Custom Lures Unlimited, owned and operated by Kelly Barefoot was founded based on angler need and demand for lures that will give anglers an edge on the water. Kelly has been handcrafting lures for more than 20 years. Tutored by his dad, a gun collector, hunter, fisherman, and custom knife craftsman, Kelly's desire to fish, hunt, and to enjoy the outdoors began as a young child. During that time, he had a passion for fishing, baseball, hunting, and drawing wildlife. In his teens, he had his first taste of customized gear as he worked for and made custom bow and arrows in his dad's archery store.

Later while in college, Kelly learned the art of tying fishing flies after multiple adventures to the off road streams of the Colorado Rockies. Having grown up in central NC, it was a natural fit to go from tying flies to crafting bass tackle and lures. My brother and I began hand-pouring plastics for our personal use. Natural progression led Kelly into making top water plugs. The rest is history.

     The lure crafting, fishing, desire to draw and paint began to cross paths as he graduated from college (University of North Carolina @ Wilmington, 1993, Bachelors Degree in Psychology). By the late 80's, Kelly began hand carving and painting more lures for himself and close friends. As fishing successes with the handmade lures began to increase so did Kelly's interest in bass fishing and tournaments. This led to increased exposure and more requests. "I knew I was potentially onto something when one of my best friends showed up with about 20 new lures still in boxes and he wanted me to paint them all." 

    A second validation came when Kelly learned that one of his custom paint jobs produced two- 9 lbers on consecutive casts on a highly pressured public lake. At that point Kelly decided to turn his painting and lure crafting from hobby to business and to introduce his custom paint jobs to a broader market of anglers and to the internet world. Kelly began laying the vision, ideas and groundwork for the Custom Lures Unlimited concept. He started planning the goals, direction, CLU website and decided to go it alone. After several years of holding a full time job & running CLU, with demands for his time & lures increasing, Kelly resigned from his full time job. With a continued flow of anglers requesting CLU lures, repaints and repairs, Kelly gave up his 15 yr career in developmental pediatrics to pursue his vision of high performance lures, CLU and growing it to a legit force in the lure & angling world.

   In the summer of 2004, good friend and pro-angler, Jeffrey Thomas of Broadway, NC was added as the inaugural CLU pro-staff member. Jeffrey, FLW Pro, an exceptional guide and multi-dimensional angler brings a wealth of bass fishing knowledge and experience to the lure-crafting table. His advise and on the water lure feedback to CLU is invaluable. http://www.carolinaoutdoors.net/ 

   In the late summer of 2005, Kelly Barefoot decided to expand and spread the works of CLU. At the top of his list was former North Carolina resident and BASS Pro Angler Randy Howell. Randy joined the CLU Pro Staff in the fall of 2005. Randy currently resides in Alabama with his family. He was a natural choice to join CLU with his ties to NC. Randy is one of the elite anglers in the world with multiple Bassmaster Classic appearances and BASS wins. CLU is looking forward to years of working towards making both Randy and Jeffrey's angling dreams into reality. www.RandyHowell.com

   Since the launch of Custom Lures Unlimited, Kelly has fielded angler contacts and painted lures from all over the globe, from Nigeria to the UK, China to Japan, from Australia to the US to locally. CLU's custom lures and products have been used at local, regional, FLW, BASS tournaments, and even at the Bassmaster Classic. His lures have been front and center on Carolina Outdoors, ESPN2, FLW Outdoors magazine, BassFan.com, Field & Stream, ect,... The CLU goal remains simple, to provide the highest quality customized lures and services available in the high performance lure world. Custom Lures Unlimited strives to meet all customized angling & lure needs with an increasing array of lures and services for years to come.

Bass Wishes,

Custom Lures Unlimited