Branden Roberts grew up fly fishing in Colorado, where his grandfather taught him how to tie his own flies. “So in a way,” he says, “I’ve been making my own product since I was 5 years old.” Roberts, 36, along with fishing captain Allen Salinas and partner Brian Bailey, founded Logic Lures in 2012 to create innovative fishing equipment like “Wiggly Jiggly,” a jig head with a unique pivot point.

Roberts and Salinas spent seven years on product development and field testing. “By that I mean we fished a whole lot,” he says.

After two years setting up an overseas factory, they started promoting Logic Lures on social media—more than a year before the products were even ready. Then, six months before launching, Roberts and Salinas went on a three-month road trip through Texas and Florida. They signed accounts with 60 independent stores, and when they attended ICAST, the fishing industry’s largest trade expo, Wal-Mart representatives were waiting at their booth.

Now, Logic Lures products are in more than 370 stores across the country, with distribution in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and throughout South America. The company’s Facebook page has the second highest number of followers of any fishing lure company in the world. “We gained the attention of the fishing industry, and it’s been amazing,” says Roberts, who moved to Sarasota two years ago to spearhead the company’s growth in what he calls the fishing capital of the world. “The only thing that’s not cool is we don’t get to fish as much as we used to.”

■ By Beau Denton