Steve Coggin’s Journey: Crafting Game-Changing Lures for Big Game Fishing

Introduction to Steve Coggin’s Legacy

A teenage Steve Coggin walked along the seawall of the Kuapa Isle community in Oahu, Hawaii, where he lived with his parents. It was Sunday, the day he liked to watch one specific boat as it motored in from offshore. He wished he was onboard. The yelled over “the lure” as the colorful fish flags were flying off the riggers. Steve didn’t know what they meant, but he was fascinated, nonetheless. One day he saw the captain struggling to get the boat, his 28-foot Uniflite Salty Dog called the K-Nine, out of forward gear.

It was headed straight toward the wall where Steve stood. He leaped into action, helping the captain fend off the boat, and got it tied off at the dock.

Early Influences and the Birth of a Passion

The captain, Honolulu dentist Dr. Young Park, and the teen launched what would become a life-long friendship that day. Steve enjoyed Sunday dinners with Park and his family, which fed his love of deep-sea fishing, and fished with Park for many years. Most importantly, Park taught him how to make fishing lures. Today, Steve is the owner of Steve Coggin Lures, based in Bakersfield, California.

Coggin was born in Kenya, Africa, to non-fishing British parents. He migrated with his family to California as a toddler and then to Oahu at age 11, so meeting Dr. Park became a life-changing event. “On days we couldn’t fish, we would make lures at Dr. Park’s house,” said Coggin. “We would go to his dentist office and sand them using his dental grinder. I started out watching him make fishing lures, and then, little by little, Dr. Park let me start making my own.

First Steps in Lure Making: The Swim Bait Era

“The first lures I was making at that time, in the 1970s, were swimmer baits,” Coggin continued. “They were just brass tubing and clear resin. Then I started using a yellow mustard tint in the resin. It was the only color I had, and it was the first color lure I made. I sanded that yellow lure down, we took it out and trolled it, and I caught a 15- to 20-pound mahi mahi. I still have the mold for that first lure, but I haven’t made those lures in many years.”

Swimmer baits worked great when pulled by the older wooden Hawaiian sampan fishing boats that would chug at a slow six to seven knots. This speed proved perfect to pull these lures through the water in just the right way to catch fish. And they indeed caught a lot of fish. Then, faster fiberglass boats became more popular. The swimmer baits didn’t ride as well in the water at these higher speeds, hence they fell into obsolescence and out of production.

Steve Coggin’s Tado Lure: Triumphs in Tournaments

Lure innovation evolved along with boat speed. While Steve’s first official lure was the swimmer bait, another early one has been his claim to fame for over three decades. “Dr. Park and I worked on a larger lure in the late 1980s,” Coggin said. “Nobody was making the larger lures at that time. This is when we designed my Tado lure. The name came from Capt. Jerome Judd. He was the first one I sold that lure to. It was a blueback with an abalone shell. Judd said it reminded him of a skipjack, or ‘Otado,’ so he called it Tado for short. The name stuck.”.

Capt. Judd, who ran the 42-foot Bertram, the Jun Ken Po, caught a 700-pound blue marlin on that Tado lure and loved it. In 1993, angler Doug Jorgensen used Steve’s Tado to reel in a 1,199-pound blue marlin while fishing aboard the Cormorant with Capt. Bruce Matson during the Lahaina Jackpot Tournament in October. The catch won the tournament, and at the time, was the largest marlin caught in a major fish tournament anywhere in the world. The marlin hit one of Steve’s big pink abalone shell Tado lures, trolled off the boat’s short corner position.

The pink-back Tado also caught another tournament-winning grander during the Marlin Magic Tournament held off Kona in July 2013. The angler was Steve Spina fishing on the 35-foot charter boat, Rod Bender, with Capt. Kerwin Masunaga at the helm. Steve was lucky to arrive in Kona from Honolulu on the 53-foot custom sport-fisher Maggie Joe with his friend Capt. Mike DeRego just in time to hear the good news.

“I was fortunate to catch a second-place winning fish in Kona with my Tado,” Coggin said. “It was the Fourth of July, in 2009, and I had my son Sean with me. We were fishing in the Kona Firecracker Fishing Tournament on the Maggie Joe. I caught a 595-pound blue marlin off of a blueback Tado.”

Steve’s Tado has caught many winning fish, some really big, some smaller, but it is a great lure and popular with fish and fishermen to this day. “The proper way to use the Tado is to run it short corner third wake,” he adds. “Or you can run it on the long corner fifth wake. These are the best positions to run this lure.”

From Part-Time Hobby to Full-Time Career

Steve left Hawaii when he was 22 years old and worked as a roofer for his uncle in Marin County, California, for over 25 years, until his uncle retired and closed the business. “When that happened, I was faced with the decision of what to do with my career,” Coggin said. “Work for another company or make lures full-time? My wife suggested that I should make lures. She said if it didn’t work out, then we’d figure it out, but that I’d never know if I could unless I tried. So here we are, almost 20 years later, and I’ve been making lures full-time.”

Mastering the Craft: Producing Game-Changing Lures for Big Game Fishing

Steve still makes swimmer baits upon request, but these are few. He has many shapes and sizes of lures. Some are similar to the scoop nose of the swimmer baits, but his Tado lure is his most popular big-size lure. “What it takes to make a great lure, to me, is taking pride in making the lure,” he said. “If it’s not good enough for me, they won’t be good enough for you. Every one of my lures is handmade. They are unique due to the shells or the glass I use. I hand-cut and shape each piece to put into the inserts, and I match the resin to the colors in the shells and glass. I hand polish each lure head, so they shine bright. They are works of art, and I put a lot of love and pride into every lure I make.

Steve Coggin’s Philosophy and Continuing Legacy

I have to thank my mentor and my good friend, Dr. Park. He always taught me, ‘Don’t settle for what you do today as good enough. You can always be better.’ These words stick with me, and I keep striving every day to be better than I was yesterday.”

Steve Coggin’s journey from a curious teenager in Oahu to a master lure craftsman has transformed big game fishing, with his Tado lures becoming synonymous with innovation and success. His dedication to the art of lure making continues to inspire anglers and shape the future of sportfishing.

More Coggin Toda Lure examples

To order and/or visit Coggin Lures be sure to follow this link to his Facebook Page

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