March 4, 2024 • 29 mins
Get ready to take your muskie fishing skills to new levels! Immerse yourself in the art and science of muskie fishing with Team Rhino Outdoors and our special guest Brad Hoppe from Musky Mayhem Tackle. Gain a deep understanding of the best fishing gears and techniques, discover valuable insights on the innovative 'Grenade' bait variant and learn how to navigate fishing events like the Minnesota and Wisconsin Muskie Expo.
In this exciting episode, Jeff from Team Rhino Outdoors shares his wealth of experience, expertly divulging secrets of the trade to help you become a better angler. Journey with us as we discuss everything from the composition of custom rods and reels to subscribing to our podcast so you don't miss any future episodes.
Get inside the minds of fishing guides as they talk about their experiences on the water, their favorite gear, the fish they catch, and their inspiring stories. Also, learn how Team Rhino Outdoors is embracing the dynamic world of custom gear to provide products for all your angling needs. Brad Hoppe then takes the spotlight to share his insights on fishing lures and how to reel in the season's best catch with Musky Mayhem Tackle.
Come face-to-face with Brad's expertise on the much-hyped 'Grenade' series. Unravel the unique characteristics of each Grenade bait, gain a better understanding of bait retrieval speed, weight, length, and fall rate. Learn how to troll these blade baits effectively, address messy casting, and ensure consistent retrieval.
Cap off this enlightening episode by delving into the ideal rod setup for utilizing the Grenade series efficiently. From the flexible Blademaster II to the sturdy Blue Ox, get to know which rod suits these baits best. Plus, get a sneak peek into Brad's experience working on rods for St. Croix and future prospects.
Boost your angling skills with Brad and Team Rhino Outdoors in the ultimate guide to Mastering the Grenade. This episode delivers knowledge you won't find anywhere else. Catch more fish, be a better angler, and embrace the joy and thrill of muskie fishing like never before.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:05):
All right, it's only been about 14 months since we've done this Team Rhino Outdoors
muskie fishing podcast. Let's just call this Muskie Gear Monday or something like that.
Hoping to fire up this podcast at least throughout the course of fishing season.
I want to do it on a regular basis.
I'm hoping it'll be a weekly thing, but we'll see.
If you're obviously, if you're following us, you, many people know podcast wise
(00:28):
that we have the Backlash podcast.
I do that with Brad Hoppe from Muskie Mayhem Tackle.
That one is as consistent as it comes we
do that every single week every wednesday at 5
a.m we have a new new episode so go check out that one and
then hopefully this one here will be consistent like i said at least
now through the fishing season primarily on this podcast i'm.
(00:48):
Just talking gear and we used to just talk to
you know manufacturers people that were
making the baits and i think we're going to expand that to guides just talk
about what they're using on the water what they're catching you know
that kind of stuff and we'll try to get some stories in
there as well short form you know if you're looking
for long form podcasts there's plenty of
(01:09):
those out there our backlash podcasts that'd be like
medium and then this one's going to be short we're going to try
to keep these episodes under half an hour just kind of quick hitters
so you guys can you know find out what's going on
learn about some new baits that you may not be
familiar with and how they may apply to your fishing
so with that being said i'm going
to talk this week to my co-host from backlash podcast.
(01:31):
About the grenade that is a bait that is not
new but they have a new version this
year it's a bigger one the monster grenade and we'll talk to brad
about you know the who what where when how and why that you're
going to want to use that one so that's something that you'd want to check out i
failed to mention though if you like this podcast make sure
you hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're on that way
(01:52):
it gets downloaded to your phone and you don't have to
go searching it out every week or see if we have a new episode like i
said hopefully it'll be consistent but if you hit the subscribe button it
definitely will help me get this podcast out to you
and me being i'm jeff team rhino outdoors
the company that i own within the muskie industry is team
rhino outdoors you can find us at teamrhinooutdoors.com and
(02:14):
we are primarily known for custom gear our
slogan would have been you know something about you know see us
for the best custom colors in the market but nowadays
we've expanded to many other things rods reels nets that kind of stuff so if
you're looking for you know most of your one-stop fishing shop we have you covered
in a lot of ways obviously you could point out some holes that we still have
(02:39):
and we work now to to fill those holes.
Moving on, we are going to be, hopefully you'll hear this episode right before
the Minnesota Muskie Expo. This will be out on a Monday.
And so it'd be, you know, a few days down the road, you're going to want to check it out.
The Minnesota Muskie Expo, that'd be March 8th, 9th, and 10th.
We're in the Warner Coliseum at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. So check us out there.
(03:06):
We'll have some cool gear there, 50 feet of the best gear that you're looking
for. If you want to save a little bit of money on a net for shipping and things
like that, we should have some clams, some frables, and some RS nets.
That's just a few of the things we'll feature there at the show.
Tons of gear, tons of TRO-lettered clothing, and hopefully we see many smiling
(03:27):
faces in the Minnesota show.
Then the week after, we're going to be at the Wisconsin Muskie Expo.
That is in Rothschild or Wausau, and that is at, I believe, the Central Wisconsin Convention Center.
And that one is March 15th, 16th, and 17th. So you can find us there.
That's what we have coming up. Hopefully, if I'm good, I'm working on another
(03:49):
guest. Hopefully, I'll have another guest out before we get to the Wausau show.
So I'm hopeful that in the next handful of days, I can get a guest together.
And then we'll get rolling on that and we'll have another guest.
I'll have another podcast out.
Like I said, just talking gear on these podcasts, short form.
And this week we're gonna talk to brad hoppy with musky mayhem tackle we're
talking about the grenade enough chit chat let's dial up that conversation.
(04:15):
All right my guest this week is brad hoppy many of you know brad is my co-host
on backlash podcast and this week on this podcast since all we do is talk gear
we're not talking necessarily about fishing spots and lakes and all that kind
of stuff i mean that may come in time to time on on where these things get used,
but we're literally just talking about fishing lures to help you get the job
(04:36):
done for this upcoming season.
Brad, we have talked to you on this podcast, but this podcast has been very
inconsistent, like terribly inconsistent.
And I think we talked to Carrie in like episode three, and then somewhere along
the line, we did another one.
So it's been, I don't know, probably two years since I've had you on this solo
podcast. How does it feel to be on the other end of answering questions?
Is it better or worse? Yeah.
(04:57):
Well, remarkably enough, I get invited on a few other podcasts throughout the year as well.
So it's been a while since we've done this one.
I think you said it's already a year since you put one out, but I've been on a few other podcasts.
So I guess I'm getting almost accustomed to it.
That's good. I actually don't mind being on the other end of the microphone,
having people ask me questions about it. It's a nice change of pace.
(05:21):
Yeah, absolutely. It's always fun to be on a podcast and, you know,
you're talking about something that we're both passionate about. So it's cool.
(05:51):
Still underutilized, you know, as, as there are, you guys have put out a bunch
of new products lately, and I think there's many of them that are underutilized,
but let's talk about the grenade.
When did you, when did you come up with the idea? Cause I don't think it was
something that, you know, the, the original grenade came out,
geez, Brad, when was that? 2021 maybe?
Uh, it was 21 or 22, I believe. Okay. And then, and then last year was the mini grenade.
(06:12):
And then this year it's the monster grenade. And we'll talk about all three
of those sizes, but like, how long has this idea been in the works?
Well, remarkably enough, uh, Carrie and I were talking about that earlier today.
So probably in 05, 07, somewhere in there, I started fishing with Larry Dahlberg
hunt for big fish and did some TV programs with him and we were fishing muskies of course,
(06:34):
but Larry showed up, it was either 07 or 08.
With a heavy head, kind of similar to the lead head that we have,
that had like antennas sticking off of it.
And there was blades off the top of those antennas and we caught fish on it.
And I was like kind of dumbfounded.
And so not dumbfounded that they ate it, but I was dumbfounded in the way they ate it.
(06:58):
So we would have some following fish, kind of negative neutral type fish coming into the boat.
And what he was doing was something that was very unique.
And I've used this and utilized it now since this time frame,
he was free spooling that bait to go downward after that fish faded in the figure eight.
(07:18):
And what would happen is he'd count it down, say three, seven, whatever it might be.
And he'd click the reel. And as soon as he started coming back upward, that fish would eat it.
And I went, wow, that is really remarkable.
So not really utilizing
it as a jigging bait but basically getting
(07:39):
that fish to reenact with that bait after it's
faded away from the figure eight by just literally dropping it
down in the water column as soon as he hit his reel
that fish would eat it not every time but that
really made me think about something there so the
original design like i said had the antennas with
two antennas with blades coming off of
(08:00):
that and that was back in 07 08 and
then i don't know probably five six years ago i
started recreating it basically giving it the lead head and i wanted to have
tail blades on there and the reason i wanted tail blades on there plain and
simple was we had messed around with the moon series the ds4 the jr4 and the
(08:21):
jr3 there is something special when it comes comes to tail bladed baits.
And you could look at some of the different jigging baits that are out there.
They have a little blade on the back end of that jigging bait.
I think Brad Rue, you know, he's had some attachments. The, what was the dog
called with the blade on it? The helo dog?
Helly dog. Yeah. Or helly dog. Yep. And you know, blades are definitely a good attractant, right?
(08:47):
But amazingly enough, there's something special when it comes to tail bladed,
baits it's just i don't know if it you know
the fish thinks so that it's a little tail kicking back there or what
that is but they definitely get attracted to
that and that's kind of how this all arrived and honestly i don't i can't tell
(09:07):
you i mean it was five six years ago that i started playing with that original
concept tore the antennas off and started working on this particular bait and
i know there's some people out there that say it's a knockoff of some sort if
i knocked off off to anything.
It was basically Larry Dahlberg's antenna headed bait. That's where it started.
That's interesting. It's kind of funny though. Sometimes like what's old is
(09:29):
new. Is that, I mean, does that make sense?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at a lot of the different baits that have
come out in the last 10 years, if you, I have some old collecting lure books, right?
And if you look at these collectors lure books, you can find tons of different
things that we've seen in the last five to 10 years.
Like you said, what is old becomes new, right? Right.
(09:52):
And there's so many different baits that have been manufactured or built over
a period of the last hundred years.
And a lot of them were really good ideas and solutions, but somehow they got
forgotten about. So they get revived in a different manner.
Yeah. All right. So people look at this bait, Brad, and they kind of think to
themselves, like, where, where am I going to use this bait?
(10:13):
Is it, I mean, is this something you're only using in open water or do you ever
use it over shallow weeds?
Like what's the application for this thing and then let's talk
about what you use to throw it with because like the mini is not
too bad the grenades a little bit bigger but that monster that's
something whole new a whole new animal but from what i understand brad they
still only use the same head as well that is correct we're using the one style
(10:37):
head and to be honest with you i don't remember what the ounces are on that
particular head i know the the weights of each each of the different sizes, I can share that.
But the uniqueness to this is because it's forward weighted.
I see the application when I first designed it, I fish a lot of hard breaks.
And so my thought process was, I'm going to cast up to say six, eight feet.
(11:01):
And as I retrieve my cast at a moderate speed, it's going to start slowly falling down that break line.
And so you're kind of covering that whole structure with one cast versus this
guy's got to throw So this kind of bait, this guy's going to do this with this bait.
You can do that with this particular bait. The grenade is, that's where I thought it would shine the most.
(11:24):
Remarkably enough, it has shined more after dark, which is,
I never considered it to be a night bait, but man, the last couple of seasons,
and if you've watched me, I'm 10,000 cast, we're using it after dark a lot.
And again, I think it's that tail blades, you know, and, and that's the uniqueness to that.
But the other thing that I never really truly factored into that,
(11:46):
you know, for uses was it's relatively weedless.
And if you are burning that bait in and say two,
three feet, four feet of solid weeds, blades
it's relatively weedless i don't know if that big
head on there just kind of wedges its way through and keeps the
hooks clean the other beautiful part is is because
those blades are on a swivel on the rear end if the
(12:08):
blade dies they instantaneously start right back up so you can use it in those
manners as well on top of it we started using it in a trolling fashion two years
ago and remarkably have had a ton of success with that as well i know we got
a couple fish this year on Mayhem's 10,000 cast trolling it, one on St.
Clair, and then one locally here by my neck of the woods. And I've caught a
(12:31):
ton of other fish when we're not filming as well.
So it's kind of bizarre.
I had a guide down in the Twin Cities reach out to me and said,
hey, can you troll this? And I said, absolutely.
He called me that night and he goes, well, we got three on it.
And he was trolling and he was not weighting it down any more than what it is,
just as the way the bait is made.
A lot of times what I'll do is I'll put an eight ounce or
(12:54):
a a four ounce ball on my three or four foot
leader just to get that bait down there just a little bit because
blades have a tendency of lifting when you're
trolling them at a higher speed oh let's get back to
the trolling thing in a minute but let's talk about casting this thing
on say a weed edge what what's your cast
like i mean what's the retrieve like you i mean you
(13:14):
start retrieving it as soon as it hits the water are you ripping
it like a bulldog are you straight retrieving it what's the
standard cast i basically do
a steady retrieve and you know when i
originally said that i wanted to make this bait so
that we could stay down relatively deep in the deep or on a hard break like
that i'm going to retrieve it moderately kind of a slow almost and the reason
(13:39):
i'm doing that is because it's falling as i'm retrieving right the uniqueness
to having that forward heavy heavy lead head on the front.
It really lets the bait stay level in the water column.
If that makes sense, as you're retrieving it, it's level where a lot of other
bucktails are tail weighted.
You'll see on there, it looks like they're doing a wheelie in the water,
right? So I think guys like that part of it.
(14:03):
The beauty of it is, is that all three sizes, the mini, the regular grenade,
and the monster grenade all fall at the same rate.
So if I want to be in a certain water column, say I know that the bait fish
are sitting at 10 feet, I'm going to simply cast that bait out.
I'm going to count the 10 and on a moderate retrieve, it's going to stay right at that 10 foot zone.
(14:24):
So that empowers you to actually put the bait where you want it in the water column.
All right. So you talked about being a night bait. What's the standard practice
there? Do you let it fall as much in the night or are you keeping it up? What's the practice?
Well, again, it's going to be correlated with the structure, right?
And where I'm utilizing it the most is exactly where I thought this bait was going to shine.
(14:47):
And that's on the harder breaks. So if those fish are a little bit deeper in
the water column, I'm going to simply cast it up on top of the break.
And I just engage immediately. I'm not counting anything down.
I'm not trying to get any more depth on it. but I'm going to retrieve at a slow, slow pace.
When you're retrieving at a slow pace, it's still got a slight fall.
(15:07):
For those guys out there that have LiveScope, you will be able to kind of get
an idea immediately on where that bait is at whatever speed you're actually
cranking it in at. So it's got a slight fall.
It empowers you on those hard breaks just to keep it more in the strike zone.
Yeah, very cool. So let's, you know, one thing we only kind of touched on,
(15:27):
Brad, is like mini regular grenade and monster grenade for anglers that are
interested what's the difference between all three of them.
The biggest difference is length. I mean, that's the most noticeable,
right? So you pick up a Mini, you're going to notice it's 10 and a half inches long.
It's got two number seven blades on the tail end.
It has two four-aught hooks. It's two skirts. And it weighs at 4.5 ounce.
(15:52):
And this is the remarkable part, right?
So I said all three of them have a fall rate of one foot per second.
So the Grenade is a 13-inch bait.
So it's not a huge difference in size, but there's three skirts on it.
There's a seven-aught and a four-aught hook on it, and that's utilizing two
number nine blades, and the weight is actually five ounces.
(16:14):
The crazy part about this is that fall rate stays the same, and it's based upon
the blades, in my opinion.
You know, the blades, as you get to a bigger blade, they drag more in the water,
and so that's going to keep that fall rate the same.
The monster is five skirts with two
seven knot hooks and it's 17 inches long
and it has two number 10 blades on it i also added a three quarter ounce weight
(16:38):
on the tail and the reason i did that is for casting when you have a forward
heavy bait a lot of times when you're casting it's going to foul cast because
it's like throwing a big chunk of rubber like a bulldog or a medusa,
there's a chance for fouled casts right well i
didn't want that to happen with the 17 inch monster grenade so i put a three
(16:59):
quarter ounce weight in the tail which kind of lays that bait out and one of
the things that i should mention is right before that bait's going to hit the
water just put your thumb on the spool and that bait will lay itself completely straight out so,
definitely a factor or a key to getting those baits to lay out nice and pretty
for you and not have any of those fall casts this might not be an easy question
(17:23):
but if you're going to reach for a grenade, what size are you reaching for the most often Brad?
Generally, the regular grenade. It's so funny to me.
I know we were filming this last year, and I'm using the regular grenade,
and I'm catching smaller fish. And another gentleman that was in a boat,
Gavin Falk, he was using the mini, and he was catching the big fish.
(17:45):
So I think there's a time and a place, right? And I think part of that was he
was in the front of the boat.
I was in the middle. So he was getting the first crack at most of the fish, that's for sure.
But I like big baits and,
you know, the monster grenade was kind of, I don't know how that really,
I mean, I know how it came about and we were going to film and I'm thinking,
(18:07):
okay, we got to, we got to fulfill our commitment to Team Rhino Outdoors, right?
I mean, you're a sponsor and we're very proud of that. And I wanted to make
sure that we could fulfill catches on a big bait show.
The whole show was dedicated to fishing big baits.
Turns out I probably wouldn't have had to have made it the
uniqueness to that is chase ended up catching one on
(18:29):
a team rhino outdoors 14 is jake so it turned out we probably didn't need it
but I put this thing together and we started fishing it and the first evening
I caught two fish on it so right there I went all right there is a purpose for
this and it's just a bigger.
Bigger, complete bait, you know, and I love big bait.
(18:51):
So the other side to it too, is I think that monster is really going to shine
when it comes to, you know, your late salt trolling or even your open water trolling in the spring.
It is a mammoth bait, that monster grenade. Even when I got them,
Brad, I was like, holy man, because the grenade's a decent size bait.
Not really what I would consider to be large. Just like, I mean,
if you're a mag dog thrower, it's, it's probably profiles even smaller than that, I would imagine.
(19:15):
But that monster grenade, she's a big one. There's no doubt about that.
We call that one the Minnesota grenade probably, huh?
I mean, that's probably a better name for it.
Yeah. I mean, for whatever reason, us Minnesotans love big baits and, and our fish do too.
So for good reason, right? We're throwing a lot of bigger baits than a lot of
the other states across the country.
(19:36):
Well, that makes sense. I mean, Gavin's a Wisconsin guy, so he's throwing the
mini one. I could, I could see that being the Wisconsin grenade.
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, you know, I think we kind of missed the boat the
first year with just the regular grenade.
Made there's a lot of states out there that don't
want to bait that big right so ultimately i mean it only made sense to make
(19:56):
that mini right after that so that's when we came out with that the second year
i'm still holding out hope for the micro when's that coming well remarkably
enough we've played with that
and i've got some buddies that fish bass tournaments and this and that so.
They started asking if we could make something smaller and
then we've done it i do have a smaller mold for the
(20:18):
head i'll be honest we pour all those lead
heads ourselves it's kind of a pain in the butt and it's
very time consuming but i do think it's worth it
and at some point i don't
know you think we'll do it i'm not a hundred percent sure but
there is a use for it i know like i said my
buddy that fishes these bass tournaments he was crushing some
(20:38):
bass with it so i know he's caught him on
the mini grenade as well but generally speaking i think
that's more of a musky pike size size it's
funny because the i mean that smaller size there's not even
i mean there's a market for it outside of just you know bass
fishing it's there's definitely a market for musky wise too
we've we have a few different bait companies that offer
up some smaller sizes like that and then they sell
(21:01):
really pretty well especially you know that ohio market
they're definitely in into that small bait you
know presentation i mean i know you fished
out there and i'm assuming they'll eat big baits as well but it seems like the more
often the majority is going to that smaller size yeah i
won't argue any of that with you jeff and and you know i
think a smaller version of the mini would probably really shine
(21:22):
when you're fishing in that two to four foot of water like say that first cold
front of the year end of august beginning of september when you're burning baits
these don't hurt when you're retrieving them right i mean it really doesn't
feel like there's anything on there i think a lot of people are scared of the
big lead head and they're You're thinking, man.
This thing's so heavy and it's going to pull really hard. Look at the blades on it.
(21:45):
But the way that those blades are utilized with the swivel, they really retrieve super easily.
So it's kind of a painless bait. It's easy to cast and it's easy to retrieve.
All right, Brad, we got a couple of questions and I want to wrap up here before
I let you go. Because we're trying to keep these a little bit shorter form.
Let's talk about the trolling. I've never trolled a grenade.
(22:07):
If I'm going to go out and troll it, what are you going to tell me to do to
get this thing to catch muskies?
Well, the uniqueness to this whole thing, Jeff, I mean, it's kind of dependent
upon what you're trawling, right?
So if you're trawling break lines, you don't necessarily need to put another
weight, an additional weight to that bait.
Generally speaking, if I'm in the open water or the deeper breaks or where I'm
(22:32):
not worrying about weeds or whatever, I'm going to probably put a four to eight
ounce lead on there like I had talked about.
And where I'm putting that is where you tie the line to the leader.
So you can use a three-foot trolling leader or a four-foot trolling leader.
You're going to clip that weight right up on that eye of where you tied your line.
And what that does is it just keeps the bait down in the water column a little
(22:55):
bit. And, oh, I'm trying to think.
My line counters were somewhere around 37 feet of line out.
And I believe it was down like 10 foot, 8 to 10 foot. foot. So,
and that's going about three and a half, three, two to three, four miles per hour.
So I like that depth when it comes to trolling.
(23:16):
I mean, most of my crankbaits are running that eight to 10, maybe 12 foot in
some circumstances later in the fall when the water's really cold,
but that's what I'm going to do.
Now, the particular guy that I was talking about in the Twin Cities,
when he was fishing with the grenades and trolling,
he did not utilize a weight in front of it he was
keeping his bait say two feet down at about three three
(23:38):
miles an hour 3.2 he said and scored
three fish the first day he tried it so i think the
median of the lake is also a factor in this jeff and it's more so on where the
bait fish are located what kind of structures you're actually trolling so you
don't need to utilize that weight if you want it higher in the water column
and it's another way of running a bait on a down rod that's going to be a little
(24:02):
little bit higher in the water column without a weight.
Very cool. Something that I should definitely give a shot to,
you know, it's, I would imagine Brad, in this case, it's certainly a presentation
that a lot of muskies aren't going to see trolled.
Yeah, absolutely. And I thought it was pretty funny. You know,
we, Chase and I went out and started filming with Jason Quintano on St.
Clair and they're using the big boat and he was like, man, Brad,
(24:26):
he goes, the grenade has been so on fire. And he's like, I'm not telling anybody
because we got our tournaments coming up and I'm going to be the only one trolling.
And I don't know, I should probably reach out to him and ask him how many 50
inch fish he caught on it this year.
But through this past year, interestingly enough, I mean, I was already trolling it myself.
(24:46):
And I think a lot of people, they don't look at blade baits as being a great trolling option.
And I think that's what makes it shine. you know the
beauty of this design is because of that
swivel and the way the blades are attached to the swivel you don't
have that premature wear out problems that
you do like on a lot of other blade baits so it's it's a cool way to do some
(25:09):
different presentation that nobody else is really doing at this point all right
last question i have for you brad unless you get something else you want to
talk about what's the main reason why somebody needs to have this one in their
tackle The main reason is, I mean, the truth's in the pudding, right?
I mean, if you've watched our TV show, or you've talked to some of the individuals
that are actually utilizing it, it just plain catches fish.
(25:30):
And it allows you to fish in different locations than most blade baits go.
So having the ability to count down a blade bait in this fashion or form, it helps.
It's putting a bait with blades where no other blade baits really go.
So that's the bottom line with that.
You know, you had asked another question as well, Jeff, and that was how I'm
(25:50):
working it. I'm doing a steady retrieve.
Now, there are guys out there that are yo-yoing it back to the boat,
same as you would work a rubber bait or potentially even like a jerk bait.
They're doing that. I will say that there's nothing wrong with that.
And I know guys are utilizing that and catching fish that way.
But generally speaking, I am going to, I'm just going to do that steady retrieve,
(26:14):
keep those blades engaged.
And if they bump into weeds or bait fish, they just jump right back into gear.
So it works out good that way as well.
Talking about your retrieve, it made me think of another thing.
Like what kind of rod are you throwing on this thing? Are you using extra heavy,
heavy? What's the setup?
Surprisingly enough, the Blademaster 2 is probably the go-to rod.
The last two years, Chase and I have really been working on some rods for St. Croix.
(26:38):
And I know you at Team Randall Outdoors, you sell some of those St. Croix.
So hopefully the rods that we've been working on prototyping will be in your shop at one point too.
But the two rods that Chase and I really elevated to on the TV show,
say three years ago, was a Blademaster II as well as the Blue Ox.
And both are great options.
The Blue Ox is probably more recommended with the Monster Grenade.
(27:01):
But the blademaster 2 can handle all three of
those very very simply yeah that blademaster 2
i got to play with that a little bit last season it's a pretty good all-around
rod i mean if you're going to push the limits like you said with
you know big rubber and stuff like that maybe not so much
but it's a great rod for a lot of different size blades it's a nine foot six
rod telescopic so you can fit it in rod lockers if that's concerned for you
(27:23):
definitely a very cool rod for people to check out this season absolutely jeff
i can't argue with that at all because Because if you were going to only be able to afford one rod,
I would recommend the Blademaster too. I mean, it is truly remarkable.
The beauty of that grass panel design too is something that's very incredible.
It blows my mind. I mean, we're kind of going off topic here,
(27:44):
but it blows my mind when I get people in the boat.
They're like, I'm not interested in using that.
When they first see the grass, they want nothing to do with it.
I tell them just fish with it for 10, 15 minutes. Within that first 10 to 15,
20 minutes, they look back at me and they go, now I got to buy one of these.
And it changes your life in comfort and everything else.
(28:06):
And when you're throwing big, big baits like that, you definitely want to have
something that's comfortable to work with.
And it puts your wrist in line with the rod.
And all I can say is comfort is important, especially as many hours as us musky
anglers are putting on the water.
All right, Brad, I want to thank you for your time talking about the grenade
(28:27):
series from Muskie Mayhem Tackle.
If you're looking for grenades, you can obviously go to teamrhinooutdoors.com
and we have a full line of grenades there.
You can go to muskiemayhemtackle.com and you can find grenades there.
And also you can see us this weekend at the Minnesota Muskie Expo.
We will be there and I will have some grenades in my booth.
Brad will definitely have a bunch of grenades in his booth. So if you want,
(28:49):
swing on out, see us in Minnesota this coming weekend. Again,
it's the Minnesota Muskie Expo, March 8th, 9th, and 10th. Looking forward to that expo.
Again, Brad, I want to thank you for coming out and taking time out of your schedule.
I want to thank our listeners for dialing up this podcast. I know it's been pretty inconsistent.
Hopefully, we're a lot more consistent. I'm going to shoot for a Monday release.
We'll call it Muskie Gear Monday.
(29:10):
That's kind of what we're looking at moving forward. Again, thank you all.
We'll catch everybody again with another episode.
Music.
Music.
(00:05):
All right, it's only been about 14 months since we've done this Team Rhino Outdoors
muskie fishing podcast. Let's just call this Muskie Gear Monday or something like that.
Hoping to fire up this podcast at least throughout the course of fishing season.
I want to do it on a regular basis.
I'm hoping it'll be a weekly thing, but we'll see.
If you're obviously, if you're following us, you, many people know podcast wise
(00:28):
that we have the Backlash podcast.
I do that with Brad Hoppe from Muskie Mayhem Tackle.
That one is as consistent as it comes we
do that every single week every wednesday at 5
a.m we have a new new episode so go check out that one and
then hopefully this one here will be consistent like i said at least
now through the fishing season primarily on this podcast i'm.
(00:48):
Just talking gear and we used to just talk to
you know manufacturers people that were
making the baits and i think we're going to expand that to guides just talk
about what they're using on the water what they're catching you know
that kind of stuff and we'll try to get some stories in
there as well short form you know if you're looking
for long form podcasts there's plenty of
(01:09):
those out there our backlash podcasts that'd be like
medium and then this one's going to be short we're going to try
to keep these episodes under half an hour just kind of quick hitters
so you guys can you know find out what's going on
learn about some new baits that you may not be
familiar with and how they may apply to your fishing
so with that being said i'm going
to talk this week to my co-host from backlash podcast.
(01:31):
About the grenade that is a bait that is not
new but they have a new version this
year it's a bigger one the monster grenade and we'll talk to brad
about you know the who what where when how and why that you're
going to want to use that one so that's something that you'd want to check out i
failed to mention though if you like this podcast make sure
you hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're on that way
(01:52):
it gets downloaded to your phone and you don't have to
go searching it out every week or see if we have a new episode like i
said hopefully it'll be consistent but if you hit the subscribe button it
definitely will help me get this podcast out to you
and me being i'm jeff team rhino outdoors
the company that i own within the muskie industry is team
rhino outdoors you can find us at teamrhinooutdoors.com and
(02:14):
we are primarily known for custom gear our
slogan would have been you know something about you know see us
for the best custom colors in the market but nowadays
we've expanded to many other things rods reels nets that kind of stuff so if
you're looking for you know most of your one-stop fishing shop we have you covered
in a lot of ways obviously you could point out some holes that we still have
(02:39):
and we work now to to fill those holes.
Moving on, we are going to be, hopefully you'll hear this episode right before
the Minnesota Muskie Expo. This will be out on a Monday.
And so it'd be, you know, a few days down the road, you're going to want to check it out.
The Minnesota Muskie Expo, that'd be March 8th, 9th, and 10th.
We're in the Warner Coliseum at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. So check us out there.
(03:06):
We'll have some cool gear there, 50 feet of the best gear that you're looking
for. If you want to save a little bit of money on a net for shipping and things
like that, we should have some clams, some frables, and some RS nets.
That's just a few of the things we'll feature there at the show.
Tons of gear, tons of TRO-lettered clothing, and hopefully we see many smiling
(03:27):
faces in the Minnesota show.
Then the week after, we're going to be at the Wisconsin Muskie Expo.
That is in Rothschild or Wausau, and that is at, I believe, the Central Wisconsin Convention Center.
And that one is March 15th, 16th, and 17th. So you can find us there.
That's what we have coming up. Hopefully, if I'm good, I'm working on another
(03:49):
guest. Hopefully, I'll have another guest out before we get to the Wausau show.
So I'm hopeful that in the next handful of days, I can get a guest together.
And then we'll get rolling on that and we'll have another guest.
I'll have another podcast out.
Like I said, just talking gear on these podcasts, short form.
And this week we're gonna talk to brad hoppy with musky mayhem tackle we're
talking about the grenade enough chit chat let's dial up that conversation.
(04:15):
All right my guest this week is brad hoppy many of you know brad is my co-host
on backlash podcast and this week on this podcast since all we do is talk gear
we're not talking necessarily about fishing spots and lakes and all that kind
of stuff i mean that may come in time to time on on where these things get used,
but we're literally just talking about fishing lures to help you get the job
(04:36):
done for this upcoming season.
Brad, we have talked to you on this podcast, but this podcast has been very
inconsistent, like terribly inconsistent.
And I think we talked to Carrie in like episode three, and then somewhere along
the line, we did another one.
So it's been, I don't know, probably two years since I've had you on this solo
podcast. How does it feel to be on the other end of answering questions?
Is it better or worse? Yeah.
(04:57):
Well, remarkably enough, I get invited on a few other podcasts throughout the year as well.
So it's been a while since we've done this one.
I think you said it's already a year since you put one out, but I've been on a few other podcasts.
So I guess I'm getting almost accustomed to it.
That's good. I actually don't mind being on the other end of the microphone,
having people ask me questions about it. It's a nice change of pace.
(05:21):
Yeah, absolutely. It's always fun to be on a podcast and, you know,
you're talking about something that we're both passionate about. So it's cool.
(05:51):
Still underutilized, you know, as, as there are, you guys have put out a bunch
of new products lately, and I think there's many of them that are underutilized,
but let's talk about the grenade.
When did you, when did you come up with the idea? Cause I don't think it was
something that, you know, the, the original grenade came out,
geez, Brad, when was that? 2021 maybe?
Uh, it was 21 or 22, I believe. Okay. And then, and then last year was the mini grenade.
(06:12):
And then this year it's the monster grenade. And we'll talk about all three
of those sizes, but like, how long has this idea been in the works?
Well, remarkably enough, uh, Carrie and I were talking about that earlier today.
So probably in 05, 07, somewhere in there, I started fishing with Larry Dahlberg
hunt for big fish and did some TV programs with him and we were fishing muskies of course,
(06:34):
but Larry showed up, it was either 07 or 08.
With a heavy head, kind of similar to the lead head that we have,
that had like antennas sticking off of it.
And there was blades off the top of those antennas and we caught fish on it.
And I was like kind of dumbfounded.
And so not dumbfounded that they ate it, but I was dumbfounded in the way they ate it.
(06:58):
So we would have some following fish, kind of negative neutral type fish coming into the boat.
And what he was doing was something that was very unique.
And I've used this and utilized it now since this time frame,
he was free spooling that bait to go downward after that fish faded in the figure eight.
(07:18):
And what would happen is he'd count it down, say three, seven, whatever it might be.
And he'd click the reel. And as soon as he started coming back upward, that fish would eat it.
And I went, wow, that is really remarkable.
So not really utilizing
it as a jigging bait but basically getting
(07:39):
that fish to reenact with that bait after it's
faded away from the figure eight by just literally dropping it
down in the water column as soon as he hit his reel
that fish would eat it not every time but that
really made me think about something there so the
original design like i said had the antennas with
two antennas with blades coming off of
(08:00):
that and that was back in 07 08 and
then i don't know probably five six years ago i
started recreating it basically giving it the lead head and i wanted to have
tail blades on there and the reason i wanted tail blades on there plain and
simple was we had messed around with the moon series the ds4 the jr4 and the
(08:21):
jr3 there is something special when it comes comes to tail bladed baits.
And you could look at some of the different jigging baits that are out there.
They have a little blade on the back end of that jigging bait.
I think Brad Rue, you know, he's had some attachments. The, what was the dog
called with the blade on it? The helo dog?
Helly dog. Yeah. Or helly dog. Yep. And you know, blades are definitely a good attractant, right?
(08:47):
But amazingly enough, there's something special when it comes to tail bladed,
baits it's just i don't know if it you know
the fish thinks so that it's a little tail kicking back there or what
that is but they definitely get attracted to
that and that's kind of how this all arrived and honestly i don't i can't tell
(09:07):
you i mean it was five six years ago that i started playing with that original
concept tore the antennas off and started working on this particular bait and
i know there's some people out there that say it's a knockoff of some sort if
i knocked off off to anything.
It was basically Larry Dahlberg's antenna headed bait. That's where it started.
That's interesting. It's kind of funny though. Sometimes like what's old is
(09:29):
new. Is that, I mean, does that make sense?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, if you look at a lot of the different baits that have
come out in the last 10 years, if you, I have some old collecting lure books, right?
And if you look at these collectors lure books, you can find tons of different
things that we've seen in the last five to 10 years.
Like you said, what is old becomes new, right? Right.
(09:52):
And there's so many different baits that have been manufactured or built over
a period of the last hundred years.
And a lot of them were really good ideas and solutions, but somehow they got
forgotten about. So they get revived in a different manner.
Yeah. All right. So people look at this bait, Brad, and they kind of think to
themselves, like, where, where am I going to use this bait?
(10:13):
Is it, I mean, is this something you're only using in open water or do you ever
use it over shallow weeds?
Like what's the application for this thing and then let's talk
about what you use to throw it with because like the mini is not
too bad the grenades a little bit bigger but that monster that's
something whole new a whole new animal but from what i understand brad they
still only use the same head as well that is correct we're using the one style
(10:37):
head and to be honest with you i don't remember what the ounces are on that
particular head i know the the weights of each each of the different sizes, I can share that.
But the uniqueness to this is because it's forward weighted.
I see the application when I first designed it, I fish a lot of hard breaks.
And so my thought process was, I'm going to cast up to say six, eight feet.
(11:01):
And as I retrieve my cast at a moderate speed, it's going to start slowly falling down that break line.
And so you're kind of covering that whole structure with one cast versus this
guy's got to throw So this kind of bait, this guy's going to do this with this bait.
You can do that with this particular bait. The grenade is, that's where I thought it would shine the most.
(11:24):
Remarkably enough, it has shined more after dark, which is,
I never considered it to be a night bait, but man, the last couple of seasons,
and if you've watched me, I'm 10,000 cast, we're using it after dark a lot.
And again, I think it's that tail blades, you know, and, and that's the uniqueness to that.
But the other thing that I never really truly factored into that,
(11:46):
you know, for uses was it's relatively weedless.
And if you are burning that bait in and say two,
three feet, four feet of solid weeds, blades
it's relatively weedless i don't know if that big
head on there just kind of wedges its way through and keeps the
hooks clean the other beautiful part is is because
those blades are on a swivel on the rear end if the
(12:08):
blade dies they instantaneously start right back up so you can use it in those
manners as well on top of it we started using it in a trolling fashion two years
ago and remarkably have had a ton of success with that as well i know we got
a couple fish this year on Mayhem's 10,000 cast trolling it, one on St.
Clair, and then one locally here by my neck of the woods. And I've caught a
(12:31):
ton of other fish when we're not filming as well.
So it's kind of bizarre.
I had a guide down in the Twin Cities reach out to me and said,
hey, can you troll this? And I said, absolutely.
He called me that night and he goes, well, we got three on it.
And he was trolling and he was not weighting it down any more than what it is,
just as the way the bait is made.
A lot of times what I'll do is I'll put an eight ounce or
(12:54):
a a four ounce ball on my three or four foot
leader just to get that bait down there just a little bit because
blades have a tendency of lifting when you're
trolling them at a higher speed oh let's get back to
the trolling thing in a minute but let's talk about casting this thing
on say a weed edge what what's your cast
like i mean what's the retrieve like you i mean you
(13:14):
start retrieving it as soon as it hits the water are you ripping
it like a bulldog are you straight retrieving it what's the
standard cast i basically do
a steady retrieve and you know when i
originally said that i wanted to make this bait so
that we could stay down relatively deep in the deep or on a hard break like
that i'm going to retrieve it moderately kind of a slow almost and the reason
(13:39):
i'm doing that is because it's falling as i'm retrieving right the uniqueness
to having that forward heavy heavy lead head on the front.
It really lets the bait stay level in the water column.
If that makes sense, as you're retrieving it, it's level where a lot of other
bucktails are tail weighted.
You'll see on there, it looks like they're doing a wheelie in the water,
right? So I think guys like that part of it.
(14:03):
The beauty of it is, is that all three sizes, the mini, the regular grenade,
and the monster grenade all fall at the same rate.
So if I want to be in a certain water column, say I know that the bait fish
are sitting at 10 feet, I'm going to simply cast that bait out.
I'm going to count the 10 and on a moderate retrieve, it's going to stay right at that 10 foot zone.
(14:24):
So that empowers you to actually put the bait where you want it in the water column.
All right. So you talked about being a night bait. What's the standard practice
there? Do you let it fall as much in the night or are you keeping it up? What's the practice?
Well, again, it's going to be correlated with the structure, right?
And where I'm utilizing it the most is exactly where I thought this bait was going to shine.
(14:47):
And that's on the harder breaks. So if those fish are a little bit deeper in
the water column, I'm going to simply cast it up on top of the break.
And I just engage immediately. I'm not counting anything down.
I'm not trying to get any more depth on it. but I'm going to retrieve at a slow, slow pace.
When you're retrieving at a slow pace, it's still got a slight fall.
(15:07):
For those guys out there that have LiveScope, you will be able to kind of get
an idea immediately on where that bait is at whatever speed you're actually
cranking it in at. So it's got a slight fall.
It empowers you on those hard breaks just to keep it more in the strike zone.
Yeah, very cool. So let's, you know, one thing we only kind of touched on,
(15:27):
Brad, is like mini regular grenade and monster grenade for anglers that are
interested what's the difference between all three of them.
The biggest difference is length. I mean, that's the most noticeable,
right? So you pick up a Mini, you're going to notice it's 10 and a half inches long.
It's got two number seven blades on the tail end.
It has two four-aught hooks. It's two skirts. And it weighs at 4.5 ounce.
(15:52):
And this is the remarkable part, right?
So I said all three of them have a fall rate of one foot per second.
So the Grenade is a 13-inch bait.
So it's not a huge difference in size, but there's three skirts on it.
There's a seven-aught and a four-aught hook on it, and that's utilizing two
number nine blades, and the weight is actually five ounces.
(16:14):
The crazy part about this is that fall rate stays the same, and it's based upon
the blades, in my opinion.
You know, the blades, as you get to a bigger blade, they drag more in the water,
and so that's going to keep that fall rate the same.
The monster is five skirts with two
seven knot hooks and it's 17 inches long
and it has two number 10 blades on it i also added a three quarter ounce weight
(16:38):
on the tail and the reason i did that is for casting when you have a forward
heavy bait a lot of times when you're casting it's going to foul cast because
it's like throwing a big chunk of rubber like a bulldog or a medusa,
there's a chance for fouled casts right well i
didn't want that to happen with the 17 inch monster grenade so i put a three
(16:59):
quarter ounce weight in the tail which kind of lays that bait out and one of
the things that i should mention is right before that bait's going to hit the
water just put your thumb on the spool and that bait will lay itself completely straight out so,
definitely a factor or a key to getting those baits to lay out nice and pretty
for you and not have any of those fall casts this might not be an easy question
(17:23):
but if you're going to reach for a grenade, what size are you reaching for the most often Brad?
Generally, the regular grenade. It's so funny to me.
I know we were filming this last year, and I'm using the regular grenade,
and I'm catching smaller fish. And another gentleman that was in a boat,
Gavin Falk, he was using the mini, and he was catching the big fish.
(17:45):
So I think there's a time and a place, right? And I think part of that was he
was in the front of the boat.
I was in the middle. So he was getting the first crack at most of the fish, that's for sure.
But I like big baits and,
you know, the monster grenade was kind of, I don't know how that really,
I mean, I know how it came about and we were going to film and I'm thinking,
(18:07):
okay, we got to, we got to fulfill our commitment to Team Rhino Outdoors, right?
I mean, you're a sponsor and we're very proud of that. And I wanted to make
sure that we could fulfill catches on a big bait show.
The whole show was dedicated to fishing big baits.
Turns out I probably wouldn't have had to have made it the
uniqueness to that is chase ended up catching one on
(18:29):
a team rhino outdoors 14 is jake so it turned out we probably didn't need it
but I put this thing together and we started fishing it and the first evening
I caught two fish on it so right there I went all right there is a purpose for
this and it's just a bigger.
Bigger, complete bait, you know, and I love big bait.
(18:51):
So the other side to it too, is I think that monster is really going to shine
when it comes to, you know, your late salt trolling or even your open water trolling in the spring.
It is a mammoth bait, that monster grenade. Even when I got them,
Brad, I was like, holy man, because the grenade's a decent size bait.
Not really what I would consider to be large. Just like, I mean,
if you're a mag dog thrower, it's, it's probably profiles even smaller than that, I would imagine.
(19:15):
But that monster grenade, she's a big one. There's no doubt about that.
We call that one the Minnesota grenade probably, huh?
I mean, that's probably a better name for it.
Yeah. I mean, for whatever reason, us Minnesotans love big baits and, and our fish do too.
So for good reason, right? We're throwing a lot of bigger baits than a lot of
the other states across the country.
(19:36):
Well, that makes sense. I mean, Gavin's a Wisconsin guy, so he's throwing the
mini one. I could, I could see that being the Wisconsin grenade.
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, you know, I think we kind of missed the boat the
first year with just the regular grenade.
Made there's a lot of states out there that don't
want to bait that big right so ultimately i mean it only made sense to make
(19:56):
that mini right after that so that's when we came out with that the second year
i'm still holding out hope for the micro when's that coming well remarkably
enough we've played with that
and i've got some buddies that fish bass tournaments and this and that so.
They started asking if we could make something smaller and
then we've done it i do have a smaller mold for the
(20:18):
head i'll be honest we pour all those lead
heads ourselves it's kind of a pain in the butt and it's
very time consuming but i do think it's worth it
and at some point i don't
know you think we'll do it i'm not a hundred percent sure but
there is a use for it i know like i said my
buddy that fishes these bass tournaments he was crushing some
(20:38):
bass with it so i know he's caught him on
the mini grenade as well but generally speaking i think
that's more of a musky pike size size it's
funny because the i mean that smaller size there's not even
i mean there's a market for it outside of just you know bass
fishing it's there's definitely a market for musky wise too
we've we have a few different bait companies that offer
up some smaller sizes like that and then they sell
(21:01):
really pretty well especially you know that ohio market
they're definitely in into that small bait you
know presentation i mean i know you fished
out there and i'm assuming they'll eat big baits as well but it seems like the more
often the majority is going to that smaller size yeah i
won't argue any of that with you jeff and and you know i
think a smaller version of the mini would probably really shine
(21:22):
when you're fishing in that two to four foot of water like say that first cold
front of the year end of august beginning of september when you're burning baits
these don't hurt when you're retrieving them right i mean it really doesn't
feel like there's anything on there i think a lot of people are scared of the
big lead head and they're You're thinking, man.
This thing's so heavy and it's going to pull really hard. Look at the blades on it.
(21:45):
But the way that those blades are utilized with the swivel, they really retrieve super easily.
So it's kind of a painless bait. It's easy to cast and it's easy to retrieve.
All right, Brad, we got a couple of questions and I want to wrap up here before
I let you go. Because we're trying to keep these a little bit shorter form.
Let's talk about the trolling. I've never trolled a grenade.
(22:07):
If I'm going to go out and troll it, what are you going to tell me to do to
get this thing to catch muskies?
Well, the uniqueness to this whole thing, Jeff, I mean, it's kind of dependent
upon what you're trawling, right?
So if you're trawling break lines, you don't necessarily need to put another
weight, an additional weight to that bait.
Generally speaking, if I'm in the open water or the deeper breaks or where I'm
(22:32):
not worrying about weeds or whatever, I'm going to probably put a four to eight
ounce lead on there like I had talked about.
And where I'm putting that is where you tie the line to the leader.
So you can use a three-foot trolling leader or a four-foot trolling leader.
You're going to clip that weight right up on that eye of where you tied your line.
And what that does is it just keeps the bait down in the water column a little
(22:55):
bit. And, oh, I'm trying to think.
My line counters were somewhere around 37 feet of line out.
And I believe it was down like 10 foot, 8 to 10 foot. foot. So,
and that's going about three and a half, three, two to three, four miles per hour.
So I like that depth when it comes to trolling.
(23:16):
I mean, most of my crankbaits are running that eight to 10, maybe 12 foot in
some circumstances later in the fall when the water's really cold,
but that's what I'm going to do.
Now, the particular guy that I was talking about in the Twin Cities,
when he was fishing with the grenades and trolling,
he did not utilize a weight in front of it he was
keeping his bait say two feet down at about three three
(23:38):
miles an hour 3.2 he said and scored
three fish the first day he tried it so i think the
median of the lake is also a factor in this jeff and it's more so on where the
bait fish are located what kind of structures you're actually trolling so you
don't need to utilize that weight if you want it higher in the water column
and it's another way of running a bait on a down rod that's going to be a little
(24:02):
little bit higher in the water column without a weight.
Very cool. Something that I should definitely give a shot to,
you know, it's, I would imagine Brad, in this case, it's certainly a presentation
that a lot of muskies aren't going to see trolled.
Yeah, absolutely. And I thought it was pretty funny. You know,
we, Chase and I went out and started filming with Jason Quintano on St.
Clair and they're using the big boat and he was like, man, Brad,
(24:26):
he goes, the grenade has been so on fire. And he's like, I'm not telling anybody
because we got our tournaments coming up and I'm going to be the only one trolling.
And I don't know, I should probably reach out to him and ask him how many 50
inch fish he caught on it this year.
But through this past year, interestingly enough, I mean, I was already trolling it myself.
(24:46):
And I think a lot of people, they don't look at blade baits as being a great trolling option.
And I think that's what makes it shine. you know the
beauty of this design is because of that
swivel and the way the blades are attached to the swivel you don't
have that premature wear out problems that
you do like on a lot of other blade baits so it's it's a cool way to do some
(25:09):
different presentation that nobody else is really doing at this point all right
last question i have for you brad unless you get something else you want to
talk about what's the main reason why somebody needs to have this one in their
tackle The main reason is, I mean, the truth's in the pudding, right?
I mean, if you've watched our TV show, or you've talked to some of the individuals
that are actually utilizing it, it just plain catches fish.
(25:30):
And it allows you to fish in different locations than most blade baits go.
So having the ability to count down a blade bait in this fashion or form, it helps.
It's putting a bait with blades where no other blade baits really go.
So that's the bottom line with that.
You know, you had asked another question as well, Jeff, and that was how I'm
(25:50):
working it. I'm doing a steady retrieve.
Now, there are guys out there that are yo-yoing it back to the boat,
same as you would work a rubber bait or potentially even like a jerk bait.
They're doing that. I will say that there's nothing wrong with that.
And I know guys are utilizing that and catching fish that way.
But generally speaking, I am going to, I'm just going to do that steady retrieve,
(26:14):
keep those blades engaged.
And if they bump into weeds or bait fish, they just jump right back into gear.
So it works out good that way as well.
Talking about your retrieve, it made me think of another thing.
Like what kind of rod are you throwing on this thing? Are you using extra heavy,
heavy? What's the setup?
Surprisingly enough, the Blademaster 2 is probably the go-to rod.
The last two years, Chase and I have really been working on some rods for St. Croix.
(26:38):
And I know you at Team Randall Outdoors, you sell some of those St. Croix.
So hopefully the rods that we've been working on prototyping will be in your shop at one point too.
But the two rods that Chase and I really elevated to on the TV show,
say three years ago, was a Blademaster II as well as the Blue Ox.
And both are great options.
The Blue Ox is probably more recommended with the Monster Grenade.
(27:01):
But the blademaster 2 can handle all three of
those very very simply yeah that blademaster 2
i got to play with that a little bit last season it's a pretty good all-around
rod i mean if you're going to push the limits like you said with
you know big rubber and stuff like that maybe not so much
but it's a great rod for a lot of different size blades it's a nine foot six
rod telescopic so you can fit it in rod lockers if that's concerned for you
(27:23):
definitely a very cool rod for people to check out this season absolutely jeff
i can't argue with that at all because Because if you were going to only be able to afford one rod,
I would recommend the Blademaster too. I mean, it is truly remarkable.
The beauty of that grass panel design too is something that's very incredible.
It blows my mind. I mean, we're kind of going off topic here,
(27:44):
but it blows my mind when I get people in the boat.
They're like, I'm not interested in using that.
When they first see the grass, they want nothing to do with it.
I tell them just fish with it for 10, 15 minutes. Within that first 10 to 15,
20 minutes, they look back at me and they go, now I got to buy one of these.
And it changes your life in comfort and everything else.
(28:06):
And when you're throwing big, big baits like that, you definitely want to have
something that's comfortable to work with.
And it puts your wrist in line with the rod.
And all I can say is comfort is important, especially as many hours as us musky
anglers are putting on the water.
All right, Brad, I want to thank you for your time talking about the grenade
(28:27):
series from Muskie Mayhem Tackle.
If you're looking for grenades, you can obviously go to teamrhinooutdoors.com
and we have a full line of grenades there.
You can go to muskiemayhemtackle.com and you can find grenades there.
And also you can see us this weekend at the Minnesota Muskie Expo.
We will be there and I will have some grenades in my booth.
Brad will definitely have a bunch of grenades in his booth. So if you want,
(28:49):
swing on out, see us in Minnesota this coming weekend. Again,
it's the Minnesota Muskie Expo, March 8th, 9th, and 10th. Looking forward to that expo.
Again, Brad, I want to thank you for coming out and taking time out of your schedule.
I want to thank our listeners for dialing up this podcast. I know it's been pretty inconsistent.
Hopefully, we're a lot more consistent. I'm going to shoot for a Monday release.
We'll call it Muskie Gear Monday.
(29:10):
That's kind of what we're looking at moving forward. Again, thank you all.
We'll catch everybody again with another episode.
Music.
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