Don Habeger spent much of his career in the international shipping industry. According to Habeger, his time in the industry led to a "deep” love affair with the ocean. But in 2009, his shipping fling was over, and he fell victim to corporate downsizing. His relationship with the sea was long from over, and Habeger drifted into a new career as a fishing lure manufacturer based in Juneau, Alaska.
As Habeger trolled for a new calling and devoted time to public and community service, he spent his time building a boat and learning how to fish. Around this time, he came up with the idea for the Scent Striker, a lure that gives fishing enthusiasts multi-sensory activating options. Though, at first, it kind of looks like a smelly cotton ball.
The idea stems from a long-standing controversy with commercial fishers: Do fish smell? Some commercial fishermen will tell you that fish can smell two parts per billion of copper, but it was unclear whether or not chemoreception (sense of smell) was a significant mechanism for fish.
In 2013, Habeger started putting scent attractants on plastic squids, a common fishing lure. The problem was that the scent didn’t stick. Around 2014, Habeger began looking for something that not only held a lot of smell but dispersed it during a 30-minute troll. His pursuit came up empty, and he spent the winter developing a prototype. In 2016, he filed for a design patent, and in November 2019, the Scent Striker had generated enough interest that Habeger launched Appanage Fishing in 2020.
The Scent Striker is a lure that allows anglers to add smell to any bait or lure setup, and it’s designed to withstand an entire fishing season, though the user has to reload the smelly cotton ball from time to time.
Habeger founded Appanage Fishing to manufacture the Scent Striker in Juneau, Alaska. He wanted to help diversify Juneau’s economy and bring jobs to his hometown. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He initially planned to get Scent Striker off the ground at outdoor sportsmen’s trade shows. But, when every show was canceled, the company needed to pivot to e-commerce and fast. While he sold some products online, he didn’t hit any of his start-up sales goals and considered closing the doors. Instead, he dipped into his savings and started anew in 2021.
Habeger remains the primary employee with some seasonal labor that helped ramp up manufacturing for the 2021 fishing season. However, he hopes to bring on more full-time staff soon.
Right now, Scent Striker manufacturing is a manual process, but if Appenage hits its 2021 sales goals, the company will pursue investment capital to convert to automation.
