Bomboy Lures, handcrafted in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii since the late 1970s by Bomboy Llanes, come from one of the most familiar faces in modern Kona fishing — a charter captain, taxidermist, and lure maker from a deep island fishing family who, tellingly, only ever trolls his own designs. He came up under his father, tournament-winning captain Kenny Llanes, learning to pour and polish lures as a kid.
His designs lean hard on bait imitation and color — the family's first lure, the Scarface, is shaped and finished to pass for a bonito, while his bullets are tuned to the pink and brown squid that show up off Kona in summer. He hand-signs everything he builds and keeps a catalog north of 35 shapes. Bomboy is a two-time grander catcher, both on lures he made himself, including a 1,258-pound blue at the 2003 Firecracker Open that long stood as the largest blue ever taken in a tournament.
