Some of the best fishing products are from companies other than the largest manufacturers.

The smaller companies sometimes pay attention to details best.

EssFabricating LLC’s sand spikes seem a product like that.

Ed Shimer from EssFabricating, the Hainesport, N.J., company, in Burlington County, a welder and fabricator, makes products including cooler racks, outrodders and the spikes.

He makes the spikes by hand, and his goal is to build spikes that are sturdier than others, such as thinner ones, spikes made from PVC pipe and foldable ones.

“That’s crazy,” he said about foldable spikes.

He builds the spikes, available in 3-foot and 5-foot lengths, with 1-1/2-inch angled aluminum, instead of the usual 1 1/4 inches.

The head is bigger than usual to stand up to getting pounded in the sand, like with a rubber mallet that surf casters use.

The head is coated with a glow-in-the-dark paint that will glow for a limited time after the head is exposed to light.

In his 10 years of making the spikes, he never had a complaint about the sand spikes bending during normal use, like when a big striped bass or shark takes off with the bait.

He uses the spikes on Delaware River to fish the spring run of striped bass, some of the biggest stripers.

At press time, the spikes were available at Hands Too Bait and Tackle in Cape May and a couple of other tackle shops farther north in New Jersey.

That might be less available than some spikes.

Sometimes that’s a good thing.

Shimer can be reached at (609) 261-5633.