Doug Johnson of Bellevue had a small, unobtrusive hobby a few years ago.
Making wooden fishing lures didn't take up too much of his time, yet he could satisfy his creative juices and still have time to fish.
Johnson eventually took his creations to Dave Jacobs, who owns Anglers Supply, a bait and tackle shop. Jacobs began selling the wooden lures in 1999.
Johnson would have been content to keep turning out his lures. But those lures began to attract more than fish. Johnson's two sons - Andrew, now 12, and Blaine, now 6 - started to invade the shop area in the garage.
"If one of the lures didn't turn out just right," Johnson said, "I'd give it to the boys. They painted it and played with it in the bathtub. Pretty soon they started asking if they could make their own lures."
An idea began to form. If his sons were excited about making lures, perhaps other youngsters would be.
Johnson has received an emphatic answer. Kids love to make their very own fishing lures.
Johnson's family room is cluttered with plastic paint cups, hooks, stick-on eyes, splint rings and wooden bodies that are assembled into kits, which sell for between $6 and $10.
"It's the perfect way to introduce kids to fishing," Johnson said. "If a kid makes a lure, he'll want to go fishing. And there's no doubt he'll want to fish with the lure that he made."
Dan Canfield, a fisheries and aquatic sciences professor at the University of Florida, ramrods a program that entices nearly 15,000 youngsters into learning how to fish.
Canfield learned of Johnson's kits and handed them out to youngsters at the day-long sessions.
"Dr. Canfield said when the lure kits were handed out at lunch, all the hot dogs and chips were pushed to the side.
"He said the older kids finished first. Then they put their lures down and helped the younger kids. He said it was the neatest thing he ever saw."
When Johnson first got the idea to provide a lure kit, he took one to the Gottschalk Scout Shop in Omaha.
"Because I used to be a Boy Scout," said Johnson, who grew up on a farm near Wisner, Neb., "my very first thought was to sell them to the Boy Scouts. I know they have merit badges for fishing and woodworking. It all came together."
The scouts assembled their fishing lures during summer camps. But many of the lures remained unpainted because Johnson's kits didn't include paint or varnish.
Then Johnson visited with Rick Canfield, who owns Canfield's Sporting Goods in Omaha. Canfield is not related to the Florida professor.
"I showed Rick my kits," Johnson recalled, "and he said, 'You know, Doug, you really need to put paint in the kits.' He still encouraged me. He let me display my lure kits for three days during a Boy Scout weekend. A lot of Boy Scout leaders said the kits were perfect projects for their kids."
Last fall, Johnson started to include small cups of paint and varnish in his kits, which are sold under the Johnson Family Lures label.
Johnson has enlisted the help of his entire family, including his mother, and her husband, Angie and Lyle Neuharth of Wisner, and his father, Robert Johnson of Wisner.
Jennifer pours the paint and varnish into small plastic cups. Andrew and Blaine help pack the kits.
Johnson, who works for a computer software company in Glenwood, Iowa, said the growing sales caused a problem before his entire family got involved.
"A bad thing was happening," he said. "I was spending all my time in the shop. Jennifer and the boys were in the house. There was just not enough family time.
"Now it's all family time."