There are so many wonderful people that I have met all over Canada and the United States that have played such a huge role in the success of Shark Cannonballs, I call these encounters Shark moments. One such moment is the story of Captain Jim Munoz of Leland Michigan.I managed to get Scott Larner, the marine manager of the Cabela's Dundee store interested in taking a look at a couple of our chrome Sharks. Scott passed them along to Ed Martin, a senior outfitter at Cabela's, as Ed was just heading up to the pristine waters of Leland to do a little salmon fishing. Well, Ed got up there, launched his boat and headed out to the big water when his boat conked out. Naturally, the wind picks up and Ed dropped his anchor so he doesn't get blown out to sea and proceeded to get on his radio looking for a little assistance.
It had to be Ed's lucky day, because the legendary Captain Jim Munoz responded to the pan pan call as he was just coming in from one of his charters. The problem was identified, Jim pulls into port and drove to the local marine store to pick up the part. All the while leaving Ed bouncing on the waves. Jim got back out to Ed's boat, and the problem is fixed. What a swell guy.
Here comes the Shark moment. Jim notices these fancy chrome plated cannonballs sitting in Ed's boat and says what the heck are those things. In a move that Ed later came to regret, he said: "Those are Sharks, would you like to try them out."? Well Jim looked at them suspiciously, probably thinking to himself, does the world need another fish shaped cannonball? I don't know if it was the hot sun that day or the waves, or curiosity about shinny objects, but the famous captain from Lake Michigan decided to give the Sharks a try. Well that was the last that Ed ever saw of the those two Sharks.
Now the fishing had been a little slow, and it could have just been coincidence, but Jim started hauling them in. Apparently Jim was catching way more fish than anyone else in the marina; he said it was the Sharks.
Yes, there is a happy ending to the story, word got back to Cabela's, and after some more testing we finally managed to get Shark Cannonballs into America's most famous sport fishing store. Ed got his Sharks replaced, Jim is an honorary Shark dealer and has become one of our most prominent supporters. Last we heard, Jim supplied all his fishing buddies up in Leland with Sharks and they are all catching tons of salmon. All this because Ed's boat broke down, go figure.
Sharkman
