Musky 360 Podcast Episode 268: Cold, Cold Muskies

Steven: 

Alright folks, welcome to the Musky 360 podcast. Jaybird. Have you hung your show colors with care about the the Jay Cave there? 

Jaybird: 

No, not yet. Thanks for asking. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, anyway. 

Steven: 

Ohh man, tis the season. No, you know, we're we're almost there. I I had the kind of the the glimpse of hope. You know, me and Jay were looking at the calendar. They're like, OK. We know when Magnus comes out, we're not going to talk about it yet, but we know when the Magnus is showing. We know when the blade planter boards are shown up, so two big cool things. We got another secret Squirrel project working with Mr. Her Beck and. Savage Gear got some things going on here, right? Looking. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

I'm looking at the calendar. It's like as cold as it is. Everybody's like, oh, shut up, Steve. As cold as it is, it's not that far away. It sucks so bad, like okay. February is a short month. 

Jaybird: 

No, it's not. Away, yeah. 

Steven: 

February is a short month. If you're, if you're literally, you're pulled over in the side of the road right now, you're on your way to work and. Like you know what? Gonna end. Get get the gun out of your mouth. Not the day. It's not that far away on spring real kick in the pants yet. The the whole, the whole thing, you know? 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

I'm in the South. I can fish all year. It it's getting close to not being able to freaking out there. Freezing to death just. 

Speaker 

I. Yeah. 

Steven: 

I don't even want to talk about it 'cause it's not funny, but state no. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, I mean, you're hammering out there fishing in, like, late November for us. Mean, yeah. 

Steven: 

Oh, it's no, it's ain't no picnic. Ain't no picnic in in hearing rumors and rumors of lakes that don't freeze freezing. All kinds of Oh yeah. Fun stuff. Anything that's. Just it's wicked, wicked. Had a scary. Like I said, I'm not going to go into it to tear much. Someone go out of the boat. In those conditions. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

Be careful out there. Said. I've said it before. Something going to tell you all if you're going out in the cold, fricking the best thing you can buy are the I call them space blankets. There's aluminum. They're like a. Walmart get a couple of those and make sure you have in, because once you fall into a lake that's all 3940° and you got to go for about a 30 minute run. Didn't fall in, but you have somebody on your boat falling. You better have some stuff on hand. Don't go out on the water sub freezing or even low temps there without kind of a game plan or like an emergency plan I've always. And you want to talk about coming in? Like oh. Yeah man, I do have space blankets. I do have. Tons of hand warmers and all this stuff on hand to to try to make things easier and keep somebody from getting in a big bunch of trouble. And it it man. From personal experience here this week, Jay. When it happens, it happens fast. Just tell you that much so you know. Be prepared. And I used to kind of run roughshod for a lot of years and won't happen. 

Speaker 

Out. 

Steven: 

Won't happen to. Won't happen to one of my clients. I will be dead. You know, so just be paying attention to how I see things are be paying attention to that and then have. 

Jaybird: 

Scary stuff. 

Steven: 

Have an emergency plan. I'm telling you, what's 1 little bag or little box in your compartment and that literally. That was the difference between somebody being in serious trouble, Jay. And and being OK. Is tons of hand warmers. A change of clothes and a pile of. Blankets because you know that that would insulate your heating, your able to get somebody to a car. Get that thing warmed up so we're not. You're not in serious trouble, so enough with the mortality. Jay, I got a vent. I got a vent. Got a vent for him. We don't talk politics on this show, however. You know, everybody know what's going on here. 

Speaker 2 

It kind of struck me. 

Steven: 

We got ripped off Elmer Jensen's platform, part of Elmer Jensen's platform. When he was running for president, was stolen from him. He was going to annex part of Canada so. 

Speaker 1 

I just wanted to bring that. 

Jaybird: 

I that. 

Speaker 1 

I forgot about you know, so. 

Speaker 2 

Point. Yeah, we've been robbed. 

Steven: 

We've they you know. All these people podcast your big thing in politics now. Why? Not not. Why not steal from the musky podcast? Just saying that was that was the Elmer Jensen platform going to take over Canada anyway, moving on. 

Speaker 1 

Bigger and better stuff. 

Speaker 2 

We've been chasing that. 

Steven: 

We've been running our mouths about. Steve, stay. 

Jaybird: 

Elbers tokens for selfish. Here you got to understand too. 

Speaker 1 

Oh, and the others? 

Speaker 2 

Not for selfish reasons. Point. Yeah. 

Jaybird: 

Isn't a political standpoint. 

Speaker 1 

This is like I want. 

Jaybird: 

To able to fish there whenever I want, you know, without any kind of delays in. 

Steven: 

Oh yeah, if we take if we took over Canada be way it be way easier to go up there and go fish. Let's not. 

Jaybird: 

Border and all that. You, Jay. 

Steven: 

Not go down that rabbit. 

Jaybird: 

That's beautiful. 

Steven: 

There's Canadian guys loading their muzzle loaders right now and on whatever. 

Speaker 2 

Don't come up here. 

Steven: 

But not I'm not crawling. I had to bring it up 'cause. It cracked me up, right? 

Jaybird: 

It's fun. 

Steven: 

We're not going down that rabbit hole. Not here to talk. The savantry of a nation but been talking. Giving away some baits. Steven Stache, Jay. Gonna give away some baits here. 

Jaybird: 

OK. 

Steven: 

Probably, but you know, through February and March and then hopefully, you know, get busy, right? Going to be busy. So it's like, OK, do it for a time here. Now, what are we giving away? Some new stuff, some old stuff, some stuff with tooth marks in it, some stuff. You know, I'm not going to throw anymore cuz I'm, you know, got to deal with this. Know there's just stuff. Stuff and stuff and stuff. 

Jaybird: 

OK. 

Steven: 

It's Steve stash. How we gonna do? I thought the easiest way to make it happen is everybody likes writing questions. Been bad about Q and. We're going to try to catch up this week. If you want to win Steve Stache, just write a question, right? Put your put your name in there. You don't have to put your name and address. When we're reading the questions, that's great. And the way this works every week, all I do is just go through the e-mail so. You know I'm not pre reading this stuff and we'll just kind of randomly point the finger at the screen and go bam, you know, I **** and try to. As fair as. It's not about the best question or the funniest question or anything like that. Just kind of, hey, send in a question now kind of enter you into win, Steve Stash. Ah. We might need AI might need a Jingle for that. But you know, just send in your Q&A questions at the app. If you've never done that before. And this is funny, something I. I had a gentleman super nice guy on the boat, had been listening to the podcast forever and was like I didn't know you guided in Tennessee. Like we never never talk. Like, once we I probably I probably said it like. A million years ago, like I never. 

Speaker 2 

I'm not talking about it, right? 

Steven: 

Yeah. I just don't hammer it all day long, but. You know, we don't hammer the. That's why I'm getting a getting at where it's just like. You said it once, so there are literally people that listen to this podcast that don't have the musky 3 app. Just like dude didn't even know my last name. He's listening for two. He, like, literally, didn't know my last name, hadn't put two and two together. So. 

Jaybird: 

OK. 

Steven: 

If you're a listener and you do not have the musky 360 app, you need to download it. That allows you to send questions to the podcast so you can go on the on the app, right? You open the app up. And it will say ask A. It should say ask 2 morons but it says ask a pro. You go there, you put your name, your e-mail, and type that in and you hit send at the bottom. Instantly shows up somewhere in the bat cave or the bait cave here. Able to see your questions. So if you don't have the app, get it tons of great articles, videos and all that fun stuff on there. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, and it's. 

Steven: 

Free and it's. 

Jaybird: 

It's 100% free, Steve. 

Steven: 

There's no like pimple. Is it free? 

Speaker 2 

Boy. 

Steven: 

Has been free since day. There's no like no unlock the special features with, but that parl. Into couple new things I added on the app over the over the cold season. Here you get home off the boat by 6:00. You got time to do stuff, Jay Jay and I have been wrangling with people to get the hook library and it is up and. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

If you go to the app. The Hook Library exists, so you go to the my 360 section and you have the musky hook. So it's, you know, you look here starts with chaos, then Livingston, and then all these brands, so that we've gotten. 

Speaker 

English. 

Steven: 

The information and I know a lot of these and Jane, I could probably guess, but we're waiting to hear it from the the horses mouth. Right. Because we want to know what's being produced right now and then we can keep up with hook changes later. Something that will happen as as we kind of fill out this entire. Uh, entire book library. I'll go back and it'll be alphabetized by by manufacturer. Right now I'm just adding them as they come, if you will. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

So, you know, don't be like I'll have it where it's like Booker, then Beaver or whatever. Know what I'm saying? It'll be. I don't think Booker and Bieber will be Beaver, then Booker, but nonetheless. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

But it will get in an alphabetical order by manufacturer once we end up with a lot more data there which says hey like you know you got some. Northwoods jerk. Like Smitty? You know, he sent his stuff in. 

Jaybird: 

And out. By hand, he can't stop in last week. 

Speaker 1 

But then he then he. 

Steven: 

Yeah. Then you got then the only person that Hannah wrote. Really, he tried to send it, tried to send it by Carrier Donkey. 

Jaybird: 

Yep, little jakey. 

Speaker 1 

Nonetheless. 

Steven: 

You've got, you know, some. These. I know who you. You listen to the podcast, you tell me all. 

Speaker 2 

The hair like that episode or? 

Steven: 

Whatever you got, baits. I don't care who sells them, we sell them. Don't sell. It's the rundown what size? Model. What's the hook? What's the hook brand and we'll end up on the hook. This is a resource for anglers to know exactly what hook would replace. Their. The best. So we'll try to get more and more and more of that done as the data shows up, but that's going to be cool. Also another thing I was kind of kind of stoked about adding. And you go why would you do this? Is just like for triage. 

Jaybird: 

Oh yeah. 

Speaker 1 

I put. 

Steven: 

I added muskie real blow parts or blow outs whatever we call them, right? Which are schematic drawings of most of the popular real. So like there is a schematic of a tranx 400. In the order in which it is assembled. Ah. Right. Why would you need that? You can at least work. So let's say your handle falls off or you you get in there fooling around, or there's an issue. At least have a visual representation. The schematic of how this reel is assembled. So you'll have those. On your phone, something goes wrong with one of your. You've at least got something as a point of reference to kind of work from. If you're doing it on the water fix or you're in camp and you got no options. 

Speaker 2 

You know that's a good idea. 

Steven: 

Yeah, much. It's cool to look at, but I've done it where it's like, oh crap, you know, I. I you know, you feel this, you feel that doing things you shouldn't do or you're trying to fix something? You. It worse because you've assembled things incorrectly. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, prime customer came in Friday and he bought a new reel and exact same thing happened to him. Like on the way out, we're just chatting and he's like, I tried taking one apart. Like, Oh my gosh, you know. He's like he said. I should have known better. Just taking it to a real repair. Service place at the end of end of the season. You'll just get it looked over and lubed right or whatever needs to be done. 

Steven: 

Yeah, a lot of it to the places that come. This will come in really handy. You know, let's say you're something that drives me nuts. Backing up you go to replace a handle on a reel and it's spring loaded underneath the. And so like the star drag and a few springs and washers come off in one fell swoop, right? You know. Know the order and the orientation of these parts and pieces. 

Jaybird: 

There you go. It's super. 

Steven: 

Yeah. So if this is worth having, it's not something going to use every day. It was something I definitely want to add to that. App and you know, once we end up getting say like you know, a new blow apart or blow up for the like Trig 300B or new reels come out. I'll try to make sure we're adding to that as we go. 

Speaker 

Eat. 

Jaybird: 

Just the cool part about the musky 360 app you're adding so much stuff weekly now that if you download the app for the first time, free. 

Speaker 

Chinese. 

Jaybird: 

Make your phone heavier. 

Speaker 1 

That is the guys. 

Steven: 

It's funny, like there's a lot of guys that listen that got it when it first came out and we don't hammer the app too much, but. First came I was like, OK, we got twenty articles, you know, and it's just like how you just scroll forever, which has always been the goal of just amassing all that data and the videos. And you know, you're you can go on YouTube and watch videos all day. Or watch this, but it's like, OK, these are kind of curated. These kind of play, the part opposed to trying to avoid, you know, the Hat Bros. Got my hat off flat and I'm out here. 

Speaker 2 

Whoa. Look at the third. 

Speaker 

What? 

Steven: 

Like tactical videos or? Here's how bait's worker here's how to catch fish, right? People like, well, why isn't that on? We're focused on how to catch fish and how baits work. That's a lot of the avoidance of that. You know, but yeah, it it's. I got some other tricks up my sleeve. Jam working on here. Hopefully. Hopefully, hopefully. Something that I'm that well, I don't want to give it away because if it doesn't happen, I'm not trying to hype it. If I can get it right, it'll be massive for the app as far as on the on the water tool. Something else I forgot about you go to. And this is for for everybody. I would say the least used section that you got home got videos right? I'll speak him. Jay and I have been recording and editing videos for many years now and we do a lot, a lot more instructional than cassette catching one which ends up. I'm filming all the time. Have tons of. They might not be the. Fish it might not be the craziest video, but stuff. Starting to look, if I don't do something with it now, I'll look old. You know, I'm saying like, who was that guy? 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, I know what you're saying. 

Steven: 

So putting up some of these videos I've had in the can for summer news. Are old not. But nobody's ever seen them putting those on the app over the winter is is some musky fun stuff to watch if you get the videos. I I've got two out now. 

Speaker 

What? 

Steven: 

Come out once a week on like Mondays. Of some some footage that's unaired but very cool. Got some interesting stuff in it so. You'll see this pop up on the videos, but if you're not custom there you got home. You got videos. But the 101 section and I I know a lot of people go. 

Speaker 2 

I'm a musky pro. 

Steven: 

I don't even look at the 101, right? 

Speaker 2 

So the 101 section if you're. 

Steven: 

New to muskie fishing? It's kind of like. An. That article or a video that's going to cover a lot of your bare bone basics, right? So. Here's our you know, it's like there's an article on Figure eights from Joe Booker. One needs to read write that. You know, I'm saying, yeah, it's not new, but that pretty much covers your bases. And you got the tools, which is another way get your trolling charge on stuff. But I swapped out. An update where at the top of your 101 I'll say musky ID now. Right. And it is some of the better identification charts from Canada, United States from a bunch of different states that give you the breakdown. You know you could do it on the water if you had. How do you tell the differences between a pure mosquito mosquito? If you're ever struggling and people new to the? Is that a tiger or is it a Pike, right? Heck, some people. Is that a piker as a muskie? Those are on there now, so if you're on. Water. You can pull those up. Which is kind of, you know, handy. You'll have that right there in your pocket as a as a way to hey, is that a Pike as a muskie? It a. Muskie, what is it you know? Just as a reference, we all have our moments. Know everybody starts somewhere and has a different way of approach. Know a? Different. Different. 

Speaker 

Mm. 

Steven: 

That they fish and they start doing it. Like you know that that's a thing. And some. So it was, you know, little facets. Little things add in here. There, Jay. Other than that, the bash. July 19th. Minocqua WI. 

Jaybird: 

Saturday, July 19th, Manoqua, Wisconsin. 

Steven: 

Jay will be there. That's the only confirmed appearance so far. 

Jaybird: 

That's the only one. 

Steven: 

Featuring jse. That's. 

Jaybird: 

Foot. 

Steven: 

I've not even committed yet, Jay. 

Jaybird: 

Committed. 

Steven: 

Featuring JSC. 

Speaker 2 

Cricket, cricket, cricket. 

Speaker 1 

And others. 

Jaybird: 

I think it's the fifth one, isn't it? 

Steven: 

Got that? I don't know. 

Jaybird: 

I think it's the 5th bash right around there. 

Steven: 

I've been on the boat every day since the first one, so I really don't know, you know. 

Jaybird: 

Jealous. 

Speaker 1 

Well, that'll be cool. 

Steven: 

We got vendors and. It's always a good time if you've not done. Speaking of that kind of lines up weird with my my going to go up to the great White North. If you're coming to the bash, I'll have some time. Pretty much after the bash, me and Jay will have some time there but. You if you're looking to. To hit the water after the bash and you want to go out. Do retain a Wisconsin guide license, Jay. So give me a holler if you're doing that. So July 19th, pretty much I'll be up there for probably the majority of the week after that and a little bit before. If you wanted to hit it and last year I didn't get to do that per se. Me and Jay got sicker than ****. 

Jaybird: 

It was awful. 

Steven: 

We were talking about. That. Just the other day. I was like. Man, he like. There was no footage like Wisconsin footage really, right. Like, why is there no video from this? Right. And I was asking him like. Why did we not realize a lady neighbor Steven basement for like a week? Yeah, we're sick, but. Moving on, that will be. So July 19th will be the bash. Will have. Plenty announcements on that, but we've been getting asked people asking when's the bash? When's the bash? The bash. A lot of people. Kind of plan. Bopping in and hitting that thing and showing up and showing out Jay. 

Jaybird: 

Did I try to? A reservation. Now you're coming up. 

Steven: 

Yeah, you know. 

Speaker 

Yep. 

Jaybird: 

It's a busy time of the summer for minocqua. 

Steven: 

You know, Lynn's Auto Center will be leaving the cars unlocked if you just want to sleep in one. Night before. That'd be nice. OK. Random guys from Pennsylvania sleeping in cars and lens parking lot. 

Speaker 2 

We got a bunch of musky vagrants over here. 

Steven: 

Just got just beer cans everywhere and a bunch of crusty muskies. 

Jaybird: 

That's must be why they put up. High fence last summer. 

Steven: 

Yeah, have guys over there sleeping and John Bingham doing Donuts around the place, and he's big rig. Wheelies. Drop him wheelies as it turns into Mad Max and the Lynns parking lot. Lynns parking lot the muskie shop. A. No, just guys pregaming it for the. I've seen that like you just see every random year to see that one can laying in the grass, somebody pounding one on their way. Anyway, it's family friendly up there at the bash. The lens parking lot. Rules. No rules, Jeff. 

Speaker 2 

I. 

Steven: 

Jeez, guys, don't get me in trouble over there like those guys. 

Speaker 1 

Oh, but yeah, check it out. 

Steven: 

So got new videos on the. You got those new features you got the bash and you can freaking write in a question. Good, bad or ugly? And when Steve stash? 

Jaybird: 

Hey, yeah, I've got my my heralded 2025 musky gear video coming out next week. 

Steven: 

Nice. That is a big one. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, just finish it. It's. 

Steven: 

That's the mega ton mega load the mother load. 

Speaker 1 

Controlling. 

Steven: 

Jays big load video of the year. 

Jaybird: 

Yep, a lot of surprises in it too. 

Steven: 

Yeah. 

Jaybird: 

Can't reveal yet? Surprise. 

Steven: 

Who shot Joe? It's musky baits, *******. 

Speaker 1 

Whoa, didn't see that coming. 

Speaker 

If you murder. 

Steven: 

Someone in the middle of the video? I'll, I'll. 

Jaybird: 

No, no, that's against YouTube's rules. 

Speaker 2 

OK. 

Jaybird: 

Can't do. So you know, I'd hear the rules. 

Steven: 

You know, a lot of shocking twists and surprises in this video now. That is a very, very heralded and hyped video that gets a lot, gets a lot of the clicks and the kids where the kids do on the Internet nowadays, Jay, they're in their, they're in their tick tick talking and locking and. Liking and and thumbs up and. 

Jaybird: 

Whatever, tick tock. I. Stick Tocks back today. 

Speaker 

Hmm. 

Jaybird: 

Well, she's back. Yeah, we're on rumble now. 

Speaker 

Hold. 

Jaybird: 

That platform, I've been putting some videos on there too, yeah. 

Steven: 

We're on rumble with your. It's the president of the inner NRA local chapter, J. Freaking. You're freaking what's on? Rumble a bunch of fuds that knockout people. 

Jaybird: 

I'm not sure. 

Steven: 

They get a bunch of fuds that go to the gun range. To call the ATF on. 

Speaker 2 

I think these boys got a machine. They firing more than one round every 10 seconds. 

Steven: 

You know what a FUD is, right? 

Jaybird: 

No, no, I don't actually. 

Steven: 

Oh, just go to a. Range. It's always some guy, just some, you know. They'll go farts, you know. 

Speaker 2 

That looks like a tactical weapon to me. 

Speaker 

Anyway. 

Steven: 

God. OK, maybe back to muskie fishing. Now that video is cool, he kind of announces every year you got one thing that was cool, though. Damn, we're just. Sorry folks, we'll get to the Q&A in a second. Jay sends me a picture from the sorting area at the musky shop, right? They've expanded. They have the sorting area there. Where they shipping and receiving department if you will. It's a trailer beside the building, but nonetheless we like to pretend. And what did you get, Jay? 

Jaybird: 

We got surprises today. 

Steven: 

Gigant. 

Jaybird: 

32 boxes, yeah. 

Steven: 

Babies, they're going to be coming here pretty soon. 

Speaker 2 

Sign up while you can. 

Steven: 

It's not as soon as you think, but but soon. Get on that. J. The human oh. 

Jaybird: 

And it was. It was cold, Steve. That's why I was giving you. 

Speaker 2 

Flack, you know. 

Jaybird: 

It's come even it was cold. 

Speaker 1 

It's cold. 

Speaker 

9 below. 

Jaybird: 

It's at noon. 

Steven: 

You should be you know. I have no if you're a Midwesterner and you're complaining about it and you're like 18. 

Jaybird: 

It's bad. 

Steven: 

You're you're a legal age. Can leave that. No one can listen folk. No one. Stop you if you're an adult to not live there. OK, you can leave. You know what's coming every winter you can leave. 

Speaker 2 

Anyway, jade like why? Why you complain now when it turns this **** down here? This I have. I have a fight when it's 19 versus -9. 

Speaker 1 

I have. 

Jaybird: 

I did down the Tennessee Vall. 

Speaker 1 

I voted. 

Steven: 

I voted with my frickin feet, right? 

Speaker 

EY what? 

Steven: 

I voted with my feet. I. My ground is what I'm saying, right? So I am. 

Jaybird: 

Oh. 

Steven: 

I am here. 

Speaker 

Hmm. 

Steven: 

For a reason now, when this when this **** weather shows up, I have every right to complain. 

Jaybird: 

America West. 

Steven: 

When you were, when you're a grown *** man and you choose to live in the frozen tundra, that's on you. 

Speaker 

Did you? 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, I. 

Speaker 1 

Yes, making good eyes exact. 

Jaybird: 

But it's making good ice since they say that's what they always say on the. Is the. 

Speaker 2 

Is that well, it's making good ice. 

Jaybird: 

It's it's like this byproduct of. 

Steven: 

No. 

Jaybird: 

You know something really horrible happening. To like make light of it. But it's making good. It's 26 below, right? Air temp. You don't want to know the wind chill. 

Speaker 1 

Oh man. 

Steven: 

I'm not. 

Jaybird: 

Maybe open the snowbill trails in philosophy too, for the first time in two years. 

Steven: 

What? What? What great joys to look forward to. 

Speaker 

You know what? 

Jaybird: 

Well, hey, yeah, I'm getting off. 

Steven: 

You can. 

Speaker 2 

You can. 

Steven: 

You can go out you. 

Jaybird: 

Better. Believe neighbor Steve just rolled in. He's going riding as soon as it gets above 0. 

Steven: 

You can. Out there and freeze your *** off and. And pay for the gas. 

Jaybird: 

You go. 

Speaker 2 

No, no. If the if the weather continues like I'm just going. 

Steven: 

To move to Florida, I'm over this **** anyway. 

Jaybird: 

So a lot of people do, Steve. Call them snow birds. 

Steven: 

Freaking Boca ratones Call My Name anyway. 

Jaybird: 

Rock falling down in Tennessee. 

Speaker 1 

Jay. 

Steven: 

What do they? 

Jaybird: 

Call them in. Call what the people that moved. 

Steven: 

Smart. 

Jaybird: 

Oh, there you go. 

Steven: 

Now the people that move from the Midwest. I'll tell you this one though. We cut the people that moved from like the upper Midwest or Chicago line to area to Florida. We call them halfbacks, right? 

Speaker 

OK. 

Steven: 

They moved from the upper Midwest to Florida and they moved half the way back because they missed their grandkids and they end up in Tennessee. We call them halfbacks. 

Speaker 2 

Never heard that. 

Steven: 

One, it's a real thing. It literally is. There's a couple like retirement communities here. They're. You know, basically you live in Cook County. You say your house, you moved to Florida. This sucks. You move to Tennessee, you. You know, it's closer to family, so you're half back anyway. Jacob. What's the best way to fish for muskies during the spring, say late April? Or the muskies be? Or would the muskies be spawning you know where? Basically asking where are they. Some really basic kind of early stuff geared towards late April. Jacob, a few factors that come into play. I'm guessing you might be. Outside of the upper Midwest, because generally seasons not going to open up there J until when. 3rd week of. 

Speaker 

Good. 

Jaybird: 

Northern half northern third of Wisconsin opens the last weekend of of May and oh, a week later in Minnesota, so very late. 

Speaker 2 

Well, have you not noticed? 

Steven: 

Have you not noticed how God and government is just punishing you for living there? See, you can only have 4. 

Jaybird: 

You've seen the whole thing right now. 

Steven: 

Can. Only have fun for this much of the year. 

Jaybird: 

They loved close seasons in Wisconsin. 

Steven: 

Close the seasons and then you're trapped in a mortal icy hell. The rest making good ice. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, but. 

Jaybird: 

Right now, skies. 

Speaker 1 

We're Mexican. Good. 

Steven: 

I always on sunny side look on the Sunnyside when it's that Upper Midwest resilience, Jay. But anyway, so late April. Generally in the in the upper portion of of the musky habitat range, those critters are probably going to be spawning, going through that. So they will be exceptionally shallow and they'll be located in the spawning flats. You'll hear us repeatedly say come this spring to look on the northern side of inland lakes especially. You know Illinois up because they get the most sun. Yada. And that's going to be the warmest. So springtime is a time to look for warm water. Because in the early spring it takes a lot of time for enough solar energy to warm up that entire body of water. The shell has warm faster, so shallow water and what do we use now? To use every bait class. Is a viable option in shallow. But now we got consider running depth OK. So running depth is a. Also, we need to consider size class. OK so you could catch fish on quote UN quote big rubber baits, but it's regular size bulldog or an alien eel or a micro Medusa. Or little. So we want to go with our smaller baits earlier in the year is everybody kind of got a vibe for that? So we went small baits and we want them to be able to function in generally less than 6 feet of water. That's what we're looking. So yeah, blades, top water, rubber, swim baits, they're all there, back to protect. It would be big for for season up, but you seem like the Magnus or you know, your swimming dog, stuff like that. They could be effective depending on the size. Of the fish. But you know, I think the classic that time time of year is going to be your lipless crankbaits like your rattle trap and the the Joe Buca rattler, your maps giant killer. But you could go as big as like single sevens a lot of times really early season. Little tiny top waters that's going to be your game plan go shallow. Small. 

Speaker 

Go. 

Steven: 

I don't know, Jay. Anything else? 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Jaybird: 

Would you say if? 

Steven: 

You when Jays fishing April muskies in Minocqua. He's. 

Jaybird: 

Illegally. 

Steven: 

What lakes are you on and Jesus? 

Jaybird: 

Well, one thing if if you have the ability to check, you know, a lakes progress when the ice is going out. Because I mean, the general rule of thumb is North End of the lake, you know, gets more sunlight, more direct sunlight and warms up faster, you know. 

Steven: 

If not, if you start a wildfire. 

Jaybird: 

Check out the. You know what certain likes of springs? Certain lakes have you know river or stream in this too, so that that area could. Off on the South end, perhaps, and way before. And you know, if you didn't notice that happening. You might not. You know, you might not OverDrive over there just to see that, you know, hey, you know, Waters, you know, 3/4 of a degree warmer over here, unexpected 'cause. The sun's not hitting at it. Now. So you might find out you know a little bit of trick there that might provide good spawning grounds. Good early season habitat for them, yeah. 

Steven: 

You say that, and this goes for. About anywhere I tend to like moving water in the early part of the year, far more than. Reservoirs and legs. 

Speaker 

Mm. 

Steven: 

You know, you get this lethargic lake. Fish are lazy. They got it. Got it too. They're living in that Penthouse apartment, right where? Here, where the little scummy river fish that have to fight current. And they're just scratching out of living, you know, they're the. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

They're the ******** of the Muskie muskie world. They're the peasants, the peons. They got to work harder. And generally, patterning early season fish is far easier on moving water. You know they're going to slip out of the edges of. So, like okay, they were in deep holes over the winter and they move to the outside edges of those, right? 

Speaker 

Push. 

Speaker 2 

Okay wow. 

Steven: 

Way harder, you know, or they move into any back waters. So eddies are going to warm up obviously faster. That slack water warms up way faster. Any little backwashes or anything? Because usually spawning areas on rivers are very limited. Makes. Makes your life really easy, so I tend to tend to gravitate towards moving water in the early year. And then when things kind of me, they kind of wash out. Late spring, early summer is when lakes become a thing, because a lot of times you'll see Lake Fish. It doesn't take a lot to turn them off in the early part of the year. Just the littlest cold snap over the night. There's you're they're done for two days, right? Little changes have big impacts, where on rivers are like my screw it, we can only be we can only be so many places. And generally, the smaller, the smaller the river, the. Better, right? So. In you can pull some big fish and that's the cool thing is in the early part of the year, nobody's out there, you know. How many people, Jay, are on Wisconsin rivers moving water? Season opener for. You know you don't see them. 

Jaybird: 

If they are. They are. I can almost guarantee their walleye fishing. 

Steven: 

Yeah. Now I'm saying how many are on? 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, there you go. 

Steven: 

How are moving water on musky opener in Wisconsin? Many no. 

Speaker 

OK. 

Jaybird: 

There no, I agree. 

Steven: 

That that's not a thing where? You know you you've got some big opportunity there and it really. You're you've got more muskie activity and far less pressure for a good minute when you get to a moving water scenario in the early part of the year, right 'cause you want happens Jay. It's like freaking something overtakes them. The moronic masses now go. It's spring. Let's get our boats out right now. There and it's the it's the opening freaking scene from Jaws when they put the bounty on the. Dark. Right every. Homer and Larry and Terry's out there, just froth in the water. Up. You know, it kind of just takes that takes the whole experience down. Know you're. You're fighting boat traffic. Fighting, everybody getting. 

Jaybird: 

Where these people go the rest of the. 

Steven: 

Season I can tell you where I think they can go. That's where they can go anyway. From incomplete. It'll help you if you're able to do that. You'll score higher on the LSAT, Craig says. I'm in Indiana. Plan on getting out of soon. I plan on getting out as soon as the ice is gone. What? The state or. 

Jaybird: 

She's getting out of state. 

Steven: 

I'm turning 18. 

Speaker 2 

He's done. 

Speaker 1 

I'm leaving the Hoosiers. 

Steven: 

I'm getting out of here, boys. Anyway, he wants to get out soon. Ice is gone. What should he be doing that early in the year? Still really cold, so you know Indiana ice out. Sounds like a country song. But that's going to happen way, way sooner than so, who back to this? Almost connects to what we were just talking about there, but you know. Do. They don't have as much availability of water, so you're stuck on XY and Z reservoir or you know, same thing I deal with. Not like you just jump in the truck and hit 4 bodies water. So you're. What you got again? We're going to look for warmer water, especially with those reservoirs entering water, entering water, entering water. Right. Anything that's a big flooded flat, anything that's going to be warmer. You got to really trust your temp gauge that time. A year and be looking for their shallow zones. 

Speaker 

The. 

Steven: 

He's saying in the operative thing is this is kind of like the early thing that you could do in the UPJ where there's no close season in Michigan and some guys will go up and hit the the Upper Peninsula and stuff. You're on a pre spawn bite. Right. So the ice is off and you're in a pretty spun bite. We we kind of went big, big, big, big. Pulse. The ice and we are right back to big before the spawn happens. So I sat in. I don't know exactly what buddy I wanna, but good rule of thumb they haven't spawned. Know they haven't spawned yet. Got cold? It's just broken up. What are they doing pre? They're staging in the deep brakes or the mid brakes in the deep water adjacent from the spawning area. Anticipating that, and Musk. Generally tightly congregated in those reservoir scenarios already. So big baits, big trolling baits for that duration of time until it starts creeping up way warmer in the shallows. So you kind of have this pause button and nothing. Nothing necessarily changed from the last time you're on the water and it froze up to the time. Got out. Again, right so. You're going to have deep water fish. Going to have suspended. You're going to have open water fish adjacent to covering structure. Generally a little bit congregated more towards what will end up being the spawning areas. 

Speaker 

You're. 

Steven: 

Going to find a high density of fish and a little bit of water that kind of provides the whole shoot mess because the one thing about winter everything consolidate. Like everything gets tighter. Schools abate far more. Far more densely packed, far more numerous. So you're going to have tight bite windows, just like you hear about late season. It's the same as the late season. The patterns, not that. It's just the the date on the calendars changed a little bit and your daylight link the length of daylights change. So that's what I would be looking at. Then you got to kind of gauge there's going to be a time when that pattern falls apart. Into that spawn zone. But they're going to be eating and they're going to be eating pretty heavily. Leading up to that, Casey. Hey, Stephen, Jay. Steve, can you go in more depth on your family combo line tip and what flies you use? What are your fly fishing tactics for Muskies? How exciting. JJ asleep already. I. The basics of what I'm using real quick we do. And again, if you're ever feeling squirrely, man fly fishing is it? Talked about early season right back to it. It's a heck of a way to pick up super negative neutral muskies. In the early part of the year. Right, I don't recommend. Fishing for muskies. On for fish that are a mid depth zones or deep right. To me, this is the way I implement the tactic. I'm sure there's some guy out there where I fish them 40 feet down. I don't care what I do. Telling you what I do. Use it. As a superbly subtle means to get eats from Muskies that are in shallow or slightly, you know, 5 feet, 6 feet, whatever. Yeah, 10 gauge. It's subtle. It's small. Right. And it's different. That's the ball game for me now. Moving water, small river creeks. Money, right, it's. It's a pain in the **** to. You've got overhanging trees, but you've got clearance. It can pick up a lot of fish because the the current is going to aid to those presentations. What I'm throwing. On about the sneeze. I apologize guys. Oh, let me pause it, Jay. Sorry, good old, violent sneeze there. What I'm doing in this scenario is, like I said, is shallow water moving water. My setup is pretty basic. Run two different setups. I'm throwing A10 weight with with a 11/12 reel just for the the bigger spool. Rio. What is that? I can't. Just. It's like their. It's their their salt water line. To be more. Affordable opposed, like their musky line and easier to get. It's like. The 10 weight Rio as far as leader and Tippet you're going to vomit when I say this because I'm not like a traditional fly angler. What I'm doing is I'm making myself about a 30 inch flatocarbon leader and I am crimping that on. To my welded loop and then I use a small snap because guess what, Muskies don't give a rat's *** about your fly line leader tip. They don't care. They don't care about the seven aughts on conventional baits. You're not going to catch more muskies. Because you got a tapered leader that goes down to, oh, I got a £2 tip. I ain't wasting my time, boys, right? I'm putting a 30 inch freaking piece of fluorocarbon there on a snap because it's a must. And I don't care. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

So that's kinda my setup. I will throw 6 inch streamers generally on A8 weight, so I just have a cheap old 8 weight set up. The best bang for the buck. Here's my problem. I'm not hucking some super expensive fly rods. When I'm guiding on the fly, what you do quite regularly we are using. Anything from like a reading predator to there's fly rods on Amazon that are like 10 white fly rods that are 80 bucks. That will get the job done. I I my rule when it comes to fly fishing equipment is the rod's gonna break on a big muskie. The real doesn't do. Let's spend good money on good line, right? And it's kind of like if you ever play guitar like, you know, cheap guitar with good pickups usually sounds pretty damn good, right? You know, if you buy a cheap car, you buy a cheap car J and put a turbo engine in it. It'll be a fast car. Whether it's meant to be or not. At inexpensive fly rod fly reel means nothing when your musky fishing. You're not going to reel them in, you're basically hand fighting these. Things spend your money on your. Spend your money on your flies as far as the flies the muskie shop. I don't know if we've restocked Jay, but we have some flies. Kind of picked. I'm generally going with smaller size stuff, so Beaufort section streamers. There's a there's a thing called a sex dungeon. An actual name, not. The Jays basement. So the sex dungeon is is one that I like to throw in purple, pink or black. Buford's. Of any. Typically brown, pink. Obviously black flies are never going to be bad. And there's some some really cheap 6 inch stuff out there, and I think that's the opportunities missed because as a guide, I do not want to go out there and throw a freaking 12 inch mop head all day, right? Don't want to throw this big, heavy fly? I want something that. Clients and myself can can get out. We can articulate it and we can pick up these negative neutral fish more so than looking for the crazy one that wants some big funky flock. To me, it's like the decision I make every day. Are we casting, trolling, jigging or you add in the fourth X Factor fly fishing well? On a sliding scale, from best conditions to the ********* best conditions, we are throwing blades in top water, right? Then we're to not quite great. We're doing crankbaits and jerk baits. Then we're doing gliders. Then we kind of transitioned from all that crap to worse, worse, worse into, like, are we trolling or jigging right? The hierarchy of what? The most effective on a sliding scale of good conditions. Good musky activity to bad. I can overcome some of the worst scenarios with a family rod when Muskies are up shallow, but they won't do anything. They're highly pressured. They're not seeing flies, I promise you that. You know, you got to one of these metro frickin lakes where 100 boats are out there every weekend and pick them up on a fly rod. Not seeing flies? They're just not. You just can't strip the thing fast enough. So 68 inch stuff. Nothing too. I don't want to. Whack my shoulder out any more than it is. I typically have a a pretty firm grasp or a concept at this point that. 6 to 8 inches about a sufficient musky bait for all purposes, whether it be. Know anything? From Crankbaits you know I'm. I'm really. Maybe it's an old guy thing. I'm not old yet, but maybe it's like, right. You know, I don't want to throw pounders anymore. Throw a regular bulldog or stuff like this for me. Going. I'm catching small ones and I'm catching big ones on that mid range stuff, so that's where I kind of lay. There, as far as tactics. On the fly, rod. Something that I'll say tactfully everything the. It's the same crap for getting. You got to get where the Muskies are, right? We're not reinventing patterning. We're not inventing structure. There's a couple things we are inventing reinventing tactically. First and foremost is boat control, right? If your boat control is bad as a conventional angler, you're going to suffer immensely fly fishing. Right, so you need exceptionally good boat control so that your boat control is not negatively influencing your. So if your boat's drifting too fast and that means you're stripping your stuff too fast and now it's not working. So bok bok controls a super, super important thing. Secondly, cleaning your deck off if Jay, if you ever notice on my boat, everything is removable. Everything it can all come up and that allows me to clean the front and back deck of my boat up, so there's nothing. That our main line can get get hung up on while we're fly casting. That's that's pretty huge. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, good point. Good point. 

Steven: 

Yeah. Tactically though, one thing that I'm I'm looking at. Aside from presentation, I guess my tactic, but more of an approach. Is I'm coming in to areas stealthily. Right. If I'm approaching Muskies that are already negative neutral and you go ahead and they care about the boat or not, I'm talking these things don't want to do anything. Right. You know, I might just come sliding in real nice and quiet. And I have this pole in my boat. I just call it a lure knocker. But I have a 20 foot fiberglass pole that it's not 20 feet long, but it extends, you know, so it's 10 foot and extends to 20 that I used to remove trolling baits and casting baits, but it's also my push pole when we're flying. So I will hold the boat steady instead of using a shallow water anchor like one of the talons are using like my spot lock. I'm not going to try to use spot lock and finesse flies in front of Muskies. 

Jaybird: 

You're trying to limit the amount that that troll motor's going. On and. At Power 9, there you go. 

Steven: 

To I don't have enough vibration. That's the thing. I don't have enough vibrational profile with a fly to overcome that. 

Speaker 2 

Can you give me? 

Steven: 

I want to stand out. It's noise. It's undue, unnecessary noise in this scenario, right? If I'm on a if my total depth below the transom 6 to 8 feet, I've got a extendable pole I can slide up in there like we're bone fishing. Now I can hold the boat steady. My guy can cast. Right. And we have we're completely stationary. Not worried about the drift? Right. So the wind or current drift is not affecting my fly presentation. My trolling motor is not affecting it vibrationally and we came in there really quiet. That tends to help when we're dealing with negative neutral fish, so. When we're throwing conventional stuff again, we don't have to be. Yeah, 'cause, you got freaking double 10s that are like a they're making a ton of vibration. Right opposed to you get your boats rattling around. You're coming in the wrong spot. Locking all this stuff. 

Speaker 

Mm. 

Steven: 

I would rather come in there and just be really stealthy when we're fly fishing. Again, from the demeanor of the fish generally and from the demeanor or from the standpoint of of being able to stand out, that's my approach. That's not every time. If I'm on a river that's really moving. Yeah, I'm on the trolling motor. But if we're in backwaters and shallow waters, I'm sneaking in there. We're going in there with conventional. I don't care. It's. But if this kind of approach with the fly rod again. Taking my. Entire leader set up to about 2430 inches of just literally up £100 fluorocarp. 1. Right. I am way better control on my casting and I don't have a bunch of garbage making up to the eyelid of my fly rod to do my figure. I don't have anything like ticking my knots. I don't have any of this garbage. Know immediately there's my leader and I have really good control and what you'll see because I have these really silly long fly leaders thinking we got to have this firmus. It's dumb and I have better figure eights with flower and the one the one last thing I'll leave you with is is when you are working a family and a Figure 8, right? What I'm doing is I'm holding the foregrip of the flat rod and I'm feeding line, so I'll pull the line. Jerking the line 10 to 12 inches as I'm sweeping the rod and then giving it slacks. Pulling the fly back into the rod repeatedly. Right, so I basically I pull the rod, I pull the flight, then move the rod and then. So I'm creating jerk motion as much as I can in the fly because you'll see guys come in and they're trying to get the fly to work. By doing the tippy taps with the. Well, the rod's not stiff enough to really articulate action, so I'm more focused on getting the action from popping the line and then you know, so as you move the the rod forward, you've you've taken the slack out and you pop it and then keep if you. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

I'm pulling. I'm popping the. Don't try to pop the. You're not going to get anything done because the line doesn't have have give or flex per SE, but the backbone of a fly rod is really wimpy compared to a casting rod. So you've got to. Action with your stripping hand there. Enough about that. 

Jaybird: 

And you and. And you can point the rod straight at at the at the presentation while you're popping it with your. 

Steven: 

And there you go. There you go. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's great too. 

Steven: 

The other thing I'd say one more thing, if you're going to fly fish for Musk, he strips. You have to be good at strip setting and that's the one thing people got to work on, and if anything I've seen. I can get the bite on a fly rod for clients and myself. The difference between landing that fish and not is can you strip set? And you got to train yourself to not lift that rod. I've heard people and I again, I I do not care what your opinion is on fly fishing, by the way. Right. OK for the guys. Well, water loading isn't. I'm going to stick that rod down 5 feet if I need to bait down 5 feet. With you, right? I don't care about. I'm not a purist, is what I'm getting at Jay, right? So he's got. For me, if if I'm struggling, I'm having a day or have a client that's not comfortable with strip setting. Put that rod tip in the water. Immediately you make your cast and then drop that rod tip so you don't have that. That knee jerk to do the trout set right. Have that rod down and say when he hits you can by the time you you can almost correct yourself. You go oh crap, don't do that. And you pull back, right instead of if it if it's level with your chest and you're stripping line right there you feel. Oh, I got to set the hook up. Have your freaking rod in the water so by the time you pop about halfway you you can. You still got a chance to strip that you can train yourself not to. A hook set and strips it by jamming your rod tip in the water until you get it down. Those are just my takes on. I suck at fly fishing, but we catch a lot of muskies, you know, I'm saying I'm not a traditionalist at all. Give a. Don't give a **** if you. If you're traditionalist, that's fine. That's on you. We put them in the net. Kinda hybridizing their bastardizing fly fishing. By by taking a little bit more of approach of conventional. But anyway, Mitch, what are what are the benefits of the new tranx 300? I already have the original 300 and love it. Is this like a upgrade or a replacement? Is it worth just grabbing? Is it that much better than the one already have, Jay? The You're the tranks. I haven't had one in my hand. 

Jaybird: 

Well, it's a replacement and an. That's the cool thing. And the main thing for me is that frame the frame is excellent. You know, it's this, you know. One piece aluminum frame that is incredibly rigid and that just is going to improve. All aspects of the game for that real, and whether it's longevity and smoothness. And you know, it's just less vibration and and movement in the gears and all the parts that are in there with a rigid frame versus you know a lot of a lot of reels that are coming out these days are extremely light and there's a lot of, Sy. Components to them. And you know, you know, one drawback to that is, is lack of rigidity in the frame. You know, it's not the. Prettiest thing to talk about in the world, but you know, when you build something with that kind of feature, it's it's you're going to notice it and and it's going to last and you know, perform smoothly longer than other reels that don't incorporate that type of. You know technology, so. The other. Point with that is the SVS on the. Fly kind of. Dialing in you're you're breaking with that. You're casting and breaking. Control is. You can take the face dial off really quickly. And snap in or snap out a lot of, you know, some of the weights. Probably a dozen or more of them. Everyone seen those? You know, they're they're in a lot of different reels. Bass reels too, for a lot of years, you know. But in the past. Normally you pop them in or out. You close the reel, you screw it down and all that jazz, and then you live with it. You. I want to fine tune this a little bit more and and this will come in handy for lighter baits. You know this is a. Super light small reel so it wouldn't be my. 300B drinks would not be be my choice for throwing pounders. You know that's that's what the big torquey reels are for this thing. Comes high speed or normal 3031 inches or 41 inches per turn? I believe are the two options and. You know, it's excellent for lighter to moderate weight stuff, but again you can fine tune your your presentation on the fly. A dial. That isn't going to get. It's something you have to push down and turn on. Know what I? It's not exposed like in the past. Some rules have had line out alarms that if you're not careful. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Jaybird: 

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, you'll palm it wrong. 

Speaker 1 

Well, that's cool. Whatever you think. 

Jaybird: 

It'll it'll. It'll go. So, Bill, this is this is hidden enough that. 

Speaker 1 

Delete. 

Jaybird: 

It's not going to go off accidentally changed on you. 

Speaker 2 

Do you think? 

Steven: 

Do you think from you playing with him now and all that stuff? I mean, is it is if you already have a working tranx 300, is it like that much of a difference to just pop off on it now or do you wait till it's blown up? 

Jaybird: 

You're saying upgrade now or wait. 

Steven: 

European yeah. 

Jaybird: 

Drastic night and day? Probably not. 

Steven: 

Probably not. 

Jaybird: 

Night and day difference. You. You. You're going to pick one up, you're going to, you're going to reel it, and you might put it on a rod and and see how it fits on on your favorite rod, you know. All have kind of like different real heights to them and different. Once they're on there with whatever type of trigger system you have on your rod. You're going to go, oh, man, this thing just, you know, liquid smooth and water. And you know that that low profile, you know sits so well if you pull in the real, it's just it's extremely comfortable. 

Speaker 

Today I am. 

Speaker 2 

Well, that's that's the thing had. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah. I mean, it's a great wheel. The price is the. They didn't go up at all, so hey. 

Steven: 

Yeah, Tranx is already. That's why I was asking because the. It's not like you know, so you have. That's why I was asking you, letting you run it up anyway. 

Speaker 1 

Right, you know. 

Steven: 

Greg, I love jig and Muskies with bondies. There any good other good options? I've tried fuzzies and I but I fished current what you guys think. OK, so if you don't know what a fuzzy does it is. Is is basically a metal blade bait. They're not necessarily heavy, I they're just a couple. Are they 3? They're not heavy at all. They can be helpful. If you want to re weight them because the thing with the Bondi Bay, if I'm correct, they're 8 oz off the top of my head. I think it's 8 oz bag. Am I right, Jay? You know. 

Jaybird: 

An original body. 

Steven: 

Yeah, there's all in your body. 

Jaybird: 

Oh, I don't think it's quite that heavy, but I'm. 

Steven: 

Are they? Guessing. Let look. 

Speaker 2 

Me. Me. You know what we we've got. 

Jaybird: 

A box coming where two boxes or something coming from John. 

Steven: 

Johnny, look here. 

Jaybird: 

What did he do? That it's just like, yeah, they they've been hard to get OK. 

Steven: 

77.2. 7.2. So you got a 7.2 ounce bait. It's a far heavier bait than than a fuzzy does it? A different they're just different, right? That. 

Jaybird: 

The infant, these are all they're soft plastic. 

Steven: 

I understood, but more so he's asking about current because that's the thing when it comes to current a vibrating bait. It's going to get picked up by the current. The the bond is more of a dead weight, if you will. Going to hit hit faster. There's not a lot of other. You have the chaos, Pegasus, but what you'll notice with Pegasus. This is the lack of a. How to pick what are they even with? Can't ever man. I love. I love chaos tackle, but one of the hardest things for me, Jay, building the Muskie shop website was putting in all the misspellings. Like. Medusa. Poseidon, Pegasus. They're all spelt differently than they would be and you know. Same thing. 

Jaybird: 

PAG. Yeah, they're they're quite a bit lighter unless innovations has one, too. That ribbon dog deal. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, I got. 

Steven: 

5555.5 oz on that. It ribbon dog. What is that one right? Because really, with if you're fishing in current, which a lot of jiggers are, it's a weight thing. 7 oz on the rippin dog OK. You go. Never really paid attention to that. So you got 7 oz. close enough for jazz. Two different hook locations and a rear blade. 

Speaker 1 

That's I I never really. 

Jaybird: 

Bigger. Yeah. Good looking bait. 

Steven: 

I hadn't really paid attention to him. You know you have a different anchoring location. S If you wanted that nose down for it's going to depend on whether the weight is in that bait. But yeah, that would be your closest option as far as just like the general profile and then having a rear blade now with the Pegasus. What a lot of guys will do with that is they'll actually just put a blade on it. Here's a really cheap, easy way to add a blade to a bait. Generally aware of what a thing called a Cotter pin or a Cotter key. 

Jaybird: 

Cotter pin. 

Steven: 

Sure. Yeah. It's what if you if guys, if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's just a little piece of metal with a loop end on it. What, like the original jerk baits, would use as hook anchors like socks and stuff. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, right. 

Steven: 

And it's what's attached. What? It's exact same thing that's going through the castle nut on your propeller right there. Bendable on the stuff. Put a freaking take a Cotter pin. Slide a swivel through it, so open the Cotter pin. Put a swivel on it and put a blade with a split ring on that swivel. You can put super glue on that Cotter pin and slide it into any rubber bait you want. Ain't coming out. Right. So you want to, you know, add add blades to the back of a rubber bait. You want to add them to the belly of a rubber bait. You want to add anything to a rubber bait? Just take some gel super glue. You make that little contraption right? It's Cotter pin. Slide the swivel up. It split ring your uh your blade to that. You just put on the Cotter pin and just a little bit of the gel. You can get that thing to. To stay in that and I've actually done that, Jay, playing around with swim baits, put it on the tail of a swim bait. Stuff like all kinds of funky stuff you can do, but that's a quick, quick rig. To add to like a Pegasus, something I used to do. You know, back in the broky days of guiding when you're trying to get every last ounce of of something out of a torn. So like a torn up bulldog or torn up rubber, cut the tail off and you can put a blade off the back and it becomes a RIP bait or a jig. But with the Pegasus you can do that. Not a lot of geig options, because it's really. I mean, it's a popular tactic, but it's not that popular to facilitate everybody and your brother coming out with jigs. You know. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, that's great. 

Steven: 

You can make your. Actually, a good podcast friend of the podcast sent me a picture of a pretty cool jiggy's buddy's making and so. It if I was, if I was primarily jigging. Right. I would be playing around with. That's what I would recommend that you do, so if you're. Play around with Bates a bunch. 

Speaker 

Putting right. 

Steven: 

What's cool about a jig? It's got a fall. You know, so you can make it any way you want. It just make it heavy. So a Bondi bait is, if you look at a Bondi, it's great design, right? It's a great design if you look at a Bondi bait. Was it the other day? Was looking at it's like. Upside down. Give me two seconds. Me. Look at. I think I have a. Belt. 

Jaybird: 

OK. 

Speaker 2 

I'm looking. 

Jaybird: 

Pulling something out of the. Cave, huh? 

Steven: 

I was looking on the wall here, so I was the other day. I took a Bondi bait and it's like literally a upside down, big Sashi shad. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah. 

Steven: 

Like the taper of the thing. The whole bit. Like they sell these big like 12 inch rubbers. Rubber baits at the. Bass Pro and they sell like these striper baits and stuff and it's like you flip that thing on its back because there are open or flat pore open pore like the same profile as this rubber swim bait, just with the tail cut off. You know, if I were. A jigger looking for options. I'm going to take some other plastic baits and play with them, you know, get some swim bait bodies, cut them open, put a bunch of weights in them, or start pouring your own stuff. If you really need a bunch of different weighting options. Because. The body of a jig. Not going to influence. Anything. Because they're so over weighted, so it's going to be just its presence in the water, doing something like literally just existing or an addition of the blade. You can tweak things out and play with it quite a bit and. 

Jaybird: 

Literally just existing. 

Steven: 

I mean, that's it, dear buddy. I and yeah, bond. I used to make them litter. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, it doesn't have to be pretty. 

Steven: 

Mean I've I've made moan vertical jigs. You know, they were hard to get in the early days with that. I was like, OK, I gotta fix this and I've just made a ugly slab of plastic. Pour a big six ounce 7 oz. Lead and. Certain, you know, meltdown, some wacky worms, and made a jig. You know, and they got. So you don't have to overthink that per say. Like I said, Bonnie Bates, a great bait. Don't get me wrong. But the body of most jigs is not doing tremendously much as far as that rubber jig design. You can you can get away with something pretty simple and enough lead. Oh. Gracious Brandon, looking to find a new boat. The right kind of boat. I fish primarily Illinois, Wisconsin, with an occasional trip up north. Flat bottom V bottom deep V. In. Well, flat bottom. No. You're going to get your teeth kicked in. Mod V is like what you see in your typical like kind of like your bass boat. Have like a little mod V. I mean, if I'm going up there, if you're Wisconsin, Illinois, Canada, get a deep V. If you're fishing bigger water, just forget about. Anything else that looks, you know, it looks bass Boaty. You're going to do Canada, you're going to be better. I was telling somebody the other day on my boat, like my boat has a far more aggressive haul than you would think. Right. So you're not going to contend with big waves in a flat bottom or a mod V very well. Just bite the bullet and get a deep V. Jennifer, can you wish my husband Danny a happy birthday? No. We cannot. Jay. 

Jaybird: 

Happy birthday. 

Steven: 

You're a coward. You're a coward, Jay. 

Jaybird: 

Big D. 

Steven: 

Big G anyway. 

Speaker 1 

Well, now I feel bad. 

Steven: 

Somebody else messaged us that one time is like Sean. Oh my God, I forgot about until I saw that question. This guys, girlfriend or something guy I fish with and. Near me here in the region and his girlfriend asking. I forgot. So, happy belated birthday, Sean. Jennifer. Thank you. Whatever the big hogger *** big hogger what? I'm stealing that name. That's how. That's the name I'm going to check into hotels under. Last names Hogger first name big. The big hugger asks, trying to catch some winter muskies. Dang, is it cold. I've been throwing mainly Bulldogs and large Bucktails. Tips do you use? Have let's start at the Bucktails. Not the best thing. Muskies will hit blades all year long. You're going to have to have really heavy blades and have to be going really small or really slow so. You're you're kind of missing the boat on on the running depth by throwing blades. Bulldogs. Yes, we're going to use heavier weighted Bulldogs primarily. I'd recommend if you're looking and you're like, OK. You know, if you're, if you're getting just started, it'd be my guess on winter muskies. Crankbaits deep running crankbaits right? So straight depth. Jointed depth. Rater the the Pounder from living slower. Kid. These are all perennial favorites for for winter muskies. That tree. Treat crankbaits of that size and caliber as your Bucktails. So if you don't know where to start winter fishing like you don't know what the the pattern is. Don't what your go to bait should be. They should. One of those should be your go to Bay. I like Livingston powder because it runs deeper, right? It has a really slow float back, so tends to go a bit deeper, but the jointed depth raters of Phenomenal Bay, all that stuff. Use that. Okay I don't know where to start. With that, then branch out to. Heavier weighted Kraken or Bulldogs and things of that nature. Heavy weighted Beaver. So really, in the winter we don't like I said the focus shouldn't be on blades. It should be on big rubber. Big glad baits pool paws baits. You know, you can go with some some heavy gliders like I said. Even a heavyweight suic that's going to get down there, or a heavyweight Titan that's going to get down there, those will be my options. But, you know, take the blades, put them away, go to crank baits as your main focus. Should be your main focus and we kind of add. An interchange from there. Frankie, one more Jay. One more for the. More for the gimper. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, bring it on. 

Steven: 

I want to repaint some lures over the winter. What color should I paint them from Wisconsin and also? Does the type of clear coat matter? What color should you paint? Black paint them white with a can of rattle, rattle paint from the Dollar General for $0.89 and call it a day. Umm I. As far as repainting base, I'll touch on one thing real quick. I have ran into different baits that are clear coat either has a lasting smell or it has a really high toxic smelling smell. Smells really very kind. Chemically, chemically ish, I don't know. Smells it. 

Speaker 1 

Smells. 

Speaker 2 

Something stinks. 

Steven: 

Right. That is why me and Jay are proud to introduce musky aficionado and Jay on the front cover will be sniffing baits, right? See like cigar aficionado and all these kind of douchey magazines. Jay. Where somebody just indulgently. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Jaybird: 

This one smells. Wonderful. 

Steven: 

Actually, you know, I take it back. Not beta fish, you. It's clear coat official in Otto from the Smitty's. Just be people with rags full of clear coat and different solvents just getting ripped out of their gourd huffing. Be careful with with. Very, very. Aromatic. I don't know what word to go for. If you're clear. Coat smells. OK, let's get cut. To the chase. I don't want to have something that really has a smell to it. If it does, make sure you've let it cure for a long time or air them out. To be honest with you, when I'm doing like tighten colors or cracking colors or I got some other baits coming out here soon that yet to be named when I'm doing the original paint jobs, I'm usually just doing a really light coat of rattle can clear right like. Gloss. 

Jaybird: 

Yeah, yeah, I know what? Saying yeah. 

Steven: 

And. That is sufficient and you can fish those baits your paint like your airbrush paints, not just going to come flying off, you know it's not not going to hold up the hook. Wear real well, hook rash, but rattle can clear coats just fine. And I've literally made prototypes. Painted them and then clear coat them the night before and caught fish on them the next day. Right. So you know, Muskies incent is a is an interesting topic, but I don't think something that smells like a chemical plants a great option. 

Jaybird: 

Could be negative. 

Steven: 

It could be negative, right? Where you know some freaking what kylan. Crystal. An animal who gives a rat's ***. That'll work I. You know, if you want a really thick finish, multiple sprays, umm, you know there's a lot of different epoxies. If you're going to go that route. If you're repainting baits. Something to be aware of. You know you don't want to take, say, like a Jake or grandma and repaint it and then put a thick layer of epoxy on it because you've now changed the bait. You know, Epoxy adds weight. So if it if it's like a factor or mass produced bait like a Livingston or Joe Booker or whatever, any of the your plastic baits I kind of recommend using spray finishes I. If it's a glide bait or wood bait, say like you've got a hot tails. And Anthony does great but but like if you take a hot tail slider and you repaint it and then you reapproxy, it's going to be it's going to be heavier and you could kind of mess the. 

Speaker 

Mm. 

Steven: 

It up if you're going to redo wood baits that have epoxy, you're going to have to sand down to the base coat, blah blah blah blah. If you don't want to affect running deck. You don't care. Heck, epoxy over whatever who might tell you to do with your own stuff, but you just want to watch the effect as far as paint jobs. I mean, black, white. You can't go wrong there. Everybody seems to love the purple. They love the great flame, the the purple short truce. I mean, those are. If it were me and I was repainting baits, you know, just go crazy Jay. Old school moose horn meabel mazel. 

Jaybird: 

Just wonder where that one came from. That's a supernatural paint job, yeah. 

Speaker 1 

The whole. 

Steven: 

So that's a weird one. Oh my gosh. 

Speaker 2 

It's a shocker he didn't make. 

Steven: 

He didn't make that one up, baby. There was a real thing. Oh. Moose horn means I've got cob jerk baits and what's the oldest? I actually see. I hear you'll hear me yell. In. In the. Jay, can you hear me? Can't hear you. 

Jaybird: 

10/4. 

Steven: 

Hold on. There it is. 

Jaybird: 

Loose horn measles. So it originated with like Cobbs and something like decades ago. 

Steven: 

Hold in my hand. I'm here, I. OK, I'm holding in my. It is a Wade's wobbler and moose horn. I would bet I would bet they came up with it. 

Speaker 

OK. 

Steven: 

But I also see is that. I don't know if that's a high fin or not. We're talking about ancient things here, folks of. Ancient base, next time I talk to Duff, I'll ask him who came. With that one. But I'm Wade's wobbler in chartreuse with black spots it looks like. It looks gross. Not a great thing. 

Speaker 2 

It's like weird nail boys. 

Steven: 

I don't know if you're going to paint baits. That's one thing I'll tell you guys if you ever get into making baits, the painting is either really fun or hell on Earth. I kind of love and hated all at once, but if you're repainting baits that's a great winter project. And guess? You do when you screw one up real bad. Me. 

Jaybird: 

Do. 

Steven: 

Like the Rolling Stone Sid. 

Speaker 1 

Paint it black. 

Speaker 2 

Say goodnight, jaybird. 

Jaybird: 

Goodnight everybody. Thank you. 

Speaker 1 

Later.