We caught up with the brilliant and insightful DJ Godfrey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
DJ, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I always look for inspiration from people that do the same craft as myself. There are several people out there that tie their own fishing lures and many of those people have a social media presence. I look at different things that people come up with and try to replicate that in my own style. It is a lot of trial and error. There have been many occasions when I am working on tying fishing lures on my workbench and I’ll get to a certain spot and say “that just doesn’t look right” or “there is nothing natural looking about that”. Then I will untie everything and start over from scratch. Another way I keep my creativity alive is by taking a certain baitfish or bug and looking at several pictures of it and comparing them to the materials that I have. This helps me see what ways I can tie a certain lure to replicate that baitfish or bug artificially. In short, the way to keep the creativity alive is time. Time spent on the workbench, time researching, time tying certain lures and time testing them out to see if they work.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is David Godfrey, but everyone calls me DJ. I am an avid outdoorsman and I have a small business tying fishing lures called DJ’s Custom Bucktails. I have always loved the outdoors from a young age, anything to do with hunting, fishing, camping, etc… I am all about it. If I had to choose my favorite outdoor activity, I would say fishing is on top of my list. I guess that’s why I love tying fishing lures so much. Being out on the water first thing in the morning, watching the sun come up and appreciating God’s creation… There’s just something special about it.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
If I had to choose 3 qualities or skills that were most impactful on my journey, I would say patience is at the top of the list. When you are tying a new lure you have to be patient. It may not look exactly the way you planned or function the way you expected. You are not going to perfect it on the first try, so just be patient and stick with it. The second thing I would say is pay close attention to detail. You want to make sure that everything is visually appealing, not only to the fish, but to the customer as well. Your thread wraps need to be touching each other to cover the material. You need to make sure your material is spread evenly around the lure. When you are finished tying and ready to glue it, make sure the glue only gets on the thread and not any other material. When you glue your material together, it loses its natural flow in the water and looks too “stiff”. As the old saying goes “less is more”. The last thing on the list is to have fun doing it! It can definitely get frustrating tying your own fishing lures at times, but enjoy the process. The finished product is always so rewarding. I have always said that if it ever gets to a point where it feels like work and I’m no longer having fun, I’ll stop. Be patient, pay attention and have fun.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I would say the most impactful thing my parents did for me is the constant love and support of what I enjoyed doing the most. On days where my dad was working and couldn’t go fishing, my mom would take me somewhere that I wanted to fish and wait for me to be finished. I can almost guarantee that I stayed A LOT longer than she wanted to, so it is something I greatly appreciate. However, my passion for the outdoors comes from my late father David, who passed away in 2020. We were like 2 peas in a pod, if he was going to go fishing, then WE were going to go fishing. We were inseperable. He raised me at a young age to appreciate the outdoors with a level of respect that most don’t have. He was the one who taught me how to make my own fishing lures from scratch, which is a skill that I use daily. It is something that I will be able to teach my future children as well as all of the other knowledge he left me with. He taught me to appreciate the things that most people overlook when they are outdoors, like a beautiful sunrise or the birds chirping as they wake up in the morning. He instilled in me a passion for loving the outdoors and that is something that I will appreciate and cherish deeply for the rest of my life.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: DJsBucktails
- Facebook: DJsBucktails
