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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