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Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Released Monday, 8th April 2024
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Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Episode 27 - Talking Lake X and Elk River with Jake Nelson

Monday, 8th April 2024
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

Music.

0:05

Welcome to Muskie Talk Monday on Team Rhino Outdoors Muskie Fishing Podcast.

0:10

This week I'm going to talk to Jake Nelson, Flambeau Forest Outfitters, Lake X, Elk River.

0:15

He's a man of many hats. He's involved with all those things and we're going

0:19

to learn a little bit about all of it this week. Talk a little bit, I mean, the update on Lake X is, you know,

0:24

people are wondering what's going on with them and are they still in business and things like that.

0:29

And we'll answer all those questions on this episode. So, and then,

0:32

uh, we're, you know, we're going to go down the elk river thing because elk

0:34

river is a new, they're not new rod company. They're a new rod company to us.

0:39

And they've been around for a while. You know, we, we had some,

0:42

we carried some of their stuff or listed some of their stuff on our website,

0:46

probably, I don't know, four or five years ago.

0:50

And they're back, you know, and for good reason, they're, they're great rods, another great option.

0:54

And we're, we're looking to add more and more of that stuff.

0:58

As we move forward we're looking to be your one-stop

1:01

muskie fishing destination for all the

1:04

gear that you need to catch muskies and at this point though we still understand

1:07

we have work to do so you know putting on our tool belt and which i i know i'm

1:12

familiar with the tool belt and so we're putting on a tool belt we're getting

1:15

to work and you know we won't stop until we are that one-stop muskie fishing

1:20

destination so that's kind of what's.

1:23

On tap for this week's Muskie episode, just talking gear. That's what we do on this podcast.

1:28

I've said it before. If you're looking for to break down new water and talk

1:34

to the latest and greatest guides and what's going on in the water,

1:37

we'll talk that on Backlash Podcast, which I do with my friends Brad and Kerry from Muskie Mayhem Tackle.

1:44

And we do that one every single Wednesday. And you can find it on all these same platforms that you find this podcast.

1:48

And you know but moving forward this summer i mean

1:51

i certainly plan to continue to put out episodes of this podcast and

1:54

what we'll do is we'll talk about what's working on the water what baits are

1:57

working but it's still going to be revolving mostly around gear we'll

2:00

talk to you know the guides on on gear wise what's

2:03

working i won't necessarily break down you know which weed beds or how

2:06

deep they are or whatever we'll just talk about you know what's putting

2:09

fish in the net and then so that's kind of how that's going to roll

2:12

moving forward i hope to make this a continual thing i

2:15

don't even know i think this is probably week six seven that

2:18

i put a podcast out in a row which i've never done before on this podcast

2:21

so it's the exciting times for the team rhino

2:24

outdoors musky fishing podcast you know if you like us

2:27

tell a friend you know let people know that this is

2:30

something that we're doing just a little bit different shorter episodes

2:33

you know most episodes are somewhere between 20 minutes and 40

2:36

minutes so if you're you know doing a quick workout you

2:39

know pop one of these episodes on and and listen to it

2:42

during your your uh weekly workout or your daily

2:45

workout or however you want to go about doing that and it

2:48

again you know if you're looking for gear for your next muskie

2:51

fishing adventure make sure you check out team rhino outdoors.com we

2:54

you know i talked about earlier we're continuing to push the boundaries as

2:57

far as how much inventory we've had and you know this it's springtime so we're

3:02

gearing up right i mean many seasons are just around the corner the southern

3:05

wisconsin season i think by the time you hear this is only only roughly three

3:09

weeks maybe four weeks at the most out and so you know it's coming quick april is the.

3:15

Last month you have to try to put those final touches on your boats and your

3:18

gear and make sure that things are in tip-top shape before we get cranking.

3:21

So it's pretty cool, exciting times for musky anglers as everybody looks forward to a new season.

3:26

But anyways, I'm going to go dial up my conversation I just had with Jake Nelson.

3:35

My guest this week is Jake Nelson, Flambeau Forest Outfitters and Lake X Lures.

3:41

I know jake isn't necessarily like the

3:45

owner of lake x but uh jake you're

3:48

very instrumental in what comes out

3:50

of the lake x shop these days from what i understand and thank you for coming

3:53

on today hi jeff and yeah thank you very much we we do as much as we can yeah

4:00

well i mean obviously we all know like your lake x is a small business family

4:06

ran business friend ran business essentially because I'm assuming that you're not related to John,

4:11

but you're, you know, involved in his operation.

4:14

And, you know, like sometimes priorities change and things shift a little bit.

4:18

So, you know, I just want to have you on. First of all, we'll talk a little bit about Lake X today.

4:23

We'll talk a little bit about Elk River because you're involved in that as well.

4:26

But first, Jake, before we go down any of those roads, let's talk a little bit

4:30

about Flambeau Forest Outfitters. Why don't you give us a quick,

4:32

you know, introduction to that? Because not only are you into muskies, but you're also into some hunting stuff too.

4:38

Yeah, I've had Flambeau Forest Outfitters since 2003 and basically started muskie

4:45

fishing with or started out guiding muskies and then got into bear hunting.

4:50

We don't really do a whole lot of that anymore, but one of our bigger things

4:54

is upland bird hunting too. So it's kind of in the area that we live in it's just it's a you know we're

5:02

in the grouse capital of the world here and and people from all over the world and and all over the U.S.

5:08

Come to hunt and if people are listening to this podcast and they're into hunting

5:13

well how do they go about getting in touch with you or learning more about what you have to offer.

5:19

I guess the best way to get ahold of me is on Facebook messenger or a lot of

5:24

people just text me, which I'll give you my phone number later,

5:28

but we're in the middle of nowhere here.

5:30

So cell service is terrible and it's hard to get back to people right away.

5:34

And, and that's kind of the way it goes, I guess, living in the North.

5:38

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So if you're on Facebook, check out Jake Nelson and

5:42

he can get you in the, in the rotation probably to go shoot some stuff this

5:47

year. Are you doing any guiding for muskies yet or are you opening for muskies?

5:51

Yep. Yep. I don't, I mean, so basically a lot of people know John Carlson,

5:56

John Kolcheski and me, we do tons and tons of group trips throughout the summer.

6:02

And then I've got a clientele that I've had since, you know,

6:06

basically day one that just, you know, got a great group of guys and we kind

6:10

of, we kind of stay a little low on the radar and, and just have a great time. Right.

6:18

All right. Well, let's talk about it. I've heard the rumors on Facebook.

6:21

You know, we kind of addressed it slightly in the beginning there on Lake X lures.

6:24

What's the latest on Lake X? Because, you know, they've been,

6:27

I guess, hard to find, but I didn't seem to be overly concerned by it.

6:32

I didn't even think once that anybody would think that you guys were out of

6:35

business because, you know, you run the guide service, right?

6:38

And that's kind of what you guys do to fill the summertime.

6:41

And then you build fishing lures in the wintertime. and

6:44

then it seems like once may or whatever late may comes rolling

6:47

around you guys are back on the water and you know fishing lure

6:50

production kind of slows down until the following season so

6:53

like when i saw sold out everywhere i didn't

6:56

necessarily even question it at all what's going on with lake x we're working

7:00

we're we you know we're always working throughout the winter sometimes seven

7:04

days a week there's three of us basically it's very small business still you

7:10

know just Just trying to do as much as we can and still make a great product.

7:15

And we are getting baits out to retailers right now and hopefully a bunch more in the near future.

7:23

And, you know, let's talk a little bit about that, Jake. You said,

7:26

you know, you're still a small business and you guys hand tune,

7:29

hand touch these things, hand paint them. I mean, they're not coming off an assembly line over in China.

7:33

So, like, let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah, there's basically three people that touch every single one of them.

7:38

We still, to this day, hand tune every single one when they're done,

7:42

which is, if you can imagine, 2,000 baits sitting on a rack and tuning every

7:47

one of them, that takes some time. So, but the good thing about that is the same three people make the baits and

7:54

hopefully you're going to get some really, really good consistency out of that.

7:59

Yes, absolutely. And it, you know, it seems like it doesn't,

8:02

you know, sometimes you get that bait and it's like, that one is the one, right?

8:06

But it seems like with, you know, Lake X lures, especially, I mean,

8:10

super popular fat bastard, they all sound the same, they all run.

8:14

And that's due to that tuning process that you're talking about.

8:17

Absolutely. And, and, you know, we put a, we put a ton of pride into building every one of them.

8:22

And, and, you know, there, there's been a lot of blood, sweat and tears through

8:27

the years, getting them done, getting them done in time for shows,

8:30

getting them out to dealers. And, and honestly, we've, John and I have been guides forever,

8:36

and we don't want to let that part of our lives go. Being out on the water makes us, you know, better in the shop.

8:42

It helps us build new things. It helps us think about things. things that's kind of

8:47

uh our attitude towards it yeah and

8:50

you know the thing about all that is you know

8:53

like i said it's still a family ran business it's still

8:56

a very you know a personal thing for you guys but let's

8:59

talk about the early days of lake x i remember you know going to a show i was

9:04

at the show same as you guys were it was the one i think about is the minnesota

9:07

show john shows up he's got these these top water baits and at the time they

9:12

seemed quite a bit bigger especially when you got to like the cannonball junior

9:15

and the cannonball cannonball seemed ridiculous at the time.

9:18

And he's offering up a hundred pack of these, a four pack of these things for a hundred bucks.

9:23

Like at that point, did any of you guys ever think that the lake X craze would

9:29

get to where it was in say, I don't know. What was that?

9:32

2016, 2017, 2018 is the area.

9:36

No, no, we were just fishermen. That was, it was nuts. And you know, I think that,

9:43

you know, social media did a lot of that was kind of the beginning of those days.

9:46

Really got rocking. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was incredible.

9:50

Like I said, the first time I saw cannonballs, like, you know,

9:53

I'm sure you guys got some unbelievable comments on it, you know,

9:56

like, ah, nothing's ever going to eat that.

9:58

You know, why are you guys throwing footballs? I'm sure there was just a bunch

10:01

of different thought processes behind it.

10:04

Yep. Yeah. And lo and behold, look at all the people in Minnesota throwing those things these days.

10:09

And we still don't, we still don't make a ton of them, but it's a,

10:13

It's kind of a vicious little animal when, when the crazy top water bite happened,

10:18

you know, throughout July and August. Yeah.

10:21

Well, the thing about it is, is like your average angler is not throwing that

10:24

thing. I don't feel. No, no.

10:28

But honestly, it, you know, with today's equipment, it's not that hard to throw big stuff.

10:33

Oh no, for sure. I mean, whatever rod and, you know, real combination you're

10:38

using to throw a big rubber, I'm sure you could throw a cannonball. No problem.

10:41

Yep. yep yeah i'd be willing to bet it comes in a

10:44

lot easier than a pound or two yes sir yep it

10:47

stays on top all right we're talking about the biggest bait

10:50

in the lineup let's talk a little bit about the smallest bait in the lineup because

10:53

you are the one that tells me all the time about the little b little bastard

10:58

and i think it's b-a-s-s and that is because it's a multi-species bait but a

11:04

lot of musky anglers i think overlook it for big fish and you've caught an awful

11:08

lot of big fish what What is it about the little bee you like so much?

11:11

Well, I mean, we spent probably two years getting it going, and it wasn't a

11:17

very fun bait to get it perfect.

11:19

But the testing on it, when we finally got it rolling, it was made for bass.

11:25

And, I mean, it's amazing what the bass do when they eat it.

11:28

It's kind of like a muskie eating a cannonball. They just annihilate it.

11:32

But in the meantime, we started catching muskies on it, and it was incredible.

11:37

Edible they just come up suck it down and they're

11:41

all over it it's kind of like a you know the small bucktail bite

11:43

it's kind of the same thing you know in like

11:47

let's just say let's talk about speed of retrieval are you retrieving this thing

11:50

faster for muskies or pretty much uh you know like a moderate retrieve oh just

11:55

a very steady retrieve you could slow them down too at night but you know just

11:59

a medium retrieve on it just get that nice pop going and you can have obviously

12:04

like like our other baits, you can put a split ring on it and make it a ticker. And.

12:09

Uh muskies have been all over that i had the first

12:12

prototype that i had in my boat just

12:15

one bait caught 28 muskies in one summer it's not

12:18

a bad summer i mean that's a lot more than

12:21

most people are catching on all their baits yeah and you just it's it's awesome

12:25

i mean i'm i'm an elk river guy and and we have a 7.9 hybrid x heavy it's like

12:32

a it's like a you know big bat big Big bass type rod slash small bait, small musky bait rod.

12:40

And it's awesome. I mean, people in the boat, they love throwing it because

12:44

it's so, you know, you don't kill yourself all day throwing big stuff.

12:48

I think if I get on the stick over here, I actually have that bait that we'll

12:51

be adding on our web or that rod on our website here any, any day now.

12:56

I mean, I, I always have two, sometimes three of those rods in the boat.

13:00

Cause you know, especially after long day, I throw them big stuff.

13:03

They like to throw a small topwater. Well, we'll transition over to the Elk River stuff because I know you're heavily

13:09

involved in that as well, but let's finish up our talk about the little bee.

13:13

As far as leader material, will that change the performance of it?

13:18

Can I pretty much throw this on? If I have an eight-foot heavy musky rod, can I use that as well?

13:24

Let's talk a little bit about that. you can use it

13:27

we like to use like a you know a small six

13:30

inch leader and bring it

13:32

back to the boat you know try to keep some of your line out of the water you'll

13:35

just mess with your rod angle a little bit and you'll be able to tell where

13:39

your sound is i've always been told that and i can't say that i play with it

13:45

that much i've quite honestly i have so much success with the fat b that it

13:49

or yeah the fat b that i'm i don't go back to the little b that often but But yeah,

13:54

and don't be afraid to throw it in the spring.

13:56

That's a great spring raid. You know, Dr. Evil is too.

14:00

You know, we have lots of flowage type stuff around here and rivers and,

14:04

and it just, it literally catches everything.

14:08

You know, one quick question on Lake X stuff. So you have the little B,

14:11

the Dr. Evil, the fat B, Cannonball Jr. and Cannonball.

14:15

Like, is there a time and place that like, is there, is there certain conditions

14:19

you're looking for where you're going to throw one over the other?

14:22

Like, what's your thought process on that? Because obviously you have access to all of them.

14:26

So I'm sure you have some of them in your boat at all times.

14:28

Like, how do you decide which day you're picking up a cannonball junior over a fat B?

14:32

If I see aggressiveness in any type of fish, then we're putting big stuff on.

14:35

Cause then you're, you know, you have that, you have that chance of getting a big one going.

14:40

All right. And you know, if they're lazy follows on a cannonball junior or a

14:44

fat bastard down, keep downsizing or start throwing rubber.

14:49

We make a lot of that too. Yes, you do, which we didn't talk about,

14:52

but you know, the toad is a, I don't want to call it a staple yet,

14:56

but it's, it's actually kind of like. Underutilized tool, I would imagine. Let's talk about it for a minute.

15:03

We don't have any in stock right now, or very few, but we will be getting some,

15:07

I'm assuming, at some point. But how do people work this?

15:12

So it's not, I mean, you're not ripping rubber with this thing.

15:15

It's more of a soft-popping pull on it.

15:21

You imagine a steering wheel, you want to pull from 10 to 2.

15:24

So you're pulling it from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock.

15:28

So it's more of an up hopping motion. And honestly, you get tired throwing it,

15:32

you're working too hard. All right. That's fair. So it's not like, you know, a lot of guys,

15:37

they like to anglers, I should say, they like to, you know, rip bulldogs and

15:41

they'll make it, they'll make the pull from what, like nine to three,

15:44

you know, pretty, pretty long, aggressive pulls.

15:47

This is not long, aggressive pulls.

15:50

No, no. And it's super, you know, don't, don't wear yourself out.

15:53

You're working too hard. So that and then you know ice guys

15:58

put some weight on it let her let her go

16:01

let her go down there get down on their faces a little bit well

16:05

lots of cool tools from lake x lures

16:08

it's good to hear that you guys will have retailers uploaded

16:11

again so you know people people have their

16:14

favorite baits for this this upcoming season for places

16:17

they have seasons otherwise um you know we do do have

16:19

a handful of lakex lures online right now we

16:22

have we've gotten some top waters from you guys in the last two weeks

16:25

so we're not completely empty so if you're looking for a

16:28

few top water baits right now we have them hopefully you know if things work

16:33

out well we'll have some custom colors getting restocked at some point yet this

16:37

spring but all right jake moving on let's talk a little bit about elk river

16:42

you know i i would say that's it's a common name for many musky anglers but not,

16:48

it's not a household name. It's not St.

16:50

Croix, right? And let's talk a little bit about what makes Elk River special.

16:55

Elk River has been in business for 16 years now, I believe, and I've been with them for 12.

17:02

And, you know, Elk River is kind of a, you know, a very similar story to Lake

17:07

X where Mark Maloney is the owner and he is, he's brilliant.

17:13

He's, he's a great great rod builder and other things that people don't know about.

17:17

And, you know, same, same type of deal. Three people touch the rods.

17:22

And if you got a problem with it, he built it and he's going to make it right.

17:26

Yeah, that's awesome. It's in, you know, they're all, everything's built up

17:31

there again in the Northwoods, Wisconsin. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of, kind of neat. We have, we have Elk River,

17:37

we have Lake X here, we have Ross's Sport Shop and, and all kinds of cool stuff. So, yeah.

17:44

And with, you know, with the Elk River stuff, obviously you could,

17:47

you know, we're starting to get some of them on online here,

17:50

but you can also stop into the store up there in Phillips, right? Yeah, for sure.

17:53

Yep. We're right, right on highway 13 as you're just getting out of,

17:57

out of town on the North end of it.

17:59

And you open Tuesday through Saturday, I believe are the hours right now.

18:05

So, but yeah, I mean, we're really pumped to have you guys on board and it's

18:12

just a, it's just a great rod company with, you know, really good people all around it.

18:17

So right you know if you

18:20

if you know people aren't familiar with elk river

18:23

not only do you do muskie rods but you guys have

18:26

rods of for every species absolutely yep

18:29

there's a there's a three different lines of

18:33

mostly walleye and and panfish

18:36

there's there's some bad stuff but it's kind

18:39

of our it's our bread and butter they're they're they've really taken off

18:42

here in the last seven or eight years and kind

18:45

of go all over the place now so it's pretty neat well

18:49

it sounds like at the recent wisconsin muskie expo you guys had no

18:52

troubles moving a bunch of rods so it's great to see the support for

18:55

you know small wisconsin-based companies as well

18:58

yeah and it's you know it's it's so neat to

19:00

see it because the early days we'd go to you know like

19:03

the chicago muskie show or some of the other big multi-species shows

19:07

and and just you know trying to

19:10

just show people the rod to get it in their hands and now you know

19:13

10 years later it's pretty neat what's people have

19:16

been using them and and they've got such a good reputation that it's not very

19:20

hard to move them anymore right well let's talk a little bit about the musky

19:24

rod lineup i know you guys have a few different styles out there like what should

19:28

what's a good all-around musky rod you know in the in the elk river lineup.

19:35

I would say the 8'6 heavy is kind of our go-to.

19:38

I'd say that's, you know, 75% of the muskie fishermen, they have one of them

19:43

in their boat or more than that. If you like a longer rod, then it'd be the 9' heavy. So that'd be your go-to all-around rods.

19:50

And then we also have, you know, all the other niche type stuff too.

19:55

Sure. You know, like, you know, you were talking about throwing toads.

19:59

Like would be the 8'6 heavy, would that be a good one for throwing like the regular size toad?

20:05

Yep. For sure. That's a great rod for that. Yep.

20:08

And then obviously you, you mentioned what you, you know, you were throwing little bees on.

20:12

So we'll have that one on our website as well. I believe the eight foot six

20:15

heavy is one that I will as well. And this one's going to come out tomorrow morning. It's Sunday again.

20:20

And so, you know, I won't have these probably uploaded by that time,

20:24

but soon we've been working on it. We got a lot of products in the, in the, you know, the store at the same time.

20:29

So we're, we're working through all that and the elk

20:32

river stuff is high on my my priority list to make sure

20:35

that it's available to consumers here real soon and i mean right

20:38

as of right now we just have the trolling rods listed which you know

20:41

let's talk about those if you're into trolling that's a great it looks like

20:44

a phenomenal rod it it is it's a

20:47

it's a glass hybrid rod and

20:50

i mean it if you want to pull a board with

20:53

a headlock on it no problem if you want to use it

20:56

as a sucker rod in the fall don't be afraid to

20:58

put the screws to it in november it is just it's

21:02

bulletproof it's it's super fun to have

21:05

in the boat for sure yeah and you know with

21:07

that like you said that hybrid rod um you know you're not having

21:10

to worry about it exploding in your hands on the hook set in the in the cold

21:13

weather of fall yes and that and it's got a very soft tip on it so not only

21:19

can you tell how your your cranks are running but in the fall with suckers if

21:25

you hit if you had one little piece of weed on it you can tell by the way that rod is moving.

21:31

It's incredible. Yeah. I, I mean, I love playing around with different rods.

21:35

I, yeah, I know I'm going to have a few of them in my boat at some point here

21:38

this, this season as well. I, I'm, I'm always, I always like playing with new toys we get in the shop.

21:44

I think it's one of my weaknesses, right? It's like kryptonite, you know, I'm always enticed by new stuff and it's,

21:50

I just like playing around with it. Plus, you know, when, you know, customers, they ask me, you know,

21:55

what I think about this or what I think about that. It's always good to have,

21:58

you know, hands, I have had my hands on it.

22:01

I can tell you exactly what I think of it versus me going like,

22:04

oh, well, I've heard this about it. You know, I can give you my honest feedback on it. Absolutely. For sure.

22:10

Yeah. So we have, we have a seven, six jerkbait rod.

22:14

And so that's, we still like to make that shorter rod, you know,

22:18

for me fishing a lot of the flowogy type stuff and doing a lot of sight fishing

22:23

and two feet of water. I like having that short rod still.

22:27

We have a 7-11. That's another rod I would consider more of a jerkbait rod,

22:31

but you can use it for basically everything.

22:34

And the 8-6 we talked about, and then the 9-footer, heavy, extra heavy.

22:38

And then we also have the telescopics, which have really been a big deal here

22:44

in the last, you know, four to five years.

22:47

And it seems like they're, you know, for a while, they're all telescopic rods

22:50

people were having problems with. And I feel like we have something now that, that is pretty awesome.

22:56

You can throw it right in your truck if you're going to go fish with your friend.

22:58

And, you know, I fished a, you know, a zillion hours on them and I absolutely love them.

23:05

So, well, you know, the other thing too about telescopic rods is everybody,

23:09

you know, a lot in the beginning, people weren't, they were like,

23:13

I don't know if I like that. But nowadays, if you're living outside of the speedy zone, whether it be,

23:17

you know, speedy zone is Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa,

23:21

and then there's a few patchy spots in between there.

23:24

If you live outside of there, you can't get a one piece rod shipped to you for a reasonable price.

23:30

I mean, like a one piece rod to that's over eight feet to let's just say Pennsylvania is $140.

23:36

You know, that's just incredible how expensive shipping of the rods has gotten.

23:41

And so therefore, you know, anglers have had to adapt to that telescopic rod

23:45

because like that's what they can get for a reasonable price.

23:47

Nobody, I mean, I shouldn't say nobody, very few people want to pay $140 additional

23:51

on top of a rod to get it shipped for a one piece rod.

23:54

Most of them are like, yeah, I think I can handle the telescopic.

23:57

And they've come a long ways in the last handful of years, like you had mentioned.

24:02

Yeah. And that's a real, that's shipping part. That's a sad deal because of

24:05

course we want people to have 10 footers and nine sixes and you know,

24:10

everybody wants a 10 footer or lots of people want a 10 foot rod,

24:14

but that's, unless you're going to drive from Pennsylvania to team Rhino or elk river,

24:19

that's kind of out of the option, out of the question. Yeah.

24:22

Well, I was going to ask you that. I mean, is that, is that a trend that you

24:25

are, you know, we hear about it all the time, longer rods, longer rods, longer rods.

24:29

But when I go to shows, like I try to talk to customers, they're like,

24:33

oh, which rod do you think you'd recommend? And a lot of times I'm using stuff that's eight, six, nine foot, nine, six, even.

24:40

And, you know, they're like, nope, that's too, that's too long.

24:43

I don't want to do that. I'm still looking at eight, you know,

24:45

eight foot and under type rods. So like we hear a lot about long rods, but is that still the trend?

24:50

I mean, are, are many anglers choosing the longest rod in a lot of instances

24:54

or, or are you still selling a lot of stuff that's, you know,

24:57

in that eight foot range? Eight, six, all eight, six is like the king for us.

25:02

I, you know, you go to a different state, it's a little bit different.

25:06

You know, Minnesota, they like to have longer rod for a lot of their stuff.

25:10

You know, it all kinds of kind of depends on the areas that you're in.

25:14

If that makes sense. yeah i mean

25:17

and i was wondering about that if it was more geographical you

25:20

know state by state type of thing you know the minnesota anglers

25:24

there's but i think it's also kind of a part of what they throw too i mean i've

25:30

done reports before on when we go to a show in in an area minnesota's one particular

25:34

i mean i look in that stuff and i go they're heavy heavy into big rubber and

25:40

and blades So for, you know, longer rods,

25:43

I would imagine it's, it probably lends itself right into that perfect for throwing,

25:47

you know, blades and big rubber. Whereas like you go to Wisconsin and, you know, we're not, yeah,

25:52

we throw a lot of rubber and we throw a lot of blades, but we also throw a lot of topwaters.

25:55

We also throw a lot of jerk baits. So there's, you know, I think some of it's

25:59

based off of what the angler is using as far as the baits are concerned too.

26:02

And that's probably why they lean towards longer rods in Minnesota. Yeah.

26:05

Yeah, I, I agree with you. And they, you know, they've got such big water that,

26:10

you know, you're going down a weed, a weed line for a mile and it,

26:16

it's not as much pinpoint casting with that.

26:19

They're just trying to bomb cast a lot of stuff and it's, it's sometimes it's

26:23

easier to fish rod and a bigger boat.

26:27

Yeah, exactly. The bigger boat things, probably one of them as well.

26:30

I mean, we don't, you know, we do a big water in Wisconsin, but for the most

26:34

part, if you had a, you know, a 16 foot deep V aluminum boat,

26:38

you can handle it on a lot of the water that we have here in Wisconsin.

26:42

Obviously you'd have to really watch your, uh, the weather. If you're taking

26:46

that on the green Bay, I've taken mine. I have, you know, a eight, six Lund Fury XL.

26:51

And there's times I just don't want to take out my toughy out to green Bay is

26:54

like, everything's loaded in the Lund already. I'm like, I'm going to just take that. And I mean, you can do it.

26:59

You just got to pay attention to what you're doing there you do like if the

27:01

wind shifts or things start looking crappy you better bail fast absolutely yep

27:07

yep i got the i have a 619 ranger.

27:11

And i think i have more fun fishing in my uh

27:13

16 foot flat bottom well that's

27:17

like you know early days i i shouldn't shouldn't

27:20

say even say early days like i had a ranger 619 as well and

27:23

i used used to do that but then all right before i

27:26

i sold it i had because some of

27:28

the landings i was fishing up in northern wisconsin i couldn't get

27:31

that boat into it it was just the landings were too crappy and

27:34

so i had a god what was that like a 15 foot

27:37

toughy it's like a esox magnum

27:40

but it wasn't the magnum and it was a roustabout or whatever the heck

27:43

it was and i'm like i put more fish in that boat than i

27:46

do my 619 like why do i even have the 619 around i'm playing around in this

27:49

thing all the time just on smaller bodies of water and i didn't care what i

27:53

took it into i beat the crap out of it because it didn't matter to me i wasn't

27:56

worried about it rivers and all sorts of stuff you just let her chew and see

28:00

what happens absolutely we got so much gravel that,

28:05

right taking the flat bottom down the gravel road doesn't hurt as much as glass.

28:11

Absolutely all right jake well i think we covered most of

28:15

what we intended to cover tonight we got got a good background on

28:18

on lake x and what they're up to introduction into elk

28:21

river rods you know once again for people that

28:24

are looking to get in touch with you watch cover i mean it does i'm assuming

28:28

lake x is still putting stuff out on social and elk river's got social media

28:32

as well and then do you have any social media for your flambeau forest outfitters

28:36

yep i've got a facebook page flambeau forest outfitters and and then elk river's

28:41

got elk Booker for Custom Rods, their website there. And...

28:46

The best way to get a hold of me is Facebook Messenger, or my phone number is 715-820-3156.

28:55

Awesome. Well, Jake, I want to thank you for taking time out of your Sunday afternoon.

29:00

I know you unfortunately watched Iowa girls lose today, and it was disappointing.

29:04

I know. I feel for the people of Iowa. My life will continue on.

29:08

But anyways, fun game, fun season to watch.

29:11

I mean, the incredible talent on both sides of the court today.

29:16

But I want to thank you for taking time out of your Sunday to talk fishing with

29:19

me. And I hope that you have yourself a unbelievable season.

29:23

I'm sure we'll be in touch. And I want to thank our listeners again for tuning

29:26

in to another episode of our podcast.

29:29

And we'll be out with a new one again next week, Monday.

29:34

Awesome. Yeah, you guys, I appreciate it. And have a good season also. Thanks, Jake.

29:41

Music.

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