St. Croix’s Jesse Simpkins Brings Park Falls to the World

While there are certainly some members of the fishing industry who consider their vocation a “job” that they leave behind when they’re off the clock, there also exists a solid contingent who live for their gigs. If they can’t actually be out fishing, they’re talking about fishing, thinking about an upcoming trip or planning their next innovation. Leading that latter group is Jesse Simpkins, Director of Marketing at St. Croix Rods. Whether you meet up with the boisterous Midwesterner on the water, at a trade show, or through an unexpected Tuesday afternoon phone call, he’s ready to talk about the sport that he’s made his life’s work. After 25 years in the industry – first with Plano and now with St. Croix – he’s still as hungry to spread the angling gospel as he was on Day One.

I bought my first St. Croix rod – an Avid Series 6’6” spinning rod  that I still own and use – in 1997. Since then I’ve amassed a number more, and through my frequent trips to Anglers Inn properties in Mexico and Brazil, I’ve gotten to test quite a few additional models on some of the toughest freshwater fish that swim. I caught up with Jesse to talk a little bit about rodmaking (more on that in an upcoming blog), but mostly about how he’s used his career to experience just about everything the sport can offer. He also offered up some travel tips for anglers who haven’t (yet) had the wealth of opportunities that he’s enjoyed.

Here he is in his own words:

HPFC: How did you enter the fishing industry?

SIMPKINS: I feel like I’m one of the fortunate few, because I knew what I wanted to do when I was young and coming out of school. I didn’t necessarily get into the fishing industry right off the bat, but I had been fishing since I was 3 years old. My family moved to a farm in Illinois when I was 3. I would literally go out with a stick and a string and a safety pin to catch bluegills in a pond that was on this farm. It also had a creek running through it and I was intimate with every inch of that creek. I got lucky because my grandparents fished and my dad fished, so I had great mentors and great opportunities to do it.

I always knew who Plano was growing up because it was 10 miles from the farm. My dad was a union plumber and he used to work in the building. I grew up riding horses in a stable that was 3 miles from Plano. Back when I was just out of college and looking for a career I was doing some interviews and I got to this guy who was a vice president of sales for a commercial real estate company. I was just looking for a job – I needed to make some money. The guy in the interview asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I asked, “Honestly?” And without missing a beat he said, “No, lie to me.” I started laughing. I said I wanted someone to pay me to hunt and fish and talk about hunting and fishing the rest of my life. He looked at me deadpan and said, “Good luck with that.” I spent a lot of time on Sundays looking at marketing jobs in the Chicago Tribune and the local papers and I saw one that I’ll remember forever because it changed my life. It was three columns in from the right-hand side at the top of the page and it said, “Do you like to fish and hunt?” It was for a public relations coordinator at Plano Molding Company – a company whose tackle boxes I’d used for years. My dad used to bring home pieces of them he’d get from the plant and we’d build them. What a great opportunity. I got an interview. They gave me a project, which was to write a press release, and I wrote it, rewrote it, wrote it again, rewrote it again, and I finally sent it to them. I was fortunate enough to be able to get that that decision.

I had to take a sizeable pay cut, but I did the math and realized I could pay my bills. And I was doing something that I absolutely have a passion for. I was smart enough – or lucky enough – that I put everything I had into feeding that passion and taking care of that brand. I had the ability to grow there. I went from public relations coordinator to 20 years later I was senior vice president of sales and marketing.

HPFC: So between Plano and St. Croix how many years have you been in the fishing industry?

SIMPKINS: Twenty five.

HPFC: So you go from fishing the creek on your family farm to having access to some of the best and most exotic fishing in the world. What are some of the highlights of those experiences?

SIMPKINS: I remember the first time that I went to Alaska. I fly fished, I ocean fished and I remember the stark beauty as well as the variety – whether it be salmonids or pelagics or bottom fish, it was just remarkable. I remember the first redfish that I ever caught – I remember the first topwater redfish. I was throwing this giant topwater and suddenly the water just exploded like someone threw a 16-pound bowling ball off a three story building. Venice, Louisiana has become part of me, part of where I take my family even to this day. We go down there because we love it so much. I’ve gone to the Caribbean and the Bahamas and bonefished there. I’ve gone to Europe and caught Zander in rivers around Amsterdam. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to South America to Patagonia and do some fly fishing for browns and rainbows. I’m just so very lucky that I’ve been able to take something that I have a passion for and turn it into my life’s work. I was given a book when I was young that had a quote – again, one of those things that I’ll remember forever – and it says that the secret to success is to be able to take your vacation and make it your vocation.

HPFC: Given all of those opportunities, what’s a place that you’ve yet to go or a species that you’ve yet to chase that’s still high on your list?

SIMPKINS: I really want to go for peacock and Golden Dorado in South America, and I’ve always wanted to go to Australia to fish off the reefs.

HPFC: For bass enthusiasts who want to branch out into travel and fishing for other species, what is the non-bass species they need to catch to get over that hump?

SIMPKINS: Redfish in one of the Gulf areas. First of all, if you’re a bass angler, you’re using a lot of the same equipment, whether it be spinning or casting gear, and a lot of the same baits. On my recent trip in December, I caught what was probably the largest or second-largest redfish I’ve ever caught in my life. It was 48 inches long and it had a 26 inch girth and it crushed a Chatterbait. You’re using a lot of those same techniques that you’re comfortable with, and a lot of those same rods and reels that you’re comfortable with, and when you can get on a really good bite, they’re really accommodating. It’s just so much fun.

HPFC: Why should someone make Park Falls, Wisconsin their next vacation destination?

SIMPKINS: If you are a rod geek at all and you want to see how the best rods on earth are built and hand-crafted. When people come here they’ll see the time and the care and the 32 sets of hands that go into every rod that we build that comes out of here. The number one thing that we hear is, “Wow, I’m surprised that they don’t cost more.”

HPFC: There are a lot of high-quality rod companies, but many of them specialize in bass or surf fishing or trout. You work for a company that makes something for just about every style of fishing. What’s different about that experience?

SIMPKINS: All of our people are just so passionate about fishing. The family who own it, the Schluters, they have fished all over. They have opportunities and they bring them back here and they make sure that the people responsible for crafting and designing the rods understand who we’re making them for and what that angler expects. One of the things that we constantly talk about is that we exist to make every angler better on the water. They should have the very best fishing experience possible, and the only way to do that is to travel around and experience firsthand what other people are experiencing. You have to talk to them about what their needs are, what they expect out of the performance of a rod, then be able to bring that back and correlate that knowledge into the development and manufacturing process.

HPFC: You’re one of the few American companies that has a long-term commitment to building travel rods. Why is that and what was your involvement in some of the new travel rod series?

SIMPKINS: Before COVID, more people were traveling all the time than ever before. Planes were full, people were going everywhere, and the one thing that we know is that anglers always like to fish wherever they go if you can make it easy for them. These new Avid Treks fit into a backpack super-easily. You can throw a few baits into a tiny little utility box, throw your reel in your luggage, and all of a sudden you have the ability to fish anywhere. We’ve got rods from 6’6” to 7’6” in the series and because of that you can handle almost any situation possible.

HPFC: What’s the one non-fishing item that goes with you on every fishing trip?

SIMPKINS: Definitely, no matter what, a camera. This last trip to Venice was a family trip – my brother, my sister and I. One of the best things that we have among ourselves is that we don’t buy each other gifts anymore. We want to have experiences with each other. The ability to share this passion that all three of us have for fishing can only be found in being able to be together and go somewhere – and then we want to capture that moment there.