Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Fishing-Adventures-Destinations » The TT Story - Bring it on!
Related Products...
The TT Story - Bring it on!
Tackle Tactics is an Australian Owned and Operated Family Business that has been producing the TT Lures brand of products since August 1999. With the addition of TT Rods, tackle storage and other fishing related products it makes sense that the TT Lures brand and logo give way to a fresh logo and branding that encompasses more than just lures. We would like to thank everyone that has supported the TT Lures brand and Tackle Tactics business over the years and proudly introduce you to the new TT logo and more holistic TT Fishing branding, which you will see rolling out in the coming months. You can confidently expect the same quality, proven, trusted, reliable and innovative products that you have come to expect from TT, along with new merch and upcoming product releases.
Let us take this opportunity to look back at a brand that kicked off in the family garage at home, and over two decades later is an Aussie favourite that is now also available to anglers in countries such as NZ, UK, USA, Singapore, and Malaysia, to name just a handful. An Aussie business supplying quality fishing tackle to anglers around the world, with a focus on creating the best solution to anglers needs. Be it species, technique or location focussed the TT team works hard to develop products that get the job done for anglers. As anglers ourselves, the team is passionate about creating products that catch fish, while also assisting anglers on their fishing journey, developing plenty of quick start guides, articles, and videos to assist anglers to successfully use the range of TT products.
Many may not know that TT Lures kicked off in the late 90’s selling fishing flies, based around the short-lived fly fishing boom of this period, before moving into a range of basic soft plastics and the manufacturing of spinnerbaits and jigheads. The bream and bass tournament scenes were in their infancy at this point and through working with the tournaments and some key tournament anglers, Tackle Tactics Managing Director Gareth Williams recognised the need for a range of quality jigheads and began to develop products that filled the void in available gear, while also giving anglers that winning edge that they were looking for. The TT Lures brand has been built on and is very much still focussed on an ethos of innovation, rather than imitation, pushing the boundaries of design and function within the jighead category. Fast forward two decades and more bream tournaments have been won fishing TT jigheads than other brands combined.
This product development and manufacturing process is an extremely hands-on one for Gareth, sketching ideas to bounce off anglers, creating and refining masters, producing moulds, and finally having the finished product in hand. With the comprehensive range of products being developed you can imagine the number of masters and moulds that were needing to be produced. It was time to move out of the garage and into a warehouse space that allowed the building of a painting booth, along with the addition of more machinery and space for warehousing product, running a basic office and for packing and dispatching orders. This move took place in 2001 and the first warehouse was just 150 square metres and housed a handful of team members that did everything from manufacturing, cleaning products, painting, and packaging products, to taking phone orders, picking, packing, and shipping orders.
As more stores and anglers discovered the quality of the TT product, demand grew and so did the business. It is amazing to look at how much goes on behind the scenes in terms of product research, development and testing, manufacturing, naming products, packaging design, labels, catalogue, marketing, website, social media, warehouse, ordering systems, order picking and dispatch, company reps on the road and trade shows to be both planned and executed. The jighead range had grown to hundreds of models, along with the addition of spinnerbaits, blades and a selection of other products discontinued over time to focus on the growth of the core range.
For the business to continue consistent supply and continue to grow, the time had come to move the manufacturing of TT products to Fiji, and in 2006, Tackle Tactics opened their Fiji factory. The Fijian people are very friendly and love their sport, fishing, and family, just like we do in Australia, so it was a great fit and before long the Tackle Tactics factory was operational and shipping product to Australia regularly. Gareth spent lengthy periods in the Fiji factory, especially in the early days, setting up machinery, moulds, masters, and processes.
Over the years the factory has become very well run by local Fijian people, with a pride for the products that they produce and the brand that they wear on their uniforms. Through cyclones, storms and Covid, they have continued to produce world class products that are fished far and wide, including New Zealand, UK, USA, UAE, Asia and of course here in Australia, where the products are still designed, and the masters developed.
Back in Australia, and with being so hands on and the continual growth and evolution of the brand, the TT team have said that it’s been a bit of a blur as the business has outgrown warehouse space, moving half a dozen times, each time into larger premises as Tackle Tactics has added more brands to the stable, including ZMan, Pro-Cure Scents, Platypus Fishing Lines, Okuma, Toadfish, Fish Inc. Lures and Mepps. As you can imagine, packing and moving machinery, offices, stock, raw materials, packaging and more, is a major operation, with moves taking place in as short a space of time as possible, to minimise the impact on fishing tackle stores and their angling customers. These moves have included garage to warehouse one in 2001 (150m2), warehouse two in July 2010 (300m2), warehouse three in July 2014 (600m2), warehouse four in January 2017 (1000m2) and our current home in warehouse five in January 2019 (2000m2).
The timing of the move to shed five and the size of the building also provided an amazing opportunity for the Tackle Tactics business in early 2019. The team had been friends with Stewart McPherson, the Managing Director of Platypus Fishing Lines, for many years. A fifth-generation Australian business and Australia’s longest running fishing tackle brand, Platypus was still manufacturing products right here in Australia and only minutes away from Tackle Tactics HQ.
An opportunity became available to purchase the Platypus brand and rather than see the business move overseas, Gareth relished the opportunity to again manufacture products in Australia, while developing new products and growing the Platypus brand. The decision hinged on whether the 30m+ monofilament line manufacturing machine would fit across the width of shed five… which it did by a whisker, bringing the Platypus team and Tackle Tactics team together and ensuring that Platypus remained with an Australian Owned and Operated Family Business, manufacturing product in Australia. Anyway… the Platypus story is one that deserves its own article, which we will save for another time.
The history of TT is filled with breakthrough products and AFTA Award winners, from the Tournament Series jigheads in the early days, which remain a favourite, through the HWS (Hidden Weight System), HeadlockZ, ChinlockZ and SnakelockZ, to more recent additions, such as the Big EyeZ, Snake EyeZ and NedlockZ, that have also proven a favourite in the US for fishing the Ned Rig System.
Alongside the most comprehensive range of jigheads in Australia, built on world class hooks from the likes of Gamakatsu and Mustad, TT has also produced a comprehensive range of spinnerbaits, including the tournament winning Vortex series, a selection of metal lures, and the versatile and proven TT Switchblade range of metal vibration blades.
Stories from those early days include members of the TT team rigging blades on the way home from work on the train or while at home watching the football, ensuring the stock was ready for orders and on the shelves when customers were gearing up for their next adventure. It is part of the TT ethos to ensure they produce the best quality products, delivered to stores as quickly as possible and with a smile. The business has long been like a family for the team, with many having been there for a large chunk of their lives, creating a passion for the product, the processes, and the service that the brand provides.
The knowledge and passion of the team has led to new projects and products, including the development of the TT Rods range. The TT team drew on decades of their own fishing experience, while also collaborating with leading Australian anglers and guides, to develop a range of rods to suit Australian species and techniques, constructed from quality components, and offering the performance, reliability, and value for money that anglers expect from TT branded products. As the range grows you will find TT Rods covering more applications, species, and techniques, so stay tuned for more on this exciting project.
Although it may be time to freshen up the logo as the TT brand becomes more than just lures, we can assure you that we are still as excited and enthusiastic about the products that we design and manufacture as the day we caught the first fish on a TT jighead. We are passionate anglers that continue to use world class hooks and materials, to design and develop innovative solutions, based on your needs as anglers.
Thank you from the TT Team for your ongoing support of an Australian Owned & Operated Family Business. Thanks for your ongoing feedback, photos, and fishing reports, which fuel our desire to innovate and develop products that offer you the best solutions to your needs… and most importantly, thanks for loving the sport of fishing as much as we do. Bring it on!
Cheers, Team TT