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Fly fishing directs Osier on a business path

  • Some of Kaleb Osier's fishing flies. He plans on selling them online in the future. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra

  • Charles City's Kaleb Osier shows one of his fishing flies. He plans on starting an online business to sell them in the future. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra

  • Some of Kaleb Osier's fishing flies. He plans on selling them online in the future. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra

  • Some of Kaleb Osier's fishing flies. He plans on selling them online in the future. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra

  • Some of Kaleb Osier's fishing flies. He plans on selling them online in the future. Press photo by Kelly Terpstra

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Kaleb Osier has goals — the kind that someday could make him some serious bank.

But in the meantime, it’s back to school this fall for the Charles City High School senior.

That’s not before Osier gets his business plan started.

Osier — who received $1,000 in scholarship money at a youth entrepreneurial academy at NIACC last month — loves to fish.

That’s when he realized his leisurely hobby could turn into dollar signs.

Osier ties and creates fishing flies – the ones used to catch beautiful rainbow trout in the cold water streams here in northern Iowa.

Then he started thinking — why not turn this into a business proposition?

He’s done just that.

“I just got hooked on it and wanted to learn as much about it as I could,” said Osier. “It’s just one of those things where I’d just sit and tie for hours and really get lost in it and lose time. I just wanted to find a way where I could share it with everybody else and maybe make some money doing it.”

Osier, along with 12 other students, received a $500 scholarship at the academy. But Osier also reeled in another $500 in scholarship money for the feasibility and presentation of his marketing idea of selling fishing flies online.

Osier plans on having a website up and running before school starts on August 23. His Comet cross country coach — Ryan Rahmiller — helped lay the groundwork for getting his business started online and pointed Osier in the right direction of a website builder that should work well. He also has a buddy that’s going to help him construct the website.

“He used to be a computer geek,” said Osier, who plans on attending NIACC after his senior year is complete at CCHS. “I’m still getting the foundation built, I guess.”

Osier said he didn’t know much about tackle or fishing in general until Rahmiller introduced him to the enjoyable pastime in the 7th grade.

“He really got me started on that,” said Osier.

Osier at some point plans to go nationwide with his creation and already has a tagline for his flies:  “If I wouldn’t fish it, I don’t want you to.”

What sets Osier’s flies apart from the rest of the industry?

He crafts each one by hand — meticulously honing his craft so each fly doesn’t lose its shape in water.

“For flies, for the most part, they’re all kind of the same,” said Osier. “I just wanted to make sure mine were really quality. I’ve bought flies that were coming apart and I wasn’t happy with them.”

He’s caught many fish with his flies and says they “stay together really nice and look good in the water.”

Osier’s grandparents have a cabin over by Harper’s Ferry on the Mississippi River, where he has had success trout fishing with his own flies. Other spots he likes to go fly fishing are near Decorah and Turtle Creek.

Flies can cost as little as $2 all the way up to $20 or $30 for muskie flies — which Osier also makes. He also creates bass flies as well.

There is still one issue that Osier needs to address and that’s the name of his company.

He’s still working on that.

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