Big Announcement – New Musky-Specific Rods – Enormous Ice 'skie
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The BIG Announcement
One thing that makes musky fishin' different than other species is the best anglers are often super tight-lipped.
Which means there aren't many reliable resources available to learn how to catch muskies from the best, most hardcore musky anglers on the planet.
Well, that's about to change....
We're launching a series of live virtual musky fishin' classes, starting in two weeks, loaded with EVERYTHING you need to know to put more muskies in the boat.
You might recognize a few of the instructors in this first round of classes:
Here's a quick breakdown of the classes:
Cutting Edge Open Water Tactics (Mar. 25)
Luke Ronnestrand and Josh Borovsky are going to spill the beans on how they have been able to consistently find and catch massive muskies in open water, year after year. (Sign up)
Late Fall Musky Fishing Tactics (Apr. 1)
Steve "Herbie" Herbeck and Josh Borovsky break down all the juicy details that will help you boat massive muskies during the late fall period. (Sign up)
Metro Musky Fishing Mastery (Apr. 8)
Ryan McMahon and Josh Borovsky don't pull any punches as they explain how to catch more and bigger muskies in the heavily pressured Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota. (Sign up)
We have a few more classes scheduled for late April that you can check out on the website, too.
The classes are fairly inexpensive and we aren't holding ANYTHING back.
Class sizes are limited, so make sure to get in ASAP if you want a "seat".
Some of the classes are almost halfway full already, and we haven't even announced 'em to our 20,000+ newsletter subscribers until now....
Also, 10% of our profits are going to musky stocking. 👍
You can click here to learn more about our upcoming classes.... hope to see you there!
Leader Tips
If you're like most musky-heads, you've probably been distracted all winter trackin' down the newest lures and custom colors, but make sure you're not forgetting about your leaders!
Trust me, you want to get your poop in a group right now, instead of waiting till last minute to get your leader program dialed in. 😉
Before you run to the store to gear up, John Bette, the leader guru at Stealth Tackle, has a quick tip that will save you some money as you prep for the season:
Here's a few highlights from the vid:
"If your leaders from last season are still in good shape, instead of throwing them away and starting from scratch, what you want to do is simply change out the snaps and you're good to go.
"The nice thing about the Stringease Stay-Lok Snaps, which I consider to be the best snaps on the market, is that you can change them out very easily by simply opening them up and spinning them off.
"Even though these are the best snaps on the market, in my opinion, all snaps will wear out over time. Every time you open and close that snap, it's getting a little bit weaker. So make sure you get in the habit of changing them out.
"For about $10 you can get yourself a pack of snaps.... it's going to save you money in the long-run. Expensive lures, big fish – these are things that can be saved by simply changing out your snaps."
Moral of the story, if your leader is toast, throw it in the garbage. But if it's still in decent shape, you can use it again this year, but make sure to change out the snaps!
Btw, Stealth Tackle just launched a brand new website and it looks great! 🔥
Thorne Bros Seminars
With the MN Musky Expo on hold for another year, Thorne Bros stepped up and kicked out some A+ virtual seminars with their top musky pro-staffers.
If you missed the livestreams this past weekend, you can watch the recorded versions on their YouTube channel.
We're gonna highlight one seminar each week, starting off with Musky Insider co-owner Josh Borovsky, who had to be dragged off the podium after talkin' muskies for almost an hour and a half. 😉
A couple nuggets that stuck out:
1. "Focus on technique and mechanics....not the fish."
Seems like folks are always preaching that you need to "read the mood of the fish" when you're trying to catch 'em at boatside, but Josh argues that you need to have the fundamentals mastered before you start worrying about what the fish is doing. Once your technique is perfected and you can do it in your sleep, you can start shifting your focus towards reading the fish.
2. "Always fish with the best hooking percentage bait that you can get away with and always fish as fast as you can get away with."
Each bait in your tackle box has different hooking percentages and triggering capabilities. If you're fishin' with a couple buddies, Josh recommends putting the highest hooking percentage bait (ie. bucktail) in the front of the boat. If the musky passes on the first bait, the next angler in line can try getting bit with a lower hooking percentage bait that has different triggering qualities (ie. jerkbait).
3. "The lower you are to the water, the wider your turns will be on the figure 8. When you move and drop down closer to the water to make wider turns, there's a chance you might spook the fish. So if you can move when the fish can't see you, it's to your advantage."
So, when's the best time to "get low" once you've noticed a fish tailing your bait?
Wait to make your move until the fish is focused on the bait turning away from the boat and you are behind it (instead of in front of it).
Josh demonstrates the timing in this GIF:
There were TONS of good nuggets throughout that we couldn't fit in the newsletter, so make sure to check out the full video on the Thorne Bros YT channel.
Sounds like they've got some more good stuff coming down the pipe, so it might be worth tappin' that subscribe button while you're there. 👉🟥
Some New Musky Stuff
It's crazy how much the musky industry has grown over the years.
Wasn't that long ago when there were only a handful of bigger bait makers and the longest rods you could find were 8 feet....
Now we are up to our eyeballs in options!
One company that's been crazy busy cookin' up some new stuff this past year is Red October – not only do they have some fresh tube options available, but they're also releasing NEW musky-specific rods. 👀
Here's a quick look:
Honestly, they look pretty slick....
The "Redline Musky Rods" have a telescoping blank that extends out to 9'5" and collapses down to 7'6" for easy storage. The guides have metal eyelets, and the handle has a built-in pistol grip (detachable).
Sounds like you'll be able to grab 'em at the Wausau Musky Bash on March 19-20th – pretty much the only in-person musky expo happening this year (that we've heard of anyway).
You'll also be able to snag some killer custom colors.... including these sweet custom Twisted Tubes:
Red October will also have some sweet colors in their traditional musky tubes, too:
🔥
QUICK HITTERS:
– Canadian ecologist David Schindler dies #RIP (link)
– Mark Stock Jr. Pro-Staff Profile w/ Musky Mayhem (video)
– How to fix rubber baits w/ Doug Wegner (video)
– Wausau Musky Bash on March 19-20 (link)
– Musky fishing new water w/ James Lindner & Jeremy Smith (video)
– Challunge on the Chain tourney, May 15th (link)
– MN High School Muskie Championship deets announced (link)
– Iowa musky selection & genomic diversity study (link)
– Demographic changes that might impact the fishing industry (link)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
Feast your eyes on this absolute SLOB of a musky! Jimmy Lacerte caught this monster in Quebec on a tip-up.
HUGE congrats to Matt Lemke on boating this massive 55 inch Minnesota musky last year on a custom bucktail fishin' with Doug Wegner and the Fishcamp boys.
You can click here to watch the video of the catch 🔥
Rafal Cisowski stuck this Virginia beauty on a recent trip with the Blue Ridge Musky crew. Gotta love the colors on these big southern 'skies....
Let's wrap this newsletter up with a kayakin' musky from Joe Pearson caught earlier this winter in Illinois 💪
Wanna be featured on Musky Insider? Send in your recent trophy musky photos by replying to this email. You might just see your pic in next week's newsletter. 🤙
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