When I started Ebb N Flow Outdoors, I wasn’t trying to build another fishing company with a different logo slapped onto the same products everyone else was already selling. I wanted to build products differently.
That eventually led to The Upgrade family of jig heads and weighted hooks. But the longer I build this company, the more I realize the opportunity is much bigger than making another jig head, adding another hook size, or launching another lure.
Ebb N Flow Outdoors is still a young company. We’re still learning. We’re still testing. We’re still listening. And I certainly don’t have the next ten years perfectly mapped out.
But the direction is becoming much clearer. Find real problems anglers experience. Build better solutions. Make fishing easier to understand. Listen to the people using our products. And make the entire fishing experience more approachable — even for people who don’t fish.
That’s where Ebb N Flow Outdoors is headed.
What Is the Future of Ebb N Flow Outdoors?
The short answer is: more innovation in terminal tackle. More real-world testing. More education. A better buying experience. And eventually, technology that helps anglers make better decisions on the water.
I don’t want Ebb N Flow Outdoors to become a company that releases products simply because we need something new to advertise. There needs to be a reason for the product to exist.
Sometimes that reason comes from something I experience personally while fishing. Sometimes it comes from another angler. Sometimes it comes from guides, customers, retailers or people testing our products. And sometimes it comes from looking at a fishing product that’s been made essentially the same way for decades and asking a very simple question: why does it have to be that way?
That question has already led us down some interesting paths. I expect it to lead us down many more.
The Upgrade Is Becoming a Family, Not Just a Jig Head
The original Upgrade Multi-Purpose Jig Head helped establish the philosophy behind the entire line. Don’t just make another jig head. Look at what anglers are actually asking a jig head to do and determine whether we can improve it.
Can it hold different types of soft plastics better?
Can it be useful in freshwater and saltwater?
Can we create more versatility without making the product overly complicated?
Can we give anglers additional rigging options?
Those questions eventually pushed The Upgrade beyond a traditional exposed-hook jig head. Today, we’re developing a broader family of jig heads, hover hooks, weedless presentations and other terminal-tackle concepts.
But there’s an important distinction here. I don’t want to have the most jig heads. I want to have jig heads and hooks that solve real problems.
Fishing tackle has become incredibly specialized. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but specialization can also leave anglers carrying boxes filled with products that each accomplish one very specific job. I’ve always been attracted to versatility.
Can one jig head fish a paddletail and a straight-tail plastic?
Can it work with traditional PVC plastics and newer TPE materials?
Can it fish a bass lake one weekend and an inshore saltwater flat the next?
Can an angler add bucktail?
Can one design give someone several legitimate rigging options instead of one?
That’s the thinking that will continue shaping The Upgrade family.
More Sizes, More Hook Options and More Ways to Fish Them
One thing becomes obvious when you start selling jig heads to anglers around the country: people fish very differently.
A bass angler working shallow cover doesn’t need the same setup as a walleye angler vertically jigging deep water. A redfish angler working grass may need something different from a striper fisherman targeting suspended fish. A speckled trout fisherman drifting current might want something completely different from a bass angler strolling a bait over suspended fish.
That’s why we’re continuing to explore additional weights and hook combinations. We’re working across lighter presentations, including hover-style techniques, while also moving into heavier jig heads for deeper water, stronger current and larger presentations.
But I’ve become increasingly interested in something anglers often overlook: jig head weight and hook size don’t have to increase together.
A heavy jig head doesn’t automatically mean an angler wants a giant hook. There are legitimate applications for heavier heads paired with relatively compact hooks, particularly when targeting species such as walleye, smallmouth bass and other black bass with smaller-profile presentations in deep water.
Instead of assuming heavy head = giant hook, I’d rather start with: what bait are you trying to present, and what are you trying to accomplish with it? That’s a much better product-development question.
New Soft Plastics Are Changing How We Think About Hooks
Soft plastics are evolving quickly. TPE and ElaZtech-style materials changed how anglers think about durability, buoyancy and bait retention.
Now another interesting category is growing around Coike and Urchin-style baits and other compact plastics with thick bodies and appendages extending around the bait. Those designs create a problem that isn’t always obvious when you’re looking at a hook by itself.
We call it hook bite.
What Is Hook Bite?
Hook bite is the usable gap remaining between the body of your bait and the hook point after the soft plastic has been threaded onto the jig head. That’s the space available when a fish actually bites the lure.
A hook can look enormous sitting on your workbench. Put a thick-bodied Coike or Urchin-style bait onto it and suddenly a significant amount of that hook gap can disappear. The hook didn’t get smaller. The usable bite did.
I think hook bite is going to become an increasingly important conversation as soft-plastic designs continue evolving. And those new bait styles may influence some of the products we build next.
We’re Going to Keep Building Products From the Water Backward
A lot of product development seems to happen in the opposite direction. Make something. Package it. Market it. Then figure out why anglers should want it.
I want Ebb N Flow Outdoors to continue working backward from the fishing problem. Find the problem first. Then design the product. That means prototypes need to get wet.
They need to catch fish.
They need to get hung up.
They need to get dragged through grass.
They need to bounce across rock.
They need to be skipped under docks.
They need to be fished in current.
They need to be dropped into deep water.
They need to be used by people other than me.
And sometimes they need to fail.
Failure during development isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’d much rather find a weakness while we’re testing something than have a customer discover it after spending their money on it.
Real-world testing isn’t supposed to be a marketing phrase. It should be part of how the product gets built.
Freshwater and Saltwater Will Continue to Influence Each Other
One thing that has always fascinated me is how separated different parts of fishing can become.
Bass fishermen have their techniques.
Walleye anglers have theirs.
Inshore saltwater anglers have theirs.
Crappie fishermen have theirs.
But fish don’t know what section of the tackle store a technique came from. And some of the most interesting innovations happen when ideas cross those imaginary boundaries.
Hover strolling grew largely through freshwater bass fishing.
Jig-and-plastic combinations have influenced virtually every major inshore fishery.
Deep-water walleye techniques can teach us something about targeting stripers.
Saltwater anglers understand current and moving water incredibly well.
Bass fishermen have spent decades obsessing over precise presentations, bottom composition and lure action.
There is an enormous amount these groups can learn from one another. Because I fish and develop products across freshwater and saltwater, I want that crossover to remain part of Ebb N Flow Outdoors. Some of our best future products may come directly from it.
We Also Want to Bring More Women Into the Ebb N Flow Story
This part of the future isn’t necessarily about creating fishing tackle specifically for women. It’s much broader than that.
I want Ebb N Flow Outdoors to become easier for women to interact with, shop with and ultimately help shape — whether they fish or not. Women are already an important part of fishing.
Some are serious anglers.
Some are learning.
Some take their kids fishing.
Some grew up around it.
And some may have absolutely zero interest in ever picking up a fishing rod.
I think that last group is especially interesting because the fishing industry doesn’t talk about them enough. There are wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters and friends who regularly buy gifts for people who are obsessed with fishing. And we expect them to navigate an industry that can be confusing even for experienced anglers.
Think about what someone who doesn’t fish sees when they visit a tackle website:
1/8 ounce. 3/32 ounce. 2/0. 3/0. 4/0. Paddletails. Hover hooks. Jig heads. Swing heads. TPE. Braided line. Leader. Freshwater. Inshore. Offshore.
We know what those things mean because we’ve lived around them. Someone shopping for the fisherman in her life may have absolutely no idea. That’s not her problem. That’s our problem to solve.
What If Buying Fishing Tackle Didn’t Require Knowing Anything About Fishing?
This is an area where I think Ebb N Flow Outdoors can eventually create a much better experience. If someone visits our website looking for a gift for her husband, boyfriend, father, son, daughter or friend, she shouldn’t need a crash course in fishing before placing an order.
Instead of asking her to choose between twenty technical options she doesn’t understand, why can’t we ask questions she can answer?
What does your person fish for? Bass? Redfish? Trout? Walleye?
Where do they fish? Freshwater? Saltwater? Both?
How do they normally fish? Boat? Kayak? Shore? Dock?
Where do they live or fish most often?
How much would you like to spend?
You don’t have to understand jig head geometry to answer those questions. From there, we should be able to do the hard part.
Maybe that’s a better gift guide. Maybe it’s prebuilt species-specific packages. Maybe it’s an intuitive shopping assistant. Maybe technology eventually allows someone to answer five simple questions and receive several highly confident recommendations.
We’re still learning what that should look like. And that’s important. I don’t want us assuming we know what women want. I want us listening to them.
My wife has already influenced this company in ways that extend far beyond fishing itself. Different perspectives expose problems that people deeply immersed in an industry stop noticing.
So part of what’s next for Ebb N Flow Outdoors is starting that conversation.
What would make fishing easier to shop for?
What makes fishing websites intimidating?
What information would give you confidence you’re buying the right thing?
What would make buying a fishing gift actually enjoyable?
Those are questions worth asking.
Confidence Should Be Part of What We Sell
This idea extends beyond women. Whether you’re a lifelong fisherman or you’ve never touched a fishing rod, I want purchasing from Ebb N Flow Outdoors to feel straightforward.
If you’re spending $50 or $100 on someone you care about, you shouldn’t reach checkout wondering:
Did I buy the wrong thing?
Is this the right size?
Will he actually use this?
Is this even for the kind of fishing he does?
Our products should be easier to understand. Our educational content should answer questions without making people feel like they need twenty years of fishing experience. And when someone still isn’t sure, our customer service should make getting an answer incredibly easy.
The long-term goal is ambitious: I want Ebb N Flow Outdoors to become one of the easiest places in fishing to confidently buy something for an angler — even if you know absolutely nothing about fishing.
Growing fishing isn’t only about reaching the person holding the rod. The people standing beside that person are part of the story too.
Ebb N Flow Outdoors Won’t Only Be About Products
This may eventually become the biggest piece of the vision. The longer I’ve worked in fishing, the more convinced I’ve become that anglers don’t necessarily need more information. They need help making sense of the information they already have.
Think about everything that goes into deciding where and how to fish:
Water temperature. Season. Weather. Wind. Current. Tides. Depth. Structure. Bait. Fishing pressure. Time of day. Water clarity. Electronics. Historical patterns.
Then, after processing all of that, you still need to choose a location, bait, weight, hook, color and retrieve.
Modern anglers have access to an unbelievable amount of data. But more data doesn’t automatically create better decisions.
I believe there’s a long-term opportunity to connect fishing knowledge, real-world observations, mapping, weather, water conditions, electronics and artificial intelligence in a way that actually helps anglers understand what they’re seeing and determine what to do next.
That’s a much bigger project than designing another jig head. It’s also something I’m extremely interested in exploring.
Education Will Become a Bigger Part of Ebb N Flow Outdoors
The blog you’re reading is part of that strategy. We’re building an increasingly large library covering jig heads, soft plastics, hook sizing, rigging techniques, species, fishing strategies and the decisions anglers make on the water.
Some of those articles get technical. Others answer incredibly basic questions. Both matter.
Someone searching “What size jig head should I use?” may be rigging their first soft plastic. Someone else may be trying to understand how a 3/32-ounce presentation behaves around suspended bass using forward-facing sonar. Another person may be searching because her husband said he wants “jig heads” for his birthday and she has no idea what that means.
All three people deserve a useful answer.
That’s where I think education and commerce can work together without turning every article into an advertisement. Teach first. Help someone understand the decision. Then, if one of our products solves the problem, show them why.
Our Customers Will Continue to Influence What We Build
This might be the most important part of the entire plan. I read comments. I answer messages. I pay attention to what customers are putting on our products. And anglers regularly use products in ways I never originally envisioned.
That’s incredibly valuable. Once thousands of anglers start experimenting with something, the product no longer exists only through the eyes of the person who designed it.
People find new applications.
They expose weaknesses.
They combine products differently.
They fish species we weren’t thinking about.
They ask questions.
And occasionally someone sends me something that immediately makes me think: why don’t we make that?
Those conversations have already influenced Ebb N Flow Outdoors. I expect them to influence the company even more going forward.
So, What’s Actually Next for Ebb N Flow Outdoors?
More Upgrade products.
More hook and weight combinations.
More experimentation with emerging soft-plastic designs.
More freshwater applications.
More saltwater applications.
More education.
More real-world testing.
More collaboration with anglers.
A better and more intuitive shopping experience.
A deliberate effort to listen to women — including those who don’t fish — and understand how we can make this industry easier to navigate.
And eventually, I hope, technology that connects much of it.
But I’m not going to pretend I have the next ten years perfectly mapped out. I don’t. Building this company has already taught me that some of the best ideas come from places you never anticipated.
So instead of pretending we know exactly where this ends, we’re going to keep doing what got us here.
Find a problem.
Ask why.
Build something.
Test it.
Listen.
Learn.
Make it better.
Then do it again.
That’s what’s next for Ebb N Flow Outdoors.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Future of Ebb N Flow Outdoors
What products is Ebb N Flow Outdoors developing next?
Ebb N Flow Outdoors continues to expand The Upgrade family while exploring additional jig head weights, hook configurations, hover-style presentations, weedless applications and other terminal-tackle concepts designed around real fishing problems.
Does Ebb N Flow Outdoors make products for freshwater and saltwater fishing?
Yes. Product development is intentionally influenced by both freshwater and saltwater techniques, with applications for bass, walleye, stripers, redfish, speckled trout, flounder and other species.
Is Ebb N Flow Outdoors only a fishing tackle company?
Fishing tackle is the foundation, but the long-term vision is broader. Education, better product discovery, guided shopping experiences, fishing data and potentially AI-assisted fishing intelligence are areas we’re interested in developing as the company grows.
Is Ebb N Flow Outdoors trying to make fishing easier for non-anglers to shop for?
Yes. One long-term goal is to create a much more intuitive shopping experience for people buying gifts for anglers. Instead of requiring customers to understand technical fishing terminology, recommendations could be built around simple questions about species, location, fishing style and budget.
Will women be part of the future of Ebb N Flow Outdoors?
Absolutely. That includes women who are serious anglers, beginners and women who may not fish at all but regularly shop for someone who does. Rather than assuming what that audience needs, we want to listen, learn and build an easier and more confident experience around their feedback.
Keep Communicating
Some of the best ideas we’ve had didn’t start at a desk. They started on the water.
In a boat.
At a trade show.
In a customer email.
In a conversation with my wife.
Or in a message from an angler who looked at something we made and said: “Have you ever thought about doing it this way?”
That’s exactly the kind of conversation I want Ebb N Flow Outdoors to keep having.
Keep Fishing. Keep Experimenting. Keep Upgrading. Keep Communicating.
— Dave Erdly
Founder, Ebb N Flow Outdoors