December 21, 2015 — Two years ago over Christmas dinner, Maine tuna fisherman Rink Varian aired a favorite gripe: The tuna he caught vastly preferred live bait fish, but he almost never had enough of the little critters on hand. What if someone built a device that could re-animate dead bait fish into effective lures?

Varian’s musings fell on deaf ears season after season, but this time he snagged a partner. Engineer Matthew Borowski, Varian’s family friend, decided to team up with the fisherman build such a device.

This month, a version of the tool Varian dreamed up is finally on sale. It’s called ‘Zombait’ and looks like a giant crayon with a tail. Place it in the mouth of a thawed-out bait fish, toss it in water, and voila, the wriggling electronics inside the fish create the illusion that it’s come alive.

Along the way, Varian and Borowski reeled in Boston project designer Jessy Cusack to join the project and started a company in Medford — Magurobotics — to manufacture the device and sell to recreational and commercial fishermen.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe