The Baitsman's Creed
Do you catch as many fish as the number of your hooks that are baited? The answer is obviously no.
Then why do we call fishing "fishing" and not "baiting"? Why do we call a fisherman "fisherman" and not "Baitsman"?
You have an opportunity to honor the disproportionate number of bait that sacrifice their lives for your attempts to catch a few fish.
You have an opportunity to call attention to the great bait that survived a given number of casts, flew off the hook at high velocity, failed to evade a hungry fish, slipped over the boat side, or simply were never picked for duty.
You have an opportunity to say thank you to the people that spend so much of their time intensely cutting and rigging bait, even if that person you are thanking is yourself.
A true Baitsman does not discount the bait or the process of baiting a hook.
A Baitsman is not annoyed if the bait is lost or reeled in untouched.
A Baitsman's concerns do not merely lie with the experience of catching a great fish, but with the experience of handling an excellent bait.
A Baitsman is proud of their bait, the honorable act of baiting, and the role a bait fills whether or not a fish is landed.
This is what it means to be a Baitsman.
Baitsman Origin Story
Circa 1985
FIRST Bait encounters
When Captain Billy “Baitsman” was a kid, his father and grandfather took him fishing offshore and inshore across South Florida and the Bahamas. He was obsessed with catching big fish — but even more fascinated by the bait. He’d watch them spin in the live well and imagine their heroic journeys once cast into the unknown. Sometimes he even wrote stories about them — tales of courage, sacrifice, and high-velocity flight.
1996 to 2024
Taking the Career bait
Billy grew up to build a string of entrepreneurial ventures in eCommerce and technology. One of them became a successful premium apparel brand — proof that you can make a living turning creative vision into well-stitched reality.
2025
BAITSMAN WAS BORN
Decades later, the realization surfaced: bait — and the noble act of baiting — had been unfairly overshadowed by the glory of fish. Someone had to correct history. Thus, Baitsman was born to glorify bait and those who wield it with pride.