Pink Day Monsters - Gregg Thomas Tips - Musky Fishmas

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Musky Fishmas

We wanted to kick this newsletter off by wishing you all a Musky Fishmas!

Sure, the holidays are supposed to be about family, food, traditions, and ugly sweaters. But if you’re wired like us, musky fishing still lives rent free in your head all winter long.

Sometimes that obsession shows itself in the form of cold hands, late nights… and sometimes it looks exactly like this Musky Fishmas sweater spotted in the Handlebarz Musky Lures family photo. 

Notice that slick “Sleigher” sweater tucked in the bottom left? 👀 Hard to miss once you spot it. We’re feelin’ ya. 🤘😂

Speaking of sleighs, we got a kick out of this video from HD Innovations Co. captioned:

“He sees you when you’re FISHING. 🎣🎅”

We’re pretty sure there’s an FFS joke in here somewhere 🤔… but we’ll behave, it is the holidays 😂

Lots of musky folks decorate their trees with baits.

This one, decorated by Walleye Weiss who assures us that’s his real name, might be worth more than the presents underneath thanks to all those Blue Water Baits. 👀

If you (or a buddy) don’t have the green light to hang baits on the tree thanks to pets, kids, or controlling family members, there are still plenty of ways to sneak some musky vibes into your décor.

Take a look at these customizable, personalized ornaments we found from Macorner. Go ahead… declare yourself “FISHERMAN OF THE YEAR!”

This last item isn’t specifically holiday related but it’s too dang cool not to share.

Feast your eyes on this 1,000 foot musky created by Dean Keller of Iron River, Wisconsin. 👀

📸 Source: Air Fox Photography   📺 Story via: Northern News Now 

Dean spent a full week and roughly 50,000 steps behind a snowblower carving this thing out. That’s over 20 miles of blowin’ snow.

Next time you’re complaining about clearing the driveway, remember this guy.

You can check out the full story on the Northern News Now website here. But if you want the real entertainment, scroll the comments on the original Facebook post. 😂

Here’s a small sample:

“It’s Iron Liver. You spelled it wrong. If you know you know.”

“Easier than catching a muskie."

“Not bragging, but I caught and released that fish back in 1990. It was only 500 feet long at the time.”

“What! They don’t get that big. Nothing over 900 feet!”

We haven’t seen the AI or Photoshop comment yet, but we’re sure it’s coming.

It’s always fun seeing how creative this community gets when it comes to blending muskies into the holidays.

Do you mix the holidays with your love for muskies?

Reply to this email and share it with us. You might see it featured in an upcoming issue.

We’re wishing you a happy, healthy holiday season and positive musky vibes in the year ahead. Thanks for being a Musky Insider subscriber.

 

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How New Patterns and Dominant Baits Are Born

Another way plenty of anglers have been gettin’ their musky fix over the holidays is by planning ahead for next season.

And Musky Insider PRO instructors Josh Borovsky and Gregg Thomas have been crankin’ out the content lately. So we pulled a couple gold nuggets for you. 👀

Last week, Josh joined Gregg as a guest on his Musky Road Rules podcast.

The conversation drifted into designing and testing new baits, and Josh revisited a topic we touched on last summer, this time with a slightly different angle. Here’s what he had to say.

“We knew we wanted to design a smaller bucktail this year, but it’s a pretty flooded market. We wanted it to be unique, but more importantly a dominant bait instead of just one that produces.

Once a prototype is proven to function and catch fish, I compare it head to head with similar baits. We rotate positions in the one and two hole until the dominant bait reveals itself.

If one bait consistently catches behind another, but the other can’t catch behind it, you know you’ve found a winner.”

That’s exactly what happened after a key modification to the Angling Revolution prototype we’re calling The Little One.

Here’s a sneak peek. 👀

“The other prototypes were producing fish in the one hole, but not much from the two hole, until we made a change to the bell chamber.”

“Once we added a bead and a small piece of stainless tubing that wiggles loosely inside the bell, it was game on. Bites in the two hole and a vacuum cleaner in the one hole.

And when they smash it out on the cast and you’re dealing with cut hooks, that’s another sign of dominance.”

Josh added that while this bait proved itself, the bigger takeaway is the process itself.

“There are definitely times when another manufacturer’s bucktail will be the dominant option. That’s why it’s important to keep the fish honest.

This process helps you identify dominant baits instead of just ones that work.”

Gregg also got Josh to spill the beans on a few other new Angling Revolution products coming during show season, including a tube bait with wings and a whip tail blade kit that can be added to the rear of tubes, bucktails, or other baits to add flash and vibration with minimal drag.

You can learn more in the podcast episode, sneak a peek if you’re one of Gregg’s Patreon subscribers, or keep an eye on the Angling Revolution social channels.

Speaking of Gregg, he also hosted a live virtual class for our Musky Insider PRO crew this week on fishing Southern Reservoirs.

Gregg broke down seasonal patterns from start to finish and covered some lesser talked about techniques, including jig fishing with bass gear, vertically jigging Bondy baits, and shoreline trolling with ultra short lines, complete with video clips.