Started in 2014,
Marker 54 is the brainchild of Joshua Morris - an avid fisherman with an innovative mind and scientific background who thinks lures should look more like bait. He grew up fishing for redfish, trout, and snook in Florida and Texas (with a 10 year stint in Oregon learning about steelhead and salmon). When he's not in his workshop making these lures and dreaming up new designs, you'll find him taking care of his two youngsters or out performing strategic market and product research (aka fishing). What's in a Name?Marker 54 is a place I've never been - a place of dreams and legends and redfish as long as gators. It represents the stories I heard growing up from my Papa and my father -- about a forbidden flat at the center of the world's attention at the height of the space race where the term "trophy fish" was meaningless since all the fish were that big. This flat, located in the Kennedy Space Center, had giant redfish and launch pads with rockets pointing toward the moon. Two skinny teens in a flat bottom Jon boat would make the long run past the guards to the foot of Pad 39A. After welding on the pad, Papa would walk down to the creek on the Indian River and cast toward channel marker 54. The stories told were of redfish as long as gators, trout that looked like tarpon, and even bass that would be considered once-in-a-lifetime today. Mullet was so thick you'd be fearful of running too fast in the boat as one may jump up and hit you. A place my dad swore no one ever knew he fished - though I think they did, but those times were more forgiving to two kids fishing than they would be today.
Marker 54 is a real place. You can see it on Google Earth. It is called Pinfish Creek and it literally sits at the foot of Launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. We can't go there now (technically you couldn't then either) but that's not really the point. Marker 54 stories are the glue that bind fisherman together. They relate the storyteller to simpler days, and connect the listener to a dream to one day find their own Marker 54. We all know someone who has a Marker 54 story. Perhaps you have one yourself. I have heard the stories so much it moved me beyond fishing - it's adjusted my life. I think of Marker 54 in everything I make - my lures are designed as uniquely as those rockets. - Joshua Morris |