Northern King Salmon Trolling Spoon

In 1984, Pat Distaffen created the original Northern King spoon. A tool and die specialist with Xerox and an avid hunter and fisherman, Patsy found his passion making fishing lures when he founded Northern King. He recognized the need for a trolling lure that would wobble consistently at a variety of different speeds. He spent countless hours refining the shape and details behind his incredibly successful lure design.
 
“When we cleaned out my parent's house, in every single room, every single floor, there was files… because he was always tinkering with dies or the lures or something. We had shoeboxes full of files.” Says daughter Beverly Cahill.
 
The Northern King lure grabbed the attention of many charter boat captains and derby fisherman on Lake Ontario. Patsy was able to talk to anyone and would talk your ear off about fishing. By word of mouth, Patsy went from producing 20,000 lures a year to 150,000 in full time production by 1988. It enjoyed many years of success under Pat’s leadership.
 
“When my dad died, it was his passion. All of us kids knew how to make the lures, we knew his customer base, could take orders, ship orders, but we didn’t have that passion to keep designing the way he did.” Says Beverly.
 
In 2016, Northern King was purchased by Thompson-Pallister Bait Co. Ltd.; the Canadian manufacturers of Len Thompson Lures. As a fourth generation family business, Thompson-Pallister Bait Co. was thrilled to acquire a company with similar values. “Len Thompson, our great grandfather, also created his own unique fishing spoon which turned into a successful legacy brand.” Quotes Brad Pallister, President.
 
The company purchased the Northern King brand name and, most importantly, all of the original die sets which mold the unique shape of each Northern King spoon. Northern King lures are now Canadian manufactured in Lacombe, Alberta using quality components including strong stainless steel split rings, Mustad Ultra Point hooks and environmentally friendly, durable paints.