oil and gas industry.
Murphy takes two to three days to make a small batch of lures, which sell for between $ 80 and $ 150.
“It’s like origami,” he said.
This is just the beginning of Murphy’s dream. He also hopes to one day establish a charter fishing business.
“I am addicted to that. I would do it every day if I could, ”he said. “I love trying to help people fish.”
