Right Said Fred

by Pete Robbins

Fred Roumbanis has this Grapes of Wrath thing all wrong. In Steinbeck's book, the Joad family traveled from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to California in search of riches.

He's going in the opposite direction.

But unlike the Joads, it all seems to be working out for Freddy.

He's fresh off of an Elite Series win at Lake Murray, a hundred grand burning a hole in his pocket, and where is he going for lunch? Arby's, of all places. And as he conducts this interview, his lovely wife Julie is yelling at him that he's going to the wrong Arby's. What, pray tell, makes one Arby's "right" and another "wrong"?

"Um, we're supposed to be meeting some people there," he says sheepishly. A quick U-turn and they're back on track.

He may occasionally stray off the path he's supposed to be on, but when you've got the Midas touch, everything turns out better than expected. At Murray, he grew tired of the game of musical chairs being played on the downlake points and headed way upriver. He put down the swimbaits that everyone else was winding – and that's not easy when you're a Californian at heart – and he picked up a frog colored to his specifications and a wake bait that he designed and that's how he won.

"It's the coolest thing ever when you win like that," he said. "It's better to win on something other than the dock talk. I found something so awesome and I had it all to myself. It just blows me away."

He's got a passel of quality lure sponsors – companies like SnagProof, Ima, Hildebrandt, Reaction Innovations, Zappu, Poes and Lee Sisson – but not all of them are household names. Even if they are well known to hyper-aware fishing fans, they're not always easy to find. So in order to benefit them, as well as his own bottom line, he's started a retail business on the side, www.elitebass.com.

Is he greedy? Not really. He's merely striking while the iron is hot. After all, you don't see Kevin or Denny win a tournament and then sit one out to give someone else a chance. You've gotta strike while the iron is hot. But the retail endeavor is as much a labor of love as it is an entrepreneurial endeavor.

"It started when my father-in-law and I designed a push pole. It's $200 cheaper than anything else out there and it's lighter than the rest of them, too. It has EVA on the handle and a nail shaped head. It's also completely sealed, so it floats. Most importantly, it's complete and ready to go when you get it."

They'll introduce the push pole t dealers this year at ICAST, but they couldn't wait to bring it to the public, so rather than wait another day, they went to the web.

"It's become bigger than we thought it would right off the bat," he said.

That's because in addition to the push poles, he's offering items that can't be found anywhere else. "We don't want to step on the toes of any of the other online shops. We just want to sell really custom, hard-to-find items. For example, we have a guy in Ohio who custom paints lures for us and they're all limited editions. One week there will be bluegill, the next week only crappie. Whenever something new pops up, we'll put it on the hot list on the front page."

He'll also offer a wider variety of certain specialty items than some other retail outlets. For example, many stores carry his signature six inch Reaction Strike Poseidon jerkbaits, but only Fred's shop will carry the five and seven inch sizes.

The Ima Roumba, which was named in his honor and designed pursuant to his instructions, will also be in good supply. It's a wake bait designed based on his experiences growing up on the California Delta, and if you get him on the phone he might just offer up a few customization tips. "I usually replace the back hook with a feathered treble. Sometimes I add a hitchhiker and put on a floating worm. It looks just like a mouse," he said.

Ultimately, the retail business is a family affair. While Fred's name certainly helps get the word out, his mother-in-law and father-in-law do a lot of the labor necessary to keep things running smoothly. But as soon as Fred got home from South Carolina, he didn't even get a minute to himself. Despite a nagging cold he was put to work filling orders and mailing boxes.

"Once the season ends, as long as I'm around, then we'll really make a push to grow," he said.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this is princely Jackson Roumbanis, who was ushered into this world just a year ago on the heels of his father's first win, a BASS Major, also in the Carolinas. Since then, his dad has been putting away every big bass award he's won towards Jackson's college fund, and it's already in the five figures.

"He's got some money now. I just hope someday he can support me," Fred said.

The way things are going, it's a nice thought, but the elder Roumbanis is doing just fine for himself and for his family. He doesn't need the retail side to make a go of it, but at the rate everything's going, young Jackson is going to need to pursue a graduate degree or two in order to tap out the savings dad has set aside for him.