Family History

It all began in the far northeastern region of Minnesota with the building of Minnesota’s largest log structure, Hungry Jack Lodge, in 1916. Jesse and Sue Gapen and their two sons, Don and Bob, hand-built a fishing resort like no other in Minnesota.

The Gunflint Trail, on which this log resort and its 14 cabins rested, was at this time a paradise for lake trout, landlocked salmon (believed to be the modern-day splake), and northern pike. Tourists from all over the country flocked north by whatever means available. Some came by bus, others by ancient automobile. Famous names such as the Pillsburys, the Vanderbilts, and many of the nation’s top outdoor writers came to test these waters.

It was Jesse Gapen who planted the first smallmouth bass in these northern lakes. The species flourished, and today the border waters from Ely to Grand Marais still draw anglers by the thousands for that acrobatic fish.

In 1936, Don Gapen moved north to Nipigon, Ontario, at the end of Highway 61, when the road was still gravel. There the Gapens purchased Chalet Bungalow Lodge, a 65-capacity American-plan resort once owned by the Canadian railway. At Nipigon—famous for world-record brook trout—Don and his family spent summers and winters building a resort for fishermen who came for brook trout, lake trout, northern pike, whitefish, sturgeon, and walleye.

It was here that Don Gapen created the world-famous Muddler Fly, and here that his son Dan Gapen began an outdoor career. Dan started as a minnow and worm boy, then as a fishing guide at age 14. From age 6 he tied flies; at age 8 he tied commercially for his father’s tackle operation, paid a half-cent per fly. During those winter tying seasons the first weight-forward spinner lure was invented. It was called the Nepag (Gapen spelled backward). From that lure came the Paul Bunyan 66 and the modern Lake Erie weight-forward spinner.

The Gapens ran tent camps on Lake Superior’s St. Ignace Island and Lake Nipigon’s Shakespeare Island—base camps for anglers chasing a northern wilderness trip. They also operated the first float-plane fly-in service in their section of northern Ontario, using an old gull-wing Stinson and a cloth-covered Norseman. In those years their planes were restricted from traveling beyond the Albany River system. If a plane went down past that line, there would be no search and rescue.

Dan grew up among Ojibwe guides who shaped his education in that country. Rivers defined the region, and that is where he learned river fishing for life. The books and videos, TV work, and stories he later produced came out of that heritage.

Jesse Gapen learned fly tying from his father, who came from England. That skill passed through four generations of Gapens. Numerous patterns still on the market were first tied by one of those men.

It was Dan who broke the mold on hardware: the snag-free, rock-walking Ugly Bug jig in 1968, and the first bottom-walking wire sinker, the Bait Walker, in 1964. In the late 1960s he built Gapen Tackle Company around those ideas and spent the rest of his life testing tackle on rivers and teaching other anglers how to use it. Dan Gapen Sr. passed away on November 20, 2021.

Today the Gapen brand is independently owned and operated from State Center, Iowa, together with Tactical Tackle Systems (TTS Lures). The company still specializes in functional, field-tested tackle—classic Gapen patterns alongside U.S.A.-made jigs and soft baits—built for the same waters the family fished from the start.