I always like to talk to people in the industry to try and see if they are really making any money and if they ever get to fish. The answer honestly is that there are very few people who are actually getting rich on fishing and getting to fish a lot.

If you're a small shop or lure business, odds are you are going to be working 6 to 7 days a week 60+ hours a week to make a decent living. If you work for a big tackle company, it may not be much different than working for any regular type of business.

Some people have been successful with turning small lure companies into larger companies, but there are always tradeoffs. If you make a custom lure that requires skill to make, you might find that hiring other people to make the lure or sending production out of the country results in a decline in quaility and a corresponding decline in sales. If you were really serious about going into the lure business, I'd get some type of degree in manufacturing so that if you do invent the next sweet beaver, senko, or huddleston deluxe, you can organize the production processes to make volume. Fishing lures can come into popularity in a few months and if you don't have the production capabilities to meet the demand, you're going to be losing a lot of money. Trust me, there is no shortage of people out there who have huge demand for their lures but because they can't meet the demand and maintain quality, they're just making average money.

Me ... I'm a tech monkey. My degree is in Business Administration with an emphasis in MIS. Its a long way from fishing, but like magmaster said, I have a flexible arrangement at work so I get to fish a lot.

Whatever you do, you can't go wrong going to college and getting your degree. You've got some time to plan, and you're doing the right thing starting early.

-Rob