Ian Wigston was making ‘a lure’ in his home garage in the 70’s, that was quickly gaining popularity. As requests grew from anglers and fishing tackle stores both locally and interstate, Ian and brother Garth decided to take a chance, against the advice of their father Eddie, and take the lure to commercial production.
An instantly recognisable and truly Tasmanian name was considered to be an all-important facet of the lure and registration of the brand name Tasmanian Devil was granted in 1979. A true Tasmanian icon! A factory was assembled at the rear of the family electronics and sporting goods business in High Street New Norfolk Tasmania and production commenced. From this very humble beginning the company now ranks as the largest Australian made lure manufacturer.
The Tassie Devil brand has developed into such a success that around 70% of its 1 million lures made each year are now sold overseas earning export Dollars for Australia and sustaining Tasmanian jobs. In the process, Wigston Lures won 2 Tasmanian Small Business Export Awards, 1994 and 2018, both times making the National Finals.
Justin Causby, a born and bred Tasmanian is Manager of Wigston Lures and is fiercely proud of what his team manufactures in Tasmania.
Wigston Lures employs 7 staff, with over half the staff having longer than 15 years service and the longest 32 years. When they moved into the Derwent Park factory in in the 1990’s they ensured the business still retained the cottage industry feeling of personal involvement by all staff.
It is a business that is intensive hands-on manufacturing in a 6 stage process with the all in-house production process beginning with die-casting the centre core (soon to be available in a lead free version), painting, printing, injection moulding the body, hand bending and then assembly, in addition to that they manufacture the wire hook assembly when required in a machine Wigston designed and developed from scratch.
Whilst primarily designed to be a freshwater lure, Tassie Devils have been known to catch Mahi Mahi in Cabo and Barramundi & Spanish Mackerel in North Queensland such is the diversity of the product.
If it is as they say “lure colours catch fishers more than fish” no wonder the Tassie Devil range is a success. The Tassie Devil is spread across 4 sizes and some 80 colours which interestingly is down from 133 colours a few years ago.
To that extent there are ‘Tassie Devil Collectors’ that go to all levels of effort to acquire specific collectable models with a 1979 Tassie Devil ‘No.2’ lure (preceding names for lures) recently sold for over $1700 and an early original Tassie Devil product brochure for $150.
Wigston Lures even made a one off 24 carat solid Gold Tassie Devil displayed in a unique Tasmanian Huon Pine case collectors item for their 40th anniversary as part of a 12 month promotional campaign won by Steve Azzopardi, it makes you wonder what magic lure they will produce for the 50th anniversary in 2029???
It is rather ironic that the first invoice for Tassie Devils was to JM Gillies who eventually purchased the company in 2018. Prior to this JM Gillies were the national distributor for Tassie Devil.
Congratulations Wigston Lures & the Tassie Devil for being an Australian success story.