MONMOUTH -- It's that time of year again.

Some of us begin thinking about flushing birds out of covers around the state. Some others among us get a full-on case of whitetail fever, unable to focus on anything but tracks, scent covers and tree stands. Still others can't help but think of the blue-winged olive hatches inducing trout to feed on those waters remaining open to fishing.

But if you're Tim Jackson, when it gets to be this time of year, you're not thinking about anything but lakes canvassed by foot-thick sheets of ice. More specifically, you're thinking of what it's going to take to get fish through the 8-inch holes anglers are going to carve through that ice.

Jackson is the owner of Jack Traps, one of the most prominent manufacturers of ice fishing tackle in the entire world. This year alone, Jackson will ship thousands of handmade tip-ups around the globe -- to Minnesota and California, to Canada, to Austria, Russia and Sweden.

It all started nearly 30 years ago, when Jackson built one set of traps for his own use. From there, it's grown from a business that once consumed an entire floor of his home to the warehouse and retail store that it is now.

"If you'd have told me I would be doing this, I'd have to say no, I never thought it would happen," Jackson said this week as he put the finishing touches on a shipment of more than 1,000 of his Jack Traps for the L.L. Bean retail store in Freeport. "But you know what, people take hunting serious and they take fishing serious. So, they take their gear serious, too."

BUILDING A BETTER MOUSETRAP

Jackson, 52, built that first set of traps not because he didn't necessarily like the equipment he already had, he said, but because of a character trait he inherited from his father.

"My father was always trying to make something a little bit better," Jackson said. "He was looking for a way to make it work a little better or to get the flag to trip a little lighter."

In 1979, Jackson constructed his first traps, a set of five he kept for himself. The next year, a friend helped him build a second set.

"I always just had it for a hobby," Jackson said. "It turned into the hobby that I do now."

Though it sees some type of modification almost annually -- many of which go unnoticed to the public -- the Jack Trap is essentially the same thing it's always been. Oak or ash make up the actual trap itself, while all fasteners, reels and tripping rods are formed from heavy gauge aluminum. Traditionally, the wood is stained in natural oak and ash tones.

Now, though, Jackson offers different trap lengths and reel sizes and custom colors of both traps and line -- from green and orange to pink and fluorescent shades. All of Jackson's traps are fully customizable. If you want a red trap with an orange flag and green line attached to a size 8 hook, you've got it.

The wood is ordered pre-cut to the lengths needed for the traps, and Jackson and his staff still stain the wood themselves and make all the tripper rods, reels and flags themselves.

The process begins almost as soon as the previous ice fishing season ends.

"About the time we start seeing the ice go out in the spring, we start ordering the wood," said Jackson, who opened Jack Traps in 1993 after an injury as a refrigeration mechanic left him unable to work. He expects to sell more than 8,000 traps to individuals and wholesale buyers this winter, citing a 20-25 percent increase in business each year. "We brand the wood (with the Jack Traps logo), punch holes in the center stick and dip them into the finish."

The finished product, to be fair, is not cheap. Individual standard traps, 26-inches in length and with no custom parts, are $34 apiece with a complete set of five retailing for $165. On L.L. Bean's Web site -- where 2,000 of Jackson's traps will be sold this year --the same single standard trap, with line, sells for $45.

But Jackson believes in the quality of his work.

"With the cost of bait what it is today, $8 a dozen in some places," Jackson said, "I can't understand why people would only have $35 in their equipment. It just doesn't make sense to me."

LABOR OF LOVE

How does a basement hobby in the sleepy little town of Monmouth, Maine, turn itself into one of the world's most respected ice-fishing equipment manufacturers? Simple.

Like most things, it takes hard work across long hours.

"I get here at 5:30 every morning and I'm here until 5:30 or 6 every night," said Jackson, who moved into the new store location on Ridge Road in the spring of 2006, and laments how little time he has left for any actual fishing with his traps. "And I can say that every minute I'm here, I love it."

So, too, does anyone that cares about ice fishing at all.

The walls of the retail store are adorned with beautiful mural prints from artist Ed Murdock, paintings displaying real Maine ice fishing scenes from East Grand, Annabessacook and other central Maine honey holes. The Jack Traps are for sale there, as are Jackson's newest innovation, the "Timmer Skimmer" -- which boasts a handle and can double as a camp stove in a pinch without the fear of poisoning from galvanized metal.

There's also anything and everything an ice fisherman needs for the season -- jig poles, sounders, pack baskets and mittens. Jackson's store is more than a place to gear up, it's a place to meet up with other people who love the sport.

"We're strictly ice fishing," Jackson said. "If you need anything, we've got it. I'm pretty proud of that."

In their infancy, Jack Traps usually ended up in the basket of someone Jackson knew. Now, though, he finds excitement in seeing where the next Internet order will come from.

"You get an order from California or Texas, and you start wondering who's getting that set for Christmas," Jackson said. "That's pretty neat. A lot of times, it's probably someone who knows someone here and wants them -- but you never know."

With a reputation that spans the globe, Jack Traps might be the best on the market, but Jackson certainly won't say it, not at the risk of offending other companies.

"Everybody does good work," he said.

But, in an unrelated conversation, he's more than happy to point out his remarkable record of customer satisfaction.

"It is what it is," Jackson says of the ice-fishing equipment business. "Of course, it's a very seasonal thing. But I try to make an A-1 product and not have anything come back to us for any reason. We've been (sold at) Bean's for almost 10 years now, and we've never hand one single trap come back."

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com