the idea of being “worth it” is very subjective.

do they do something that’s so different than less expensive versions? no.
do they catch more fish because they cost more than a similar lure? no.
is it worth supporting small basement bait builders? yes.

innovation comes from these craftsman much more so than larger companies who tend to chase the trends. this year’s two “hot” releases are both copies of baits made and proven by others – the 4-tail bulldawg is essentially a medussa, and the livingston tubebait is just a knockoff of the red october. the super hot bucktails over the years have all just been…bucktails.

if it’s within your budget, supporting craftsman is a choice that’s more about the art and artist than it is about finding a “magic” lure. it’s like buying jeans made in the USA, same pants at triple the price, but might be worth it to you. if a particular lure is outside your budget, find the similar bait that doesn’t cost so much and fish it with confidence.

muskie: 54″
walleyes: 31″ (me) and 30.5″ (son)
crappies: 17″ (me) and 15.5″ (son) caught back-to-back

Attachments:

1. 

   release.jpg
   

2. 

   hank2.jpg
   

3. 

   crappies-scaled.jpg
   

wow, those pics from Hawaii are gorgeous!

we are heading down to Missouri next week Friday to get a jump on the season.
Payne’s Valley on Saturday, then 4 1/2 rounds in Lake of the Ozarks.

can’t wait!

lots and lots of stuff for sale, yes.
it’s one of the best multi-species fishing expos anywhere.

i’ll be there mid-day on Saturday, it’s an hour drive for me. be prepared to pay for parking on top of the entry fee; the county owns the building so they charge parking separate from the event organizers.

Poe’s Jackpot.

basically a muskie-sized Spook. their best contribution for muskie fishing that they lead to other lure makers inventing better mousetraps with bigger, heavier walk-the-dog baits that had better hooking percentages.

yes, Poe’s awaker.
even if it’s an older one, it’s not valuable old.

and funny enough, at only 8″ long i consider that to be on the small side for modern muskie lures.

BigWerm wrote:

That is a weird thing to say about a coach, that recruits and then coaches said players. And BC is a mid-upper tier ACC school. His resume beyond BC is very VERY thin (co-DC for Ohio St., DB coach, assistant DB coach etc.), but you never know.

regardless of who the coach/recruiter is, Boston College is simply never going to recruit the same kinds of athletes that FSU, or Clemson, or Louisville gets. can’t make them “better” in the physical gift sense. let alone if they’re compared to teams in the actual power conferences such as the B1G or SEC or PAC-RIP.

his resume is thin if he’s compared to current / former NFL defensive coordinators. when he’s compared to other 1st-time defensive coordinators his resume is typical.

he’ll do a good job, or he won’t, we’ll wait and see. what i know is that they’ll be more aggressive as a defense under him and that’s what LaFleur was seeking.

BC’s numbers are probably influenced by the fact that they’re Boston College moreso than by who their coaches are…you can’t make your players better and it’s a decidedly uphill climb for a school like that one. and aside from 4 years as BC’s head coach, his full resume shouldn’t be overlooked as it is filled with defensive coaching experience on pro teams.

this is an interesting article – Gutekunst and LaFleur are asking him to run the defense based on what works best for the personnel they have, rather than trying to get those players to run some particular defense. refreshing.

https://www.packersnews.com/story/sports/nfl/packers/2024/02/01/jeff-hafley-defensive-scheme-will-aim-to-maximize-green-bay-packers-players-abilities/72413296007/

The Pack missed yet another golden opportunity to make it to the Super Bowl. They were on fire going into SF, but they cracked under pressure.

i don’t know if i see the Packers cracking under pressure as much as just getting beat in a close game by a very good team. and it’s not like the missed field goal was a surprise as he’s not a guy who’d gone 67-67 on extra points and 39-39 on field goals during the season and then suddenly missed one in the big moment…

As a life-long Vikings fan -I’m now ALL-IN on the Lions and I hope Packer fans are, too!

definitely! the Lions are the lost step-child of the NFC North. they’re inoffensive with no real rivalries, they’ve consistently found ways to lose, and have simply not mattered. i think the worst indictment of a team is when you don’t care about them, either for or against. nice to see that change.

As much as we Vikings fans like to complain, we’ve at least been competitive most years since the mid-80s.

my contention is that simply making the playoffs is pretty easy and we should all expect better than that from a “competitive” team.

since the start of free agency in 1993:
Packers have lost 6 NFC Championships, won 3 NFC Championships, lost 1 Super Bowl, and won 2 Super Bowls
Vikings have lost 4 NFC Championships
Bears lost 1 NFC Championship, won 1 NFC Championship, lost 1 Super Bowl
Lions have made it to 1 NFC Championship (TBD)

we’ll all put the line for what’s acceptable at a different point, but it’s pretty clear that the Lions have not been competitive in 30 years. with free agency and the salary cap the playing field is very level in football. there’s 15 teams in the Conference, so any team that’s run decently “should” win a Conference Championship every 15 years, and win a Super Bowl every 30 years. anything short of that is an organizational failure; more than that is excellence. at this standard the Packers are just slightly above average, and the rest of the NFC North is below.

Love’s on-field play this year is a validation of what the team had seen every day in practice over the previous 3 years. it took a half-season for him to adjust his reads to gameday speed, but he did that in spades. that’s a different scenario than judging a true rookie’s performance when they have to play in their first year. i suppose that’s what informed the team in moving on from Rodgers and it’s what will inform the team in deciding on Love’s next contract.

sewing up your QB spot is money well-spent. a bad injury is the bigger risk than him suddenly forgetting how to play well. the more interesting decision to me is what they’ll do with Aaron Jones who – similar to Love – is entering the final year of his extension. he restructured before this year with a pay cut to stay with the team. i’d like to see them extend again for 2 years and get him his market value as he’s clearly one of the parts that made this late season run possible.

eyeguy507 wrote:

not with a firestick and certain applications. these “apps” are out there and they don’t always work and aren’t always HD but they are 100% ad free, on demand and work 90% of the time bruh.

when a guy walks into Fleet Farm, puts a Jiggin’ Rap in his pocket, and walks out the door everyone loses their damn minds about how he’s a POS thief.

but when a guy uses “certain applications” to stream “100% ad free, on demand, and work 90% of the time bruh” this is just a thing people do?

strange times.

chuck100 wrote:

glenn that is rather stupid to declare what ground your hunting.I think they are trying determine how many deer are shot on each.
Why,who knows.

it’s the bonus/antlerless permits that are based on the type of land being hunted; the standard buck (or choice depending on location) permit with your license is good anywhere. they provide more bonus antlerless permits for private land because that’s where the deer numbers are highest since that’s where hunting pressure is lower.

where i live in south-central WI you get your buck permit plus two antlerless when you purchase your initial license. i just put in for one of each, public and private (i mostly hunt public but occasionally get invited to private). you can buy essentially unlimited additional doe permits, so it’s not a limiting factor here at all.

in some areas further north where there are some antlerless permits available by draw, it’s more critical to know where you’re hunting as there are fewer available for public land.

slough wrote:

Fubo, YoutubeTV and Hulu+ are all pretty similar. Fubo is about $10 a month more last I checked. Fubo you get Bally for now anyway, who knows where that is going to end up.

on Amazon! i can’t wait.
the $190/year that Bally’s wanted for their streaming was crazy-talk.

BigWerm wrote:

7 seed is new this year, so tbd on that portion.

Actually that started in 2020.
#7 seeds were 0-6, now are 1-7.

I do chuckle a bit at the Packers official team social media congratulating themselves on being the only 7 seed ever to advance. There’s only been 8 tries.

with the exception of a Super Bowl win, i dare you to describe a more satisfying 3-week stretch than this:
wk 16: beat the Vikings in Minnesota 33-10
wk 17: beat the Bears at home 17-9
playoff: beat the Cowboys in Dallas 48-32

and as fun as this late-season run has been (including wins over Detroit and KC) i still think this team is positioned to actually be “ready” in 2025.

Attachments:

1. 

   love.jpg
   

the Packers (just like every team) are better when the offense is balanced. in the case of this year under Love vs last year under Rodgers, it’s so clear that they’re balancing run and pass better and even within the passing game it’s being spread around to so many different WRs. they’re much harder to defend as a result.

i grabbed Jones early for both of my fantasy teams too, so absolutely i believed in him coming into this season. it’s stellar to see his impact now that he’s healthy again late in the year paired with a stabilized O-line. i hope they keep him beyond 2024 too, just not too many years at too high of a price – do an extension through 2025 and re-evaluate a year at a time. pay the guy the right amount for what’s he’s doing not for what he’s done. the team needs to spend that money on defense.

Brad Dimond wrote:

Went to O’Shaughnessy Distilling Co. a couple nights ago, may change your mind about domestic distilling. A friend with us had recently been on the tour, an interesting background story. Among the things they’ve done to bring a first class distillery to the Twin Cities was hire Master Distiller Brian Nation, former Master Distiller at Jameson, Redbreast and Midleton Very Rare whiskey’s.

We tried all of the whiskies, they also distill gin and vodka. I brought home a bottle of the Keeper’s Heart Irish Bourbon Whiskey. I suggest giving it a try.

just for clarity, O’Shaughnessy has been sourcing their Irish whisky from Great Northern and their American whiskey from Ross & Squibb (MGP), so their current products show off their blending skills but are not yet an indication of their own distilling and aging.

with that caveat, those guys have a ton of capital and they did bring in one of the best Master Distillers for Irish whisky in the world, so it’s exciting to see how their products develop over the next 5 years. once they change to their own product i assume they’ll change to calling it Irish-style as well.

dirtywater wrote:

Aaron Jones is criminally underrated and historically under-utilized. Finishes the season with 3 straight 20+ carry / 100+ yard games…

…the passing game is at its best when 33 is getting touches.

the last 3 games were the Panthers (2-15), Vikings (7-10), and Bears (7-10), so it wasn’t exactly the toughest of sledding. seems a lot less likely that he’ll see big rushing numbers against the Cowboys (12-5) this week.

but your underlying point is dead-on. it’s very obvious that Jones’s return to full health allows the team to be more dynamic in both play-calling and execution.

he took a pay cut prior to the start of this season to stay with the team. reducing from $16M non-guaranteed down to $11M with most of it as an up front signing bonus. if he hadn’t done that and they’d cut him, there’s no chance that they would be in the playoffs right now.

he’s under contract next season for $12M. with that being his age-30 year, i doubt they’ll want to offer him much in terms of years, but based on his play right now i wouldn’t mind if they did another extension this off-season taking him out through 2025.

Good one from Charlie this week!

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/fueEaLMAKVL8smTZ/?mibextid=jaSYs6

Jake D wrote:

Anyone have any real life experiences with Browning cameras? I see they have some good package deals fairly regularly.

yes, mine are in the post immediately prior to yours…

here is such a great resource with articles that explain the features that matter for your needs with up-to-date reviews to find cameras that match.
https://www.trailcampro.com/

i’ve had very good success with the Browning cellular cameras.
great image and video quality, fast detection-to-image speed, a detection range that matches image range – so important for not getting cut-off pics!. i ran both of mine from early August to the end of November with video the last 5 weeks with uploads 4x/day and the batteries were still 75%. i never touched an SD card until after the end of the season. the cameras are very nicely priced and the cellular plans are scalable and reasonable. easy to use both the phone app and the website to review/delete/download images or video.

a playoff game this year is way ahead of schedule to my mind, but it’s fun. i think 2025 is their first potential window to realistically compete, if they get the defensive house in order.

and rather than Love vs Cousins, i think the better comparison for Love is to other first-round draft picks in the division over the past 20 years.
Bears: Trubisky, Grossman
Lions: Stafford
Vikings: Bridgewater, Ponder
Packers: Love, Rodgers

at this point it looks like he’s on the Stafford trajectory of being a great QB whose career will be determined by the quality of the team around him. can he turn into a HOF player like Rodgers? that’s a very very high bar. there seems to be little risk of him turning into Trubisky or Ponder, but a bad injury can always derail a career like it did to Bridgewater.

at a minimum it’s clear that the coaches and managers were correct in how they assessed Jordan Love’s ability to play QB at a high level in the NFL.

you’ve got to start the year right…and end the year right.

Attachments:

1. 

   gpg.jpg
   

i’d hung on to the idea that the problems with the defense were more of a personnel issue than a scheme issue – and i still do to some degree. this is a very young defense with a few legit stars and a bunch of others.

at the same time, the Packers clearly have some real administrative problems on the defensive side of the ball and the players are getting frustrated, just like the fans. players are starting to make a lot of “quiet” noise that suggest they don’t like being blamed for what’s going on, especially when they play through injury.

– after a bad game against the Giants, De’Vondre Campbell says he won’t play hurt anymore because “when $*!t go wrong they always use it against you.”

– Packers did not place Jaire Alexander on IR, suggesting they thought he could return from that injury before 4 weeks. but he doesn’t. and then when he does it includes messing around with that captain nonsense and getting suspended. he’s making a mess as his approach to leaving town.

this all sure reads like a Coordinator who is pointing fingers at players rather than working with the players. one of those times where even if he’s right he’s ending up in the wrong based on how he’s doing it. LaFleur needs to replace Barry on the first day after the season or he risks losing the defensive half of the locker room more than has happened already.

Vikings…Bears…Packers…it’s a draft pick race!

oof. that pass defense.

playing 4-5 yards off a receiver works if you’re defending against deep threats, but not short plays. and if they throw short in a long situation, you’ve still got to have the personnel that can recover to make the tackle.

at this point Jaire Alexander’s gotta be in the training room like, “Nah, my shoulder still just doesn’t feel right…i think it might get better when Jim Leonard’s the Defensive Coordinator.”

i’m curious about why if he called man coverage, the players were playing off?

MX1825 wrote:

It comes back to Barry and his “prevent” scheme. Apparently Barry figures the oppositions kicker should miss the FG.

Notably, they didn’t have Jaire Alexander available for that game, and Nixon’s play hadn’t been reliable during the game.

LaFleur on the final drive:

“We obviously gave up too many chunk plays, lost our leverage twice and gave up, like I said explosive plays. Explosive plays lead to points… it was just bad ball.”

“Joe called man coverage, and we’re playing way off, which we shouldn’t be.”

Watson’s absence didn’t make Love inaccurate and over-throw open WRs in the first three quarters of that game. he looked too amped or something: rushing throws and just plain missing guys who were wide open. it stunk, but i chalk that up to a bad game after a couple of superb outings. this year is all about learning and getting better, not about a Super Bowl or even playoff run.

the defense did plenty well enough in that game. at one point in the first half the offense had turned it over on 2 straight possessions and the defense still got the ball back to the offense with the lead in hand. they got worn down late and made some wrong calls on scheme for that last drive – but the other guys are good at their jobs too. the Packers average points against so far this year is 20.1, and average yards against is 342.1, placing them 14th in both categories so dead middle of the NFL defensively. the problem is that they’re good against the pass and terrible against the run, so a guy like Barkley (and DeVito scrambling) can eat them up on the ground for 200+ yards.

ganderpike wrote:

So I came to good ‘ol IDO to gauge market sentiment. If over 50 users chime in with good insight I’ll use a random name generator for a $100 Scheels card, or something.

unfortunately there’s not 50 active people here any more to respond, and this thread isn’t likely to get even 50 responses from a smaller set of folks. i’d look for a few well-informed responses.

but also consider that big tiller boats are about as niche of a market as you can find. maybe, maybe, if someone was in position to do bespoke boat building in response to a couple orders a year? again, that’s your problem to solve.

ganderpike wrote:

If a person were to design a boat NOT built for the NWT guys, that person in theory would remove 75% of warranty claims. Now, cut out the dealers, go factory direct, reduce Warranty issues, $40k is more than doable (my opinion). Easier said than done, for sure.

how to do it at that price point is your problem to solve, and that’s not what you asked about. you asked if it would generate interest.

comparison: a Lund Alaskan with 115 ProXS and Titan steering on a tandem-axle trailer is $53k before rigging.

so, yes, at $40k i’d definitely take a look but i’d bring a healthy amount of skepticism.

i’ve owned four different tiller boats (two under 20′ long and 2 over 20′ long, 3 of the 4 were fiberglass) and purchase decisions are all about needs and comparing options for value at the price point.

i don’t care what the number is on the motor, but i need the boat to get up on plane like right now when fully loaded and 3 people on board. that hull better be exceptionally well designed if you intend to do this with a 115hp motor. some of the best engineers in the world at Skeeter, Ranger, and Lund couldn’t do that very well without a 150hp or larger motor. in a 20’er i’m fishing big water and when the waves are up i can’t afford a start with a slowly lifting hull that needs a runway. and any motor at 115hp or larger will need some system to control steering torque.

i’m fine with a simple interior a la the Alaskan, but i need a generous rod locker that will hold at least 8’6″ rods and the storage needs to be dry from both the topside and the bilge side. side tanks should be wide enough to stand on with a little wiggle room.

good luck.