It all started with (Bears Tubes) Barry Welch he owned Bait and Tackle shop out of his garage in Kennebunk Maine. Bear also made the best dam Striper Trolling Tubes anywhere he was known for his stories that he would share with anyone, usually sitting in or around his shop Bears Bait And Tackle. His love for fishing and hunting was known from anyone whom spent time there with him. Bear passed away unfortunately November 21st, 2021. Bear was a legend known by many anglers and his Trolling Tubes were highly sought after, the action and colors along with the weighted rudders that he made were slowly depleting. Last year I started to make the tubes Bear made to keep to keep them going as they worked very well on the Stripers and you couldn’t find tubes made like his anywhere. I spent hours changing things around getting close to his tubes and the ones I made worked, however not the same. I was contacted by an angler that had purchased a box from Bears Estate Sale and said he noticed I was making tubes and was I interested in purchasing the box from him. I told him absolutely and he came out to my shop and there was a box with a bunch of his tubes already made, some not made and some made which Bear would take out fishing and tested ( You can actually see the chewed marks from the fish that hit them) I then searched all through the box and layed out all the contents, what I found was like Holy Shit in the box was a hand written instructions on a small note pad piece of paper written in pencil. Everything I needed to know on making Bears Tubes. Bear made tubes in Epoxy and real latex Tubing , the ones in Epoxy was already colored like the ones you see on shelves today. The real rubber tubing had to be dyed to the color you wanted ( Not really an easy task) this is why you see mainly the Epoxy tubing much easier to get already colored. The only issue with the Ones out there today don’t have the action , they cracked after time, and couldn’t get the colors that were hot with the Stripers. I didn’t want to see what Bear started, end! They couldn’t be found unless you had a stash of them somewhere. I started ordering the wire, real rubber tubing, hook size swivels everything on his instructions. Took a lot of time to get the dying process down , well I finally did it.I wanted to, as a Thank You to Bear ! Make these with his picture and a tribute to him on the packaging. I reached out and was able to reach out to Bears estate Attorney explained everything to him and he suggested not to add Barry’s Picture or wording on the packaging as it would complicate things.That being said I’m still making them currently and have been able to get them into some tackle shops, going to get the packaging more professional and my son and I came up with the name and my son did the graphics. Johnson’s Tubes all new packaging are in the process currently I have wrote down the process and have had my son beside me the whole way he can make them as well and if something happens to me he can take over and keep Bears Tubes going.