Whats the hot Item at Chicago

[happy hooker]

Just wondering what item or booth your headed to first in chicago..the manta was the craze last year,,Im betting the super topraider will be gone and my beloved phantoms and the new hollowform reffhawgs, besides the snackbar Im headed for videos,,I cant use lures right now but I can watch Videos so Im getting Steve Heitings and Pete Mainas new ones,,where you scrambling to

[Capt.Larry D. Jones]

I'm headed straight for the Brat's!

[Da Bears]

Already got my Super Top Raiders! I checked, and Hughes River won't be there..thank god. I could use a few more bucktails!

[Michael]

Videos,Videos,Videos.Hay Happy hooker,See you at the Rollie & Hellens both at 10:30 A.M. I have your new video.

[Da Bears]

Bait wars....wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Bucher lures all work great for me. I will say I prefer the giant jackpot over the Dancin' raider, but the paint quality on Poe's lures suck!

I think I may get a hawg wobler at the musky show this weekend. I like the way that lures works!

[MRoberts]

Guys looking for Videos, I highly recommend Heiting’s. I got it for Christmas, along with Saric’s latest vid and they both went right to the top of the list, as favorites. Lots of good info for the beginner to the experienced. The only people who wont like these videos are the people who know everything and don’t need help from anyone.

As far as baits I don’t know what will be hot. I know I have been waiting for the Super Top Raider for awhile, because I have been waiting for a bait to replace my effective but hard to keep tuned Twin Teaser Tail. If you don’t want it in you arsenal don’t buy it, but it has it’s place just like the Twin Teaser Tail did for me.

The holoform Reef Hawgs will also have it’s place in situations where a persons wants some flash in a glide bait. I am happy the guys on the pro staff let me know they are available, I wish I could go to a show and maybe get a deal on one or two. This is a new twist on an already proven bait, and bwygle if you look closer at the post on the holoform Hawgs the cracking issue was addressed on one of the sites. Plus they may get some free baits, but I doubt any of them are getting paid. Musky Bait manufactures don’t make enough money to actually pay pro-staffers. It’s usually a give and plug situation.

Nail A Pig!

Mike

Let 'em go, Let 'em Grow

[HerbB]

I think the big question for most guys to ask themselves when buying a lure is if you'll actually use it. I have so many lures now that if I tried to throw each lure for one hour this year, I probably won't have enough time on the water to do it. So, as I'm beginning to realize, more lures aren't necessarily going to help. All of Joe Bs lures are great and my box is half full of them, but they aren't worth much if one doesn't throw them, now are they?

But, almost all of the new lures out there are really good lures and I still better buy a couple of them just in case.....:)

[RK]

Hi,
Don't know about Jim or Steve, but I know for sure that neither Doug or Dick are 'paid' by Mike. In fact, I'd bet both would be somewhat offended by the suggestion they were.

Most manufacturers have small pro staffs, the members of which are guides, a tourney angler here and there, writers and columnists (such as myself) and, in many cases just plain good fisherman who know their stuff. Pro staffers work sportshows, do seminars, and write articles, and do 'promotional' things like that, but the most important function they serve is providing feedback to the manufacturers on their products.

In return, pro staffers might get a small handful of baits, maybe a hat and t-shirt, and a hot dog or two to boot if they work the sport shows. Sometimes they get a discount, sometimes things are free - it depends. By the standards of almost any other industry, and for sure compared to bait makers in the bass or walleye world, with only a few very rare exceptions muskie bait manufacturers are just this side of mom and pop operations, and most of the 'sponsorships' are in reality very informal affairs.

It's always puzzled me that muskie anglers are inclined to scream bloody murder about over-promotion when someone mentions a particular bait twice in the same decade. In most cases the level of promotion that goes on in the muskie world is NOTHING compared to the bass or walleye industry, both in terms of the intensity of promotion and the formality of the relationships. But nobody bats an eye when Mike McClelland shows up in a MotorGuide ad.

I know every time I sit down to edit an article for Esox Angler the issue of 'over-promotion' is on my mind. We have as part of our mission to avoid over-promotion of either personalities or products, and making the distinction isn't always easy. We work very hard at it. Some times we hit the mark, sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's a difficult distinction to make. Last fall we printed an article by Bruce Shumway in which he talked about Fuzzy Duzzits. We debated at length about it, but the bottom line was, the subject of the article was a vey unique technique, one Bruce's brother Fuzzy had specifically designed the bait for. We ran the article, with an Editor's note explaining the situation. That we had to justify writing about a unique and effective angling technique bugs me to this day. We do however, make a conscious effort to limit the mention of specific baits-a lot of bait mentions get cut. I know Pete Maina has taken some knocks for talking about his own baits a lot. Guess what though - look in his boat sometime. He throws the baits MMT makes very nearly to the exclusion of all others. Used to be about the only ones he used that he didn't make were Lily Tails, but since MMT bought Rusty out, Shumway's bucktails are about it. So when Pete mentions Lily Tails, is he being 'promotional,' or is he being honest about what he uses? See the dilemma there? I talk about Rad Dog spinnerbaits all the time because I catch a lot of fish on them, and I think they are great baits. Mike Ruff, who makes Rad Dogs, is a friend of mine. So am I being promotional? Even though I've bought every Rad Dog in my box? Would the answer be different if I hadn't?

For a lot of visible muskie anglers, it's a fine line to walk, and I know a number of them that refuse to even mention any particular baits for fear of being tagged as overly promotional. In that case, everyone loses. Bait manufacturers, the pros and most of all average anglers who don't get to hear the opinions of some of the better anglers around.

I think sometimes there's the perception out there that for high profile fisherman in the muskie world, there are Tiger Woods-like endorsement deals going on behind the scenes, and most of them have cases of free baits delivered to their door every spring just in time for the sport shows. It just doesn't work that way. Ask some of the people that have been fishing tourneys just how lucrative being a 'pro' muskie angler is.

Sorry for the rant, but this issue seems to come up every year when sport shows roll around, and when I start feeling the need to apologize for saying I like a bait, it starts to irk me.

Cheers,
RK

[B420]

RK,
Great explanation! I personally got burnt out on the endorsement stuff after Bob M. would continually hype the PIG, and Strike King spinnerbaits. Even in the MN Muskie Map book he pushes them big time, just gets a little old when you can only catch fish with a PIG or Strike King bait!
B420

[HerbB]

RK,

You make some very good points and it must be tough editting a paper and having to be so aware of what you say.

I'm just a Muskie fisherman and a consumer who buys and uses the lures. Being a consumer, I think a lot of lures have been over-hyped the last few years and some people, like me, at times feel like we may have heard very slanted and not necessarily truthful information. I don't mind if someone hypes a truly good lure, even if they are the ones selling it, but when they are just marketting junk, it really bothers me. I believe most of the people in the lure business make good baits and test them thoroughly before putting them on the market. I have total confidence in anything from Joe Bucher or Pete Mania for instance.

However, there is one other well known individual, that I will not mention, that I believe has marketted some very poor lures and may have caused many people to become rather critical. I have a number of his baits and, with one exception, they are junk. I should have known better when I went to one of his Muskie seminars and every other sentence was a plug for one of his baits. My stupidity.

But I think thats where much of the problems come from - from just a few people hyping baits that aren't worth space in a tackle box. And the fallout affects all the lure makers.

Just my two cents.

Herb

[happy hooker]

Guys dont be so serious Im askin what are you gonna spend your first fifteen bucks on not 30 grand,,, Im gonna buy alot of stupid gimmicks thats the fun of the show

[B420]

Hooker,
Can never have too many Phantom's!!!!!! That's the only thing I am really after except the Musky Mania "We don't miss" T-shirts
B420

[HerbB]

happy hooker,

Lets see. A new boat, a couple new rods, a couple Phantoms, maybe 600 yds of 100 lb Wiplash, a couple hats, maybe a few videos.. Oops. I think I'm up to 30 grand. Better stay home.:)

One thing about those Pigs, you can always give them to someone else who can give them to someone else and so on.:)

[RK]

Hiya,
Yes, there is over-promotion out there. I get tired of it too - you should see the press releases I have to wade through that pile into my Esox Angler email account.

But, when it comes to baits (especially in forums like this one), a lot of the time the source of the hype is the consumer moreso than anyone affiliated with the company. Let's face it - muskie baits are neat, and as Happy Hooker points out, getting excited is why you go to shows in the first place. And, in a community as small as the muskie world, the shills stick out pretty plainly after a while.

As for separating the hype from the good info, as Hemingway once said "It helps to have a built-in, shock-proof sh## detector."

See you all in Chicago.

RK

[Jim McCullough]

For anyone new to this thread, it might not make a lot of sense. I removed an anonymous attack. If you want to make those kind of accusations, sign your name to them and provide some documentation. We won't put up with that crap.

[ToddM]

I haven't much idea on what I am going to buy at the show. Alot of stuff is new and I don't know about it yet. As this show does to me because it's the first one, it will cost me 200 bucks to be there and I could not be happier. Can't wait to see the new stuff!!!

[esoxmamimas]

I live too far south to make the show. Today I got a Cabella's catalog and those new Bagley Prizm Image Titanium Musky Spinnerbaits sure looks mighty interesting to me,they come in 1 & 2 ozs. So if I was going I would put them near the top of my list. If they are @ the show. Yall have a blast! Let's pump this economy up!

[THE_MARV2]

Happy Hooker, You mentioned Mania, Be sure to check it out as they will have a few " hot off the press " new colors.
there.

Way to go Jim, I agree with your methods of dealing with no names.
Many releases to all,

[TMB]

Deep diving Slammers!