March 25, 2024 • 37 mins
In the 'Muskie Talk Monday' episode of Team Rhino Outdoors Muskie Fishing Podcast, we welcome Vance Kaloz from VK Musky Lures. Unwrapping the intricate process and journey of becoming a respected producer of muskie lures, Vance discusses his unique bait designs 'Stinger Gliders' and chronicles his transition from under the label Fat AZ to his own brand VK.
Hear Vance's backstory, his passion for bait-making, and the role he played in the niche popularity growth of his stinger creation in the muskie lure market. Learn about the importance of functionality of every part of a lure brought about by handcrafted precision, and how customer demand impacts their manufacture.
As we delve deeper, the discussion shifts focus on muskie fishing itself. Vance shares valuable insights into the types, weights, and uses of gliders and other baits, his preferences for rods, and why anglers should also take into account bait presentation in their fishing strategy.
Witness Vance's intricate journey of fine-tuning the six-inch glide, every detail from weight tunings, split ring sizes, to the critical epoxy finish matters in order to achieve the perfect bait. Listen in as he narrates the ups, downs, passion, and perseverance required in this craft, ultimately leading to his success in the musky fishing industry.
Don't miss this episode of Muskie Talk Monday—a gripping story of dedication, science, and innovation in pursuit of revolutionizing Muskie fishing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:05):
Welcome to another episode of Muskie Talk Monday on the Team Rhino Outdoors
Muskie Fishing Podcast.
This week I'm going to talk to Vance Kalaz with VK Muskie Lures and we're going
to talk about the Stinger Gliders.
He's got the new 6 inch and the new 8 inch and of course if you're looking for
those baits, check them out at TeamRhinoOutdoors.com.
As you'll hear in this episode, Vance is a muskie fishing guide so he's only
(00:29):
making baits in the off season.
And so what we have in stock is all we will have in stock until I'm assuming
sometime in early winter, it'd be maybe get us something in December.
Hopefully we'll be loaded up again before show season next year.
And fortunately we have many, many of them in stock currently.
So if you're looking for, you know, some new stinger glide baits,
(00:50):
check them out at teamrionoutdoors.com.
I will have to say that I don't know. I did another episode and it was literally
supposed to be out this week.
Week but because we don't have the baits in stock I pushed
that episode out so if you hear an episode coming
up pretty soon and the intro doesn't sound like it lines up with
with things it may not and because I'm way I was way ahead of schedule so and
(01:14):
I assumed that that that podcast was going to be this week and it just didn't
happen to turn out this week so hopefully we'll get those baits in stock soon
and then we can release that podcast but until then we'll just keep that one
on the back burner and all and like I said it may say like hey hey,
it's mid-March and here we are talking about muskies, but it may come out in April.
I don't know. Well, at this point, it will come out in April because it's not coming out in March.
(01:37):
So anyways, that's kind of what that is. As I always say on this podcast,
make sure you hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're listening
to so you never miss an episode.
In the past, I had been very inconsistent with this podcast,
but so far for March, I literally hit every single Monday.
We are the model of consistency with this podcast for at least four weeks.
Some I'm very happy about that that was my goal is try to make this a consistent
(02:01):
short form podcast something to fill in the gaps on your drive sometimes something
to fill in the gaps on your.
You know, when you're walking the dog or, you know, you're out taking a walk
or you're at the gym or whatever.
And just to help you get an introduction to different gear, when we get fishing
and when we're talking to guides that have, you know, are on the water,
(02:21):
we'll kind of talk about what gear has been working on the water.
You know, what, what people are finding are hot baits, hot colors,
that type of stuff. That's more or less what we're going to talk about on this.
If you want, you know, break down structure and things like
that and talk about guides from all over the place go check out the backlash
podcast that i do with musky mayhem tackle
that one is far more consistent but it's
(02:42):
also a little bit longer we do about hour episodes there
so if you haven't been there already go check that out and if not you know if
you haven't like i said if you haven't check it out and if you have we thank
you for all your support and all you know you're listening and one last thing
i want to thank everybody for their support over show season i may have mentioned
it on the last week's podcast but that was recorded before actually actually shows took place.
(03:02):
We had a tremendous time on the road this year. It was great to meet many of
you and talk to many of you.
I have a lot of notes written down on my phone of whether it be bait suggestions
that we need to get in the shop or color suggestions.
So I want to thank everybody that took their time to stop into our booth and
specifically took their time to talk to me at the booth.
It was, it was a fun road. I mean, we couldn't ask for better weather.
(03:24):
It was amazing that way. And so that's great.
I'm extremely thankful for everybody in the
way show season turned out for this season and of course
now we're back here in the shop we spent the weekend unloading things
from the trailer getting them loaded back onto the website so
you may find that you know inventory on the website might
be a bit higher than it was last week and that's because we just got everything
(03:45):
from shows and we still we're working through some stuff that newer stuff that
we didn't have at you know that we had at the shows but it wasn't online we're
working to get that stuff online as well too so a little bit of patience hopefully
in the next week or so we'll caught up on a lot of that stuff.
And I know in the meantime, there's a bunch of rods and things I need to get
online and reels that we got online.
So just a lot of different stuff coming to the website. But once again,
(04:08):
if you're looking for gear for your next muskie fishing adventure,
it's that time of year, it's, you know, gear up time, it's show season's over.
People are starting to get on the water. You know, muskie anglers in Wisconsin,
it'll be a little bit over a month and they'll be taken to the water in Southern Wisconsin.
So if you're looking to get ready for that time of year you know go
check out team rhino outdoors.com and with that being said i'm just going to
(04:29):
jump into the conversation i had with vance we're going to talk about stinger
glide baits this week all right my guest this week is vance calaws and it's vk muskie lures vance.
Let's talk a little bit about your lures today because that's kind of what we do on this podcast.
Let's talk about the transition here or first i can give you let me give you
(04:52):
a second to introduce yourself for people that don't know let's not skip over
that part i want you to talk a little bit about yourself for a minute people
you know what you what you do in the musky industry and then let's talk about
how they can get in touch with you first,
yeah i mean i could just start from a guide aspect my name is vance kaylaz i guide in.
Northwestern pennsylvania starting today essentially and i go till memorial
(05:15):
day and then once that is done i transition transition all the way up to chautauqua lake from june 1,
to november 30th my charter company is called all day muskie charters and sometimes,
When you're a guide, you get into bait building because you want to see things
(05:37):
that you believe will catch fish and put fish in the boats for your clients.
And that's where I'm at now. And that's why I'm on this show under BK Musky Lures.
Absolutely. Great. And if somebody wanted to get in touch with you for a guide
trip, how do they go about doing that, Vance?
They can hit up my website at VanceKLawsMusky.com or just Google search all day musky charters.
(06:03):
You'll find me on there on Google. Some good things, maybe some old boxing and
football articles, but skip past that and just go to the musky stuff.
Absolutely great. So let's talk about it. You kind of hit on it.
Sometimes as a musky guide, you find yourself in the musky bait manufacturing end of things.
And you had found yourself there before under, you know, with the Fat AZ crew,
(06:27):
you know, and let's talk about how come the Stinger was previously labeled under,
you know, Fat AZ and now it's with you under VK.
And so I worked with Andy and Todd for since like 2014, it was like a 10 year thing.
And it was just time to mutually part ways and go off and do our own things.
And that's just where it was.
(06:47):
And when we, when we split up, I took the stinger glide bait and they kept the
Raptors and the rod holders.
And that's essentially all that happened. There was very nice and mutual.
We're all still friends and still text and talk. And Andy helped me out through the whole process.
I mean, of course, you learn a lot in all those years of, you know,
(07:12):
being part of Fat AZ Musky products.
That was that was huge. You know, I've gone from, you know, doing like the dirty work.
You know, if you think of it like from a restaurant industry,
I was, you know, a dishwasher.
And then I made it all the way up to being a cook. and
so it's it he was
(07:33):
very influential in in the bait building
process for me on towards the latter
part of working with those two
you know eventually you get you get
comfortable with with with the rundown of
of starting the build from
scratch to finish and that's where i'm at right now
(07:54):
so i took the stinger i always
liked the stinger you know it was it was kind of like a a dark horse in the
fleet of the baits that we were producing which were of course the raptor that
everybody knows about the swimmer and the stinger and i and to be honest like the first.
(08:17):
Thing that i started making was that rubber bait and i think of the reason i
i started making it And they were like, you know, Andy was like,
you do this stuff because the rubber baits are pretty difficult to make.
They were kind of like the redheaded stepchild of the lineup that we had.
It was very, very tough to learn how to paint rubber.
(08:39):
That stuff doesn't like to stay still.
So I started there, but I ended up with the Stinger, and I'm very happy with that.
Like i said it was a dark horse in in the fleet and you
know there's just so many baits out there and but i
always liked that stinger and so that's what that's
what i ended up with all right it's the dark horse
(09:00):
but i would say man i've heard a lot
of noise about the stinger probably in the last couple years like what took
it to that level because you know i would say for it's not a mainstream you
know glide bait jerk bait but it's in certain circles it's got like a cult like
following like how did this happen in the last couple years because it seems
like it's definitely been the last few years where it's really come on strong,
(09:21):
okay so yeah it it is definitely in the last couple years come on very strong now.
Again, we've always used them. We've always liked them. It's really tough to
get a bait to have some type of a stardom.
The way that a bait gets some type of a stardom and a cult following is obviously
putting fish in the boat and people having success on them.
(09:44):
And such is life and angling where you're just like, I have to have one. I have to have one.
Well, what happened was I took a charter out with some young kids that were just getting into it.
And they were making a
spoof youtube channel and they
were like oh we're gonna get into this we're gonna start fishing we're gonna
make you videos it's gonna be hilarious and you
(10:08):
know it was just supposed to be a joke but it actually took off because people
were you know constantly looking for information on fishing especially locally
so i take these kids out they have tremendous success on that they really like
the way that this bait is working for them.
They, of course, transitioned from everything from bass and perch and walleye and pike to muskies.
(10:34):
And the glider was easy for them to use.
It's a relatively easy glider to work.
And when I was out there on the charter with them, I was like, you know what?
I think just with their level of
skill right now this might be the best presentation for
them to be successful throughout the day so we chose
(10:54):
that bait and then they caught
a fish on it so of course when you catch a fish on
something such as life you want to you want to get that lure you know and then
you start to build confidence in that lure and then all of a sudden you're using
that lure all the time all the time because it's your confidence bait and so
they were doing this on their youtube channel and And in,
(11:18):
in the background of it, and then all of a sudden we were, we were getting orders
for these and we're like, we,
you know, we don't, we don't have any right now and I'm on the water and back
in, you know, back a couple of years ago when I was with, with Andy and,
and Todd, you know, I was on the water,
Todd was on the water and Andy was at home.
(11:39):
So he couldn't do everything. Like when the baits were produced,
all three of us had to be working at some steps to produce.
And it's like a small amount of time throughout the year. It's like,
you know, that first quarter when we could, we could develop baits.
And it's the same right now because it's such a process.
But all of a sudden these kids are
(12:00):
catching them on them and we're getting orders from all over the place.
And we're like, I'm sorry, we can't fill them. Like we just can't slow down
this, what we're doing right now to, to build the lords. We just do not have the time to do it. So.
It really then you bring into that fact that okay so we can't get them now and that also kind of,
(12:24):
builds a want factor in fit
the fishing industry oh they're hard to get we need to you
know we need to get them and then when they're available boom they
go quickly so it all started organically
just from a charter that had success
on the lore the kids went off on youtube and
used it then it started reaching other areas and
(12:48):
because of that i believe is
is the big reason that there's a cult following behind it when
you thought of us i mean it was all always the jerk baits you
know we're we're jerk bait anglers i'm
a jerk bait angler action boom boom boom pulling the whole time that's how we
fish over here and so when you hand somebody a glider it's different you know
(13:13):
it's a very it's a it's a very it's a less aggressive presentation and like i said that.
Presentation was just efficient for the crew
that i had out that day i thought that that would put them in the best opportunity
to to to catch some fish and just get used to that the new muskie tackle aspect
(13:36):
of big lures and all that stuff and that's that's how that happened organically
so So it's, it's, it's nice to see.
Yeah. It's a very cool story. You know, you talked about easy.
This glide bait is to work.
Like let's talk about the, let's go with the, you know, the rod that you're using on.
Cause I mean, neither of these two baits, we're going to talk about the six inch.
We're going to talk about the eight inch. Neither of these two baits are awfully heavy baits.
(13:58):
I wouldn't say, you know, what type of setup are you using for this thing? Rod wise.
So rod wise on the eight inch and the six inch. I like something with a responsive
tip and sometimes that's hard to find in the rod industry.
You know, you want the perfect rod. That's why people are getting customs and things like that.
(14:19):
But I like something that has the responsive tip. So when you tap it,
that lure does what it's supposed to so when you
tap it it doesn't have so much flex in that
tip if that makes sense i want
it to be responsive but when you run into that sometimes you're
you're into those extra heavy outfits when you're gliding and a longer rod so
(14:44):
if i were to say like desert island rod for it something in the eight six to
nine foot range extra heavy responsive tip You know,
that could be a St. Croix. That's what I use.
The big dog, uh, legend tournaments, but look to the extra heavy.
I want that. I want that responsive tip action.
(15:06):
Yep. Big dog from St. Croix legend tournament. I used one last year quite a
bit. I actually used it for jerk baits as well. And it worked great for that too.
You know, typically these types of baits, I would use a solid steel leader.
Is that what you guys would recommend with these baits as well?
Yeah. i would use a solid steel leader now you can
use this you can on that leader just you know
(15:28):
straight wire i use the trophy times
i think they're 178 pound just straight
straight wire i put a stay lock on it just because of changing efficiency for
guiding a lot of people will just use the split ring and you can absolutely
go directly from leader to split ring to tie point point on the glide bait.
(15:52):
You can absolutely do that. I use a stay lock. Some people say that's wrong.
Some people say it's right. It's all up to you. But what's important is,
you know, for the eight inch, I like a 10 inch to 12 inch steel leader with a stay lock or.
All right. And then let's talk about technique for this bait.
(16:14):
I know I would say glide baits can be a
frustrating thing for newer anglers because i think they don't
necessarily know what the what the right technique is with
it and i think a lot of them work overwork it
they make longer poles than they need to you know like two foot
poles three foot poles you know what's the technique for this
one and you know is it similar to like a
(16:34):
hellhound because a hellhound you could literally just crank
like pop that thing with your reel and you can get it to dance side to
side is that something that'll work with the stinger as well yeah so
functionality of it your cadence
i like to call it for the eight inch it is a tap small tap you know maybe six
to twelve inches at max if you're if you're pulling on it i don't i don't like
(16:59):
to pull i like to tap so it's get your slack in tap down get your slap it slack in tap down.
And that you're correct in saying that you can overwork a glider.
If you're pulling on that thing, that thing might want to bust out of the water.
It might glide to the left or right, just kind of cattywampus flip up on its back.
(17:21):
If you're overworking any type of bait, essentially from big rubber,
that has a lot of leeway in it when you're ripping and pulling on that.
But when you do that with a glider, it's not going to run as true.
So you want to be kind of gentle taps, half real crank, gentle tap,
half real crank, if that makes sense to the listener.
(17:46):
It's always so hard to try and describe how to use a lure without being hands
on with it in, you know, in the heat of things.
But obviously, easy, easier for me to do on the guide trip.
You know, people like I've never thrown this before. I'm like, oh, this is how you do it.
You know hands-on is is nice to see but small
(18:07):
tap half reel crank small tap half
reel crank that's the best for the eight
inch the six inches is a bit different it is
it is similar to a a hellhound that six inch you could do cranks of the reel
and get that thing to walk but i i am because i'm so So action oriented and
(18:32):
what I've been doing since I've started musky fishing,
I like to tap, you know, I like my hands to always be, be doing something engaged.
So again, with that, that smaller one, it also doesn't like to be overworked.
It's a small tap in a crank, a small tap in a crank, and that thing's going
(18:54):
to glide a a good one and a half to two feet left and right from center when
you get that perfect cadence.
And you can work those, you know, if you work gliders quicker,
tap, crank, tap, crank, tap, crank, it's going to shorten that glide.
If you tap it and crank it gently, it's going to glide left or right,
(19:17):
you know, to its potential.
Get back on the slack, tap it again, it's going to to glide to its potential.
So if you slow it down, it goes wider. If you speed it up, it stays kind of,
type yeah makes sense that's kind of how i would say i work most
glide baits i don't know that there's any that i give
(19:37):
real long taps to i think in taps is the
perfect way to describe it that's what i would do or pops you know pop
pop that's kind of how i yeah i would do it you know
it seems like a i and i got to talk to a lot of people this
winter at the shows and you know let's say oh i don't like this
glide bait because of this reason i don't like that glide i'm like
well first off what type of leader are you using and second
of all how long of a pop are you making or how long of
(19:59):
a pull are you making like you said i call them pops or taps because it's
not much of a pull like it's not like i'm working a suic or
what i would suspect you guys work a raptor with it's definitely
i mean we're not moving the line much more than 10 inches yeah right
absolutely and and for the for the
smaller glides you know i would use a
smaller leader i just would like to to point that out as well so like the six
(20:22):
inch i i'm not using a 12 i'm using in something that's like eight six to eight
inches it's smaller and that's just because this the six inch it'll turn around
on itself like that thing will glide hard and when you tap it again.
It'll want to like turn around and we say like kiss it's you know but so you
(20:44):
want to if you have a longer leader and you're doing that it has it has a chance
to foul up on itself and that's just that just comes with all gliders,
you know, you, you can't show up with something that's too big.
I remember there was a gentleman that showed up and we were glider fishing and
he had an 18 inch steel leader.
(21:05):
And I was like, man, that's, I mean, that's not going to work,
you know, I mean, you're going to get fouled up.
And like within a couple, a couple taps of the reel, the thing was just,
it was fouled up on the leader.
I was like, all right, let's, let's switch this out. This is why we do it this way.
You know, so smaller bait, smaller leader, right?
That's important definitely well let's talk a little bit
(21:26):
about this six inch because that's something that you didn't have with fat
az this is strictly new to vk is the six inch
size of it how much how much work went into like
getting this thing dialed into where it's at now that you
know it's it's the final product that you want to
have your name behind how long how much effort does it
take to get this glide to to do what you needed to do like as
far as like you know the steps to it did it was something you guys got dialed
(21:49):
in really quick or did it take a while no it took a a while you know life happens
and you want to develop a new bait and you want to test it and of course everybody's
busy and all that good stuff and it took a lot of sweat equity you know i,
compacted probably i don't know four months into about two weeks to try to get this thing.
(22:13):
Perfect and lots of ups
and downs with it it was something we always wanted to do but once i had it
in its entirety i was able to spend time with it kind of like sun up the sun
down with it it just was always on my mind because i wanted to get this thing to run correctly,
(22:35):
gliders are touchy when when you go to make a glider i get is one of the most
difficult baits to get down in because weight is everything and the smallest
thing could throw it off if If you're using the wrong size split ring on some of these gliders,
they won't run correctly, and especially the smaller ones.
(22:58):
Using, trying to develop the small one and getting things correctly spaced out
on the lore to get it to its functionality to run correctly was,
it was exhausting.
But it was something that as soon as I got off the guide trips last November, I got right into it.
(23:22):
And I was thinking about it all the time. So it was, it was nice.
I mean, it took a long time, but it was something that was on my mind the whole time.
And I did not want to stop until it was corrected.
A funny story about it is you can have your blank and it's all different styles
of weights, weight placements all over the place.
(23:44):
You have your blank. There's there's a lot of stuff that goes into it.
You then have to paint the blank. You then have to put the hooks on the blank
and then you have to put your epoxy on the blank because this is what it's going to run at.
At its, you know, in totality, you need all those things to kind of have marriage
(24:05):
to get it to run correctly.
So there's a lot of test subjects to get that all done correctly.
And long story short on that, I finally get this down.
And it's winter and we,
you know, I live right off of Lake Erie and I'm running out of time because
(24:28):
my testing areas are dwindling. I'm not having open water anymore.
We had, we had a warm winter.
However, I was developing the, you know, getting the body correct,
getting epoxy work correct and all that stuff that was going into it, all these steps.
And I just needed a place to test them.
(24:51):
So I get down to this little area in Pennsylvania. It's called Trout Run.
It's right off of the Great Lake and there's a little pond there.
And I would go there and I would test all the baits. I would test the swimmers
and these gliders there. And,
I finally have the finished product that's working correctly where I want it.
(25:13):
The eye screws are correct.
The hooks are correct. The weight is correct. There's two coats of epoxy on it.
And I'm getting some footage. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this thing's like running
perfectly. This looks amazing.
You know, I really, really like this bait. I finally achieved it.
I was just waiting so long to get this done.
And you finally hit pay dirt to get this bait done.
(25:36):
And you're like, this is it. You know, you got it in your hands, take a couple of videos.
My wife takes a couple of videos of me and I'm like, okay, one last one.
Oh, granted. I'm right off this, this lake shore.
And there is a tremendous storm coming off the lake. It's just turning black behind me.
My eyelids are freezing up.
(25:58):
I chucked the bait out there one more time for a
test and it cuts the line and that
glider sinks to the bottom of this pond and i could
not believe it i mean i was i was so
flustered i was like no you know i had it everything
was right there and i lost that lure
(26:19):
and i was i was i
put on chest waders i went back in that storm i
had a rake i had nets i had everything trying to find this thing in this pond
and i never found it and it also never dawned on me i was so so blinded by getting
this thing finally dialed in that I didn't even realize that I had more in the house.
(26:43):
I was like, I have the same, the same exact test study right in my basement.
But I was just so dialed in on this, like this one more.
I was like, no, like this is the one that works. You know, I gotta get, I gotta get that one.
And I was like, oh, I can just, you you know, flap two more layers of epoxy on this thing.
(27:04):
And I'll have another one in no time. Cause I know, I remember exactly where
everything was. It was all documented.
But so when you talk about like, what goes into this,
it kind of makes you, you know, you turn into this like mad scientist of trying
to, you know, get this thing down in and, you know, you just get blinded where,
you know, that thing sank to the bottom.
(27:25):
And I, I dove in after it, like it was my, my child, you know,
I was like, I got to get this thing.
You know, it was just, it was hilarious. It was a, it was a rough day.
And you know, once, once I came back to my senses, I was like.
Listen, you can, you just make another one really, really quickly.
Like you have enough test studies, but that's, that's what happened with the
(27:47):
six, you know, and there's just a lot that goes into it.
And then, you know, I'm, I get it dialed in and we have a lot of,
a lot of snow and a lot of ice happening.
I don't have any, any open water.
And then I'm, you know, calling YMCAs and calling hotels to see if I can use
their pools tools to test them before I put them out on the market.
(28:15):
You know, and so there's a lot of stuff that goes into making these lures.
That's why I'd say I packed a lot of sweat equity into a short amount of time
to get this stuff dialed in because I wanted them done for the spring.
So you know that was my that was my my motivation and discipline for until about christmas.
(28:41):
I'm just wishing that your wife would
have got rolling the footage when when it snapped off that would
have been i'm sure it would have been class oh she did huh oh she
did yeah it it it's sad i mean it could
have been in like a movie where it's like a very like you know
triumphant just knocked down a peg immediately
into suffering and yeah
(29:03):
i would have made i probably would have won an academy award
for that i just like kind of hit the ground like
no you ever see the movie platoon yep okay
at the end you know the guy the helicopter leaves there's a guy on his knees
you know in the guy the helicopter is his uh refugees there his way to get home
(29:25):
is is leaving that's kind of how it was so very very funny stuff looking back
on it but it just makes for good stories and,
It just keeps me going because sometimes you need knockdown,
you know, and to do it again, especially with gliders, you got to get that repetition in with them.
(29:45):
You know, as a bait maker, we like to think that we're very consistent and we're
not as consistent as we think, though.
That's why people have, you know, the magic lore, the one that they always throw on.
You know, there's there's in the batches that, you know, everyone could be the magic lore.
So with gliders it's always
(30:07):
good to have multiple ready
to go which i did i just didn't
realize that in that time because i was so
blinded by getting it done
but with gliders especially how finicky
they are have multiple ready to test and
ready to go so you can get that consistency yeah
(30:29):
definitely definitely all right vance let's quick talk about the
six inch and eight inch when would you choose one
or when are you going to choose the six over the eight and vice versa
like what's the thought process there so the
thought process with the six is in these in the
in the reservoirs and when you're fishing when you're you
have the ability to fish like we do
(30:51):
year-round so you can hit the pre-spawned and
you want to fish shallow you know we're doing a lot of
casting up onto the bank like right
at at the bank shoreline and
bringing it back to the boat that's what
the six was made for
that early early spring bite
(31:13):
now this will be successful whenever you know they hit what you
you throw but my idea was early.
Springtime reservoirs sucking up into
that shallow bank which might be six inches of
water might be a foot of water and bringing it back to the boat
with ease it's it doesn't have such a tremendous fall rate as the eight does
(31:34):
i would say that it It sinks at about six inches a second for the six.
That's what I was counting. Like a 1-1000 down six inches.
So in a shallow presentation up onto the bank, that would be my number one to throw.
(31:58):
And you can work this over new weed growth. You can work it over whatever. It's a tiny glider.
Really quick you can work it quick you can work it slow so for those banks it's
for that early season but you know of course don't sleep on it on your cold
front days when you think you have to downsize or yada yada yada whatever whatever
(32:18):
you're comfortable with as an angler,
you know please do it but that's what my original thought was shallow throw
it up on the bank bring it back to you the eight.
Deep structure, deep weed edges. You can count that thing down as a wobble,
just like the six sinks a bit faster.
(32:40):
Give it a foot, a one, 1000, and you can work it up from the depths.
If you want to work it a little bit quicker, you can work it over high structure.
You can also throw it when you get good at throwing gliders,
you can, you can throw this thing up onto the bank just like the six and if
you're you're handy with the glides you can work a bigger glider shallow prior
(33:04):
to that water tapering off as well but i would say for that eight deep structure,
reservoirs national natural lakes i mean the the the eight inches really you
know done well from the virginias all the way up to the french river to lake
st claire to the st lawrence river it's It's caught fish all over the place, Georgian Bay.
(33:28):
So it's, it's done well all over and in all presentations where you would feel a glider is good.
Well, assuming as we get more of these things in the hands of many capable musky
anglers that, that, that, I don't know, will grow, you know, that,
you know, it's more of an Eastern bait right now, but, you know,
musky anglers are going to start using this thing here in, you know,
(33:50):
Wisconsin and Illinois and in Minnesota this year.
And I think you're going to see some, it's going to take some roots down in
some of these states as well.
Yeah, that would be, that'd be lovely. You know, I've, I've already got some
messages from people and, uh, you know, they've, they've picked a couple up
at the shows and from out, out your guys way and really, really appreciative of that.
(34:11):
And I can't wait to see what they, what they do out there. Yeah, absolutely.
So let's, uh, talk about one more thing before we let you go,
Vance, and that is availability.
You talked about it briefly. This is a, I will call it a time filler.
Or essentially it's a project for you to do in the off season.
So my assumption is when the current market of stingers is gone,
(34:35):
that's going to be it for the season until you start making baits again next
winter. Is that correct?
100% correct. All right. I am on the water until December 1st,
and I am not coming off, and I'm not picking up an airbrush until the following December.
So yeah what what's a team rhino
(34:57):
is is what's there for for this year excellent and
you know on the plus side if you're listening to this podcast on you
know in the early going of release date the selection has
never been better we have lots of them in
stock many many colors to choose from you know vance
we even took on all of your stuff from that
you had it shows all the show colors you had those are available
(35:19):
in limited quantities and i know that over this past weekend since
we've got them up i'd say friday-ish they've even been you know trickling out
the door so if you're looking to get your hands on some six inch or eight inch
stingers now is the time not only is it the time because this is the time of
year when most anglers or many anglers are using glide baits but it's also the
time because your selection is at its highest don't wait until july.
(35:44):
All right vance well i don't have
much else to add to this episode i think we covered you know the
ins and outs of this bait really well talked about where you can
find it what you can use it on how you use it a
little bit about your background so i just want to thank you for taking time
out of your schedule to talk about the new
stinger baits from vk musky lures i'm anxious to see how this goes i know of
(36:05):
course i anytime we get something new in the shop i gotta play with it so i
i had to grab a couple uh the tro colors to uh throw my boat so we're gonna
get some six inches and eight inches working this year as well it'd be cool
thank you so much i appreciate it and,
thanks for having me on and uh thanks to everybody for listening to me talk i talk for a living so,
(36:28):
i ramble on so be it i'm sorry but uh thanks for listening i appreciate it yeah
absolutely i want to thank all of our listeners for tuning in again with us
for another episode of the team rhino outdoors muskie fishing podcast we will
be back with another episode again next week monday so So stay tuned,
check us out on all the places that you can find podcasts on all the most popular podcast apps.
(36:49):
Thank you again for listening and we'll see everybody next.
Music.
Music.
(00:05):
Welcome to another episode of Muskie Talk Monday on the Team Rhino Outdoors
Muskie Fishing Podcast.
This week I'm going to talk to Vance Kalaz with VK Muskie Lures and we're going
to talk about the Stinger Gliders.
He's got the new 6 inch and the new 8 inch and of course if you're looking for
those baits, check them out at TeamRhinoOutdoors.com.
As you'll hear in this episode, Vance is a muskie fishing guide so he's only
(00:29):
making baits in the off season.
And so what we have in stock is all we will have in stock until I'm assuming
sometime in early winter, it'd be maybe get us something in December.
Hopefully we'll be loaded up again before show season next year.
And fortunately we have many, many of them in stock currently.
So if you're looking for, you know, some new stinger glide baits,
(00:50):
check them out at teamrionoutdoors.com.
I will have to say that I don't know. I did another episode and it was literally
supposed to be out this week.
Week but because we don't have the baits in stock I pushed
that episode out so if you hear an episode coming
up pretty soon and the intro doesn't sound like it lines up with
with things it may not and because I'm way I was way ahead of schedule so and
(01:14):
I assumed that that that podcast was going to be this week and it just didn't
happen to turn out this week so hopefully we'll get those baits in stock soon
and then we can release that podcast but until then we'll just keep that one
on the back burner and all and like I said it may say like hey hey,
it's mid-March and here we are talking about muskies, but it may come out in April.
I don't know. Well, at this point, it will come out in April because it's not coming out in March.
(01:37):
So anyways, that's kind of what that is. As I always say on this podcast,
make sure you hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're listening
to so you never miss an episode.
In the past, I had been very inconsistent with this podcast,
but so far for March, I literally hit every single Monday.
We are the model of consistency with this podcast for at least four weeks.
Some I'm very happy about that that was my goal is try to make this a consistent
(02:01):
short form podcast something to fill in the gaps on your drive sometimes something
to fill in the gaps on your.
You know, when you're walking the dog or, you know, you're out taking a walk
or you're at the gym or whatever.
And just to help you get an introduction to different gear, when we get fishing
and when we're talking to guides that have, you know, are on the water,
(02:21):
we'll kind of talk about what gear has been working on the water.
You know, what, what people are finding are hot baits, hot colors,
that type of stuff. That's more or less what we're going to talk about on this.
If you want, you know, break down structure and things like
that and talk about guides from all over the place go check out the backlash
podcast that i do with musky mayhem tackle
that one is far more consistent but it's
(02:42):
also a little bit longer we do about hour episodes there
so if you haven't been there already go check that out and if not you know if
you haven't like i said if you haven't check it out and if you have we thank
you for all your support and all you know you're listening and one last thing
i want to thank everybody for their support over show season i may have mentioned
it on the last week's podcast but that was recorded before actually actually shows took place.
(03:02):
We had a tremendous time on the road this year. It was great to meet many of
you and talk to many of you.
I have a lot of notes written down on my phone of whether it be bait suggestions
that we need to get in the shop or color suggestions.
So I want to thank everybody that took their time to stop into our booth and
specifically took their time to talk to me at the booth.
It was, it was a fun road. I mean, we couldn't ask for better weather.
(03:24):
It was amazing that way. And so that's great.
I'm extremely thankful for everybody in the
way show season turned out for this season and of course
now we're back here in the shop we spent the weekend unloading things
from the trailer getting them loaded back onto the website so
you may find that you know inventory on the website might
be a bit higher than it was last week and that's because we just got everything
(03:45):
from shows and we still we're working through some stuff that newer stuff that
we didn't have at you know that we had at the shows but it wasn't online we're
working to get that stuff online as well too so a little bit of patience hopefully
in the next week or so we'll caught up on a lot of that stuff.
And I know in the meantime, there's a bunch of rods and things I need to get
online and reels that we got online.
So just a lot of different stuff coming to the website. But once again,
(04:08):
if you're looking for gear for your next muskie fishing adventure,
it's that time of year, it's, you know, gear up time, it's show season's over.
People are starting to get on the water. You know, muskie anglers in Wisconsin,
it'll be a little bit over a month and they'll be taken to the water in Southern Wisconsin.
So if you're looking to get ready for that time of year you know go
check out team rhino outdoors.com and with that being said i'm just going to
(04:29):
jump into the conversation i had with vance we're going to talk about stinger
glide baits this week all right my guest this week is vance calaws and it's vk muskie lures vance.
Let's talk a little bit about your lures today because that's kind of what we do on this podcast.
Let's talk about the transition here or first i can give you let me give you
(04:52):
a second to introduce yourself for people that don't know let's not skip over
that part i want you to talk a little bit about yourself for a minute people
you know what you what you do in the musky industry and then let's talk about
how they can get in touch with you first,
yeah i mean i could just start from a guide aspect my name is vance kaylaz i guide in.
Northwestern pennsylvania starting today essentially and i go till memorial
(05:15):
day and then once that is done i transition transition all the way up to chautauqua lake from june 1,
to november 30th my charter company is called all day muskie charters and sometimes,
When you're a guide, you get into bait building because you want to see things
(05:37):
that you believe will catch fish and put fish in the boats for your clients.
And that's where I'm at now. And that's why I'm on this show under BK Musky Lures.
Absolutely. Great. And if somebody wanted to get in touch with you for a guide
trip, how do they go about doing that, Vance?
They can hit up my website at VanceKLawsMusky.com or just Google search all day musky charters.
(06:03):
You'll find me on there on Google. Some good things, maybe some old boxing and
football articles, but skip past that and just go to the musky stuff.
Absolutely great. So let's talk about it. You kind of hit on it.
Sometimes as a musky guide, you find yourself in the musky bait manufacturing end of things.
And you had found yourself there before under, you know, with the Fat AZ crew,
(06:27):
you know, and let's talk about how come the Stinger was previously labeled under,
you know, Fat AZ and now it's with you under VK.
And so I worked with Andy and Todd for since like 2014, it was like a 10 year thing.
And it was just time to mutually part ways and go off and do our own things.
And that's just where it was.
(06:47):
And when we, when we split up, I took the stinger glide bait and they kept the
Raptors and the rod holders.
And that's essentially all that happened. There was very nice and mutual.
We're all still friends and still text and talk. And Andy helped me out through the whole process.
I mean, of course, you learn a lot in all those years of, you know,
(07:12):
being part of Fat AZ Musky products.
That was that was huge. You know, I've gone from, you know, doing like the dirty work.
You know, if you think of it like from a restaurant industry,
I was, you know, a dishwasher.
And then I made it all the way up to being a cook. and
so it's it he was
(07:33):
very influential in in the bait building
process for me on towards the latter
part of working with those two
you know eventually you get you get
comfortable with with with the rundown of
of starting the build from
scratch to finish and that's where i'm at right now
(07:54):
so i took the stinger i always
liked the stinger you know it was it was kind of like a a dark horse in the
fleet of the baits that we were producing which were of course the raptor that
everybody knows about the swimmer and the stinger and i and to be honest like the first.
(08:17):
Thing that i started making was that rubber bait and i think of the reason i
i started making it And they were like, you know, Andy was like,
you do this stuff because the rubber baits are pretty difficult to make.
They were kind of like the redheaded stepchild of the lineup that we had.
It was very, very tough to learn how to paint rubber.
(08:39):
That stuff doesn't like to stay still.
So I started there, but I ended up with the Stinger, and I'm very happy with that.
Like i said it was a dark horse in in the fleet and you
know there's just so many baits out there and but i
always liked that stinger and so that's what that's
what i ended up with all right it's the dark horse
(09:00):
but i would say man i've heard a lot
of noise about the stinger probably in the last couple years like what took
it to that level because you know i would say for it's not a mainstream you
know glide bait jerk bait but it's in certain circles it's got like a cult like
following like how did this happen in the last couple years because it seems
like it's definitely been the last few years where it's really come on strong,
(09:21):
okay so yeah it it is definitely in the last couple years come on very strong now.
Again, we've always used them. We've always liked them. It's really tough to
get a bait to have some type of a stardom.
The way that a bait gets some type of a stardom and a cult following is obviously
putting fish in the boat and people having success on them.
(09:44):
And such is life and angling where you're just like, I have to have one. I have to have one.
Well, what happened was I took a charter out with some young kids that were just getting into it.
And they were making a
spoof youtube channel and they
were like oh we're gonna get into this we're gonna start fishing we're gonna
make you videos it's gonna be hilarious and you
(10:08):
know it was just supposed to be a joke but it actually took off because people
were you know constantly looking for information on fishing especially locally
so i take these kids out they have tremendous success on that they really like
the way that this bait is working for them.
They, of course, transitioned from everything from bass and perch and walleye and pike to muskies.
(10:34):
And the glider was easy for them to use.
It's a relatively easy glider to work.
And when I was out there on the charter with them, I was like, you know what?
I think just with their level of
skill right now this might be the best presentation for
them to be successful throughout the day so we chose
(10:54):
that bait and then they caught
a fish on it so of course when you catch a fish on
something such as life you want to you want to get that lure you know and then
you start to build confidence in that lure and then all of a sudden you're using
that lure all the time all the time because it's your confidence bait and so
they were doing this on their youtube channel and And in,
(11:18):
in the background of it, and then all of a sudden we were, we were getting orders
for these and we're like, we,
you know, we don't, we don't have any right now and I'm on the water and back
in, you know, back a couple of years ago when I was with, with Andy and,
and Todd, you know, I was on the water,
Todd was on the water and Andy was at home.
(11:39):
So he couldn't do everything. Like when the baits were produced,
all three of us had to be working at some steps to produce.
And it's like a small amount of time throughout the year. It's like,
you know, that first quarter when we could, we could develop baits.
And it's the same right now because it's such a process.
But all of a sudden these kids are
(12:00):
catching them on them and we're getting orders from all over the place.
And we're like, I'm sorry, we can't fill them. Like we just can't slow down
this, what we're doing right now to, to build the lords. We just do not have the time to do it. So.
It really then you bring into that fact that okay so we can't get them now and that also kind of,
(12:24):
builds a want factor in fit
the fishing industry oh they're hard to get we need to you
know we need to get them and then when they're available boom they
go quickly so it all started organically
just from a charter that had success
on the lore the kids went off on youtube and
used it then it started reaching other areas and
(12:48):
because of that i believe is
is the big reason that there's a cult following behind it when
you thought of us i mean it was all always the jerk baits you
know we're we're jerk bait anglers i'm
a jerk bait angler action boom boom boom pulling the whole time that's how we
fish over here and so when you hand somebody a glider it's different you know
(13:13):
it's a very it's a it's a very it's a less aggressive presentation and like i said that.
Presentation was just efficient for the crew
that i had out that day i thought that that would put them in the best opportunity
to to to catch some fish and just get used to that the new muskie tackle aspect
(13:36):
of big lures and all that stuff and that's that's how that happened organically
so So it's, it's, it's nice to see.
Yeah. It's a very cool story. You know, you talked about easy.
This glide bait is to work.
Like let's talk about the, let's go with the, you know, the rod that you're using on.
Cause I mean, neither of these two baits, we're going to talk about the six inch.
We're going to talk about the eight inch. Neither of these two baits are awfully heavy baits.
(13:58):
I wouldn't say, you know, what type of setup are you using for this thing? Rod wise.
So rod wise on the eight inch and the six inch. I like something with a responsive
tip and sometimes that's hard to find in the rod industry.
You know, you want the perfect rod. That's why people are getting customs and things like that.
(14:19):
But I like something that has the responsive tip. So when you tap it,
that lure does what it's supposed to so when you
tap it it doesn't have so much flex in that
tip if that makes sense i want
it to be responsive but when you run into that sometimes you're
you're into those extra heavy outfits when you're gliding and a longer rod so
(14:44):
if i were to say like desert island rod for it something in the eight six to
nine foot range extra heavy responsive tip You know,
that could be a St. Croix. That's what I use.
The big dog, uh, legend tournaments, but look to the extra heavy.
I want that. I want that responsive tip action.
(15:06):
Yep. Big dog from St. Croix legend tournament. I used one last year quite a
bit. I actually used it for jerk baits as well. And it worked great for that too.
You know, typically these types of baits, I would use a solid steel leader.
Is that what you guys would recommend with these baits as well?
Yeah. i would use a solid steel leader now you can
use this you can on that leader just you know
(15:28):
straight wire i use the trophy times
i think they're 178 pound just straight
straight wire i put a stay lock on it just because of changing efficiency for
guiding a lot of people will just use the split ring and you can absolutely
go directly from leader to split ring to tie point point on the glide bait.
(15:52):
You can absolutely do that. I use a stay lock. Some people say that's wrong.
Some people say it's right. It's all up to you. But what's important is,
you know, for the eight inch, I like a 10 inch to 12 inch steel leader with a stay lock or.
All right. And then let's talk about technique for this bait.
(16:14):
I know I would say glide baits can be a
frustrating thing for newer anglers because i think they don't
necessarily know what the what the right technique is with
it and i think a lot of them work overwork it
they make longer poles than they need to you know like two foot
poles three foot poles you know what's the technique for this
one and you know is it similar to like a
(16:34):
hellhound because a hellhound you could literally just crank
like pop that thing with your reel and you can get it to dance side to
side is that something that'll work with the stinger as well yeah so
functionality of it your cadence
i like to call it for the eight inch it is a tap small tap you know maybe six
to twelve inches at max if you're if you're pulling on it i don't i don't like
(16:59):
to pull i like to tap so it's get your slack in tap down get your slap it slack in tap down.
And that you're correct in saying that you can overwork a glider.
If you're pulling on that thing, that thing might want to bust out of the water.
It might glide to the left or right, just kind of cattywampus flip up on its back.
(17:21):
If you're overworking any type of bait, essentially from big rubber,
that has a lot of leeway in it when you're ripping and pulling on that.
But when you do that with a glider, it's not going to run as true.
So you want to be kind of gentle taps, half real crank, gentle tap,
half real crank, if that makes sense to the listener.
(17:46):
It's always so hard to try and describe how to use a lure without being hands
on with it in, you know, in the heat of things.
But obviously, easy, easier for me to do on the guide trip.
You know, people like I've never thrown this before. I'm like, oh, this is how you do it.
You know hands-on is is nice to see but small
(18:07):
tap half reel crank small tap half
reel crank that's the best for the eight
inch the six inches is a bit different it is
it is similar to a a hellhound that six inch you could do cranks of the reel
and get that thing to walk but i i am because i'm so So action oriented and
(18:32):
what I've been doing since I've started musky fishing,
I like to tap, you know, I like my hands to always be, be doing something engaged.
So again, with that, that smaller one, it also doesn't like to be overworked.
It's a small tap in a crank, a small tap in a crank, and that thing's going
(18:54):
to glide a a good one and a half to two feet left and right from center when
you get that perfect cadence.
And you can work those, you know, if you work gliders quicker,
tap, crank, tap, crank, tap, crank, it's going to shorten that glide.
If you tap it and crank it gently, it's going to glide left or right,
(19:17):
you know, to its potential.
Get back on the slack, tap it again, it's going to to glide to its potential.
So if you slow it down, it goes wider. If you speed it up, it stays kind of,
type yeah makes sense that's kind of how i would say i work most
glide baits i don't know that there's any that i give
(19:37):
real long taps to i think in taps is the
perfect way to describe it that's what i would do or pops you know pop
pop that's kind of how i yeah i would do it you know
it seems like a i and i got to talk to a lot of people this
winter at the shows and you know let's say oh i don't like this
glide bait because of this reason i don't like that glide i'm like
well first off what type of leader are you using and second
of all how long of a pop are you making or how long of
(19:59):
a pull are you making like you said i call them pops or taps because it's
not much of a pull like it's not like i'm working a suic or
what i would suspect you guys work a raptor with it's definitely
i mean we're not moving the line much more than 10 inches yeah right
absolutely and and for the for the
smaller glides you know i would use a
smaller leader i just would like to to point that out as well so like the six
(20:22):
inch i i'm not using a 12 i'm using in something that's like eight six to eight
inches it's smaller and that's just because this the six inch it'll turn around
on itself like that thing will glide hard and when you tap it again.
It'll want to like turn around and we say like kiss it's you know but so you
(20:44):
want to if you have a longer leader and you're doing that it has it has a chance
to foul up on itself and that's just that just comes with all gliders,
you know, you, you can't show up with something that's too big.
I remember there was a gentleman that showed up and we were glider fishing and
he had an 18 inch steel leader.
(21:05):
And I was like, man, that's, I mean, that's not going to work,
you know, I mean, you're going to get fouled up.
And like within a couple, a couple taps of the reel, the thing was just,
it was fouled up on the leader.
I was like, all right, let's, let's switch this out. This is why we do it this way.
You know, so smaller bait, smaller leader, right?
That's important definitely well let's talk a little bit
(21:26):
about this six inch because that's something that you didn't have with fat
az this is strictly new to vk is the six inch
size of it how much how much work went into like
getting this thing dialed into where it's at now that you
know it's it's the final product that you want to
have your name behind how long how much effort does it
take to get this glide to to do what you needed to do like as
far as like you know the steps to it did it was something you guys got dialed
(21:49):
in really quick or did it take a while no it took a a while you know life happens
and you want to develop a new bait and you want to test it and of course everybody's
busy and all that good stuff and it took a lot of sweat equity you know i,
compacted probably i don't know four months into about two weeks to try to get this thing.
(22:13):
Perfect and lots of ups
and downs with it it was something we always wanted to do but once i had it
in its entirety i was able to spend time with it kind of like sun up the sun
down with it it just was always on my mind because i wanted to get this thing to run correctly,
(22:35):
gliders are touchy when when you go to make a glider i get is one of the most
difficult baits to get down in because weight is everything and the smallest
thing could throw it off if If you're using the wrong size split ring on some of these gliders,
they won't run correctly, and especially the smaller ones.
(22:58):
Using, trying to develop the small one and getting things correctly spaced out
on the lore to get it to its functionality to run correctly was,
it was exhausting.
But it was something that as soon as I got off the guide trips last November, I got right into it.
(23:22):
And I was thinking about it all the time. So it was, it was nice.
I mean, it took a long time, but it was something that was on my mind the whole time.
And I did not want to stop until it was corrected.
A funny story about it is you can have your blank and it's all different styles
of weights, weight placements all over the place.
(23:44):
You have your blank. There's there's a lot of stuff that goes into it.
You then have to paint the blank. You then have to put the hooks on the blank
and then you have to put your epoxy on the blank because this is what it's going to run at.
At its, you know, in totality, you need all those things to kind of have marriage
(24:05):
to get it to run correctly.
So there's a lot of test subjects to get that all done correctly.
And long story short on that, I finally get this down.
And it's winter and we,
you know, I live right off of Lake Erie and I'm running out of time because
(24:28):
my testing areas are dwindling. I'm not having open water anymore.
We had, we had a warm winter.
However, I was developing the, you know, getting the body correct,
getting epoxy work correct and all that stuff that was going into it, all these steps.
And I just needed a place to test them.
(24:51):
So I get down to this little area in Pennsylvania. It's called Trout Run.
It's right off of the Great Lake and there's a little pond there.
And I would go there and I would test all the baits. I would test the swimmers
and these gliders there. And,
I finally have the finished product that's working correctly where I want it.
(25:13):
The eye screws are correct.
The hooks are correct. The weight is correct. There's two coats of epoxy on it.
And I'm getting some footage. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this thing's like running
perfectly. This looks amazing.
You know, I really, really like this bait. I finally achieved it.
I was just waiting so long to get this done.
And you finally hit pay dirt to get this bait done.
(25:36):
And you're like, this is it. You know, you got it in your hands, take a couple of videos.
My wife takes a couple of videos of me and I'm like, okay, one last one.
Oh, granted. I'm right off this, this lake shore.
And there is a tremendous storm coming off the lake. It's just turning black behind me.
My eyelids are freezing up.
(25:58):
I chucked the bait out there one more time for a
test and it cuts the line and that
glider sinks to the bottom of this pond and i could
not believe it i mean i was i was so
flustered i was like no you know i had it everything
was right there and i lost that lure
(26:19):
and i was i was i
put on chest waders i went back in that storm i
had a rake i had nets i had everything trying to find this thing in this pond
and i never found it and it also never dawned on me i was so so blinded by getting
this thing finally dialed in that I didn't even realize that I had more in the house.
(26:43):
I was like, I have the same, the same exact test study right in my basement.
But I was just so dialed in on this, like this one more.
I was like, no, like this is the one that works. You know, I gotta get, I gotta get that one.
And I was like, oh, I can just, you you know, flap two more layers of epoxy on this thing.
(27:04):
And I'll have another one in no time. Cause I know, I remember exactly where
everything was. It was all documented.
But so when you talk about like, what goes into this,
it kind of makes you, you know, you turn into this like mad scientist of trying
to, you know, get this thing down in and, you know, you just get blinded where,
you know, that thing sank to the bottom.
(27:25):
And I, I dove in after it, like it was my, my child, you know,
I was like, I got to get this thing.
You know, it was just, it was hilarious. It was a, it was a rough day.
And you know, once, once I came back to my senses, I was like.
Listen, you can, you just make another one really, really quickly.
Like you have enough test studies, but that's, that's what happened with the
(27:47):
six, you know, and there's just a lot that goes into it.
And then, you know, I'm, I get it dialed in and we have a lot of,
a lot of snow and a lot of ice happening.
I don't have any, any open water.
And then I'm, you know, calling YMCAs and calling hotels to see if I can use
their pools tools to test them before I put them out on the market.
(28:15):
You know, and so there's a lot of stuff that goes into making these lures.
That's why I'd say I packed a lot of sweat equity into a short amount of time
to get this stuff dialed in because I wanted them done for the spring.
So you know that was my that was my my motivation and discipline for until about christmas.
(28:41):
I'm just wishing that your wife would
have got rolling the footage when when it snapped off that would
have been i'm sure it would have been class oh she did huh oh she
did yeah it it it's sad i mean it could
have been in like a movie where it's like a very like you know
triumphant just knocked down a peg immediately
into suffering and yeah
(29:03):
i would have made i probably would have won an academy award
for that i just like kind of hit the ground like
no you ever see the movie platoon yep okay
at the end you know the guy the helicopter leaves there's a guy on his knees
you know in the guy the helicopter is his uh refugees there his way to get home
(29:25):
is is leaving that's kind of how it was so very very funny stuff looking back
on it but it just makes for good stories and,
It just keeps me going because sometimes you need knockdown,
you know, and to do it again, especially with gliders, you got to get that repetition in with them.
(29:45):
You know, as a bait maker, we like to think that we're very consistent and we're
not as consistent as we think, though.
That's why people have, you know, the magic lore, the one that they always throw on.
You know, there's there's in the batches that, you know, everyone could be the magic lore.
So with gliders it's always
(30:07):
good to have multiple ready
to go which i did i just didn't
realize that in that time because i was so
blinded by getting it done
but with gliders especially how finicky
they are have multiple ready to test and
ready to go so you can get that consistency yeah
(30:29):
definitely definitely all right vance let's quick talk about the
six inch and eight inch when would you choose one
or when are you going to choose the six over the eight and vice versa
like what's the thought process there so the
thought process with the six is in these in the
in the reservoirs and when you're fishing when you're you
have the ability to fish like we do
(30:51):
year-round so you can hit the pre-spawned and
you want to fish shallow you know we're doing a lot of
casting up onto the bank like right
at at the bank shoreline and
bringing it back to the boat that's what
the six was made for
that early early spring bite
(31:13):
now this will be successful whenever you know they hit what you
you throw but my idea was early.
Springtime reservoirs sucking up into
that shallow bank which might be six inches of
water might be a foot of water and bringing it back to the boat
with ease it's it doesn't have such a tremendous fall rate as the eight does
(31:34):
i would say that it It sinks at about six inches a second for the six.
That's what I was counting. Like a 1-1000 down six inches.
So in a shallow presentation up onto the bank, that would be my number one to throw.
(31:58):
And you can work this over new weed growth. You can work it over whatever. It's a tiny glider.
Really quick you can work it quick you can work it slow so for those banks it's
for that early season but you know of course don't sleep on it on your cold
front days when you think you have to downsize or yada yada yada whatever whatever
(32:18):
you're comfortable with as an angler,
you know please do it but that's what my original thought was shallow throw
it up on the bank bring it back to you the eight.
Deep structure, deep weed edges. You can count that thing down as a wobble,
just like the six sinks a bit faster.
(32:40):
Give it a foot, a one, 1000, and you can work it up from the depths.
If you want to work it a little bit quicker, you can work it over high structure.
You can also throw it when you get good at throwing gliders,
you can, you can throw this thing up onto the bank just like the six and if
you're you're handy with the glides you can work a bigger glider shallow prior
(33:04):
to that water tapering off as well but i would say for that eight deep structure,
reservoirs national natural lakes i mean the the the eight inches really you
know done well from the virginias all the way up to the french river to lake
st claire to the st lawrence river it's It's caught fish all over the place, Georgian Bay.
(33:28):
So it's, it's done well all over and in all presentations where you would feel a glider is good.
Well, assuming as we get more of these things in the hands of many capable musky
anglers that, that, that, I don't know, will grow, you know, that,
you know, it's more of an Eastern bait right now, but, you know,
musky anglers are going to start using this thing here in, you know,
(33:50):
Wisconsin and Illinois and in Minnesota this year.
And I think you're going to see some, it's going to take some roots down in
some of these states as well.
Yeah, that would be, that'd be lovely. You know, I've, I've already got some
messages from people and, uh, you know, they've, they've picked a couple up
at the shows and from out, out your guys way and really, really appreciative of that.
(34:11):
And I can't wait to see what they, what they do out there. Yeah, absolutely.
So let's, uh, talk about one more thing before we let you go,
Vance, and that is availability.
You talked about it briefly. This is a, I will call it a time filler.
Or essentially it's a project for you to do in the off season.
So my assumption is when the current market of stingers is gone,
(34:35):
that's going to be it for the season until you start making baits again next
winter. Is that correct?
100% correct. All right. I am on the water until December 1st,
and I am not coming off, and I'm not picking up an airbrush until the following December.
So yeah what what's a team rhino
(34:57):
is is what's there for for this year excellent and
you know on the plus side if you're listening to this podcast on you
know in the early going of release date the selection has
never been better we have lots of them in
stock many many colors to choose from you know vance
we even took on all of your stuff from that
you had it shows all the show colors you had those are available
(35:19):
in limited quantities and i know that over this past weekend since
we've got them up i'd say friday-ish they've even been you know trickling out
the door so if you're looking to get your hands on some six inch or eight inch
stingers now is the time not only is it the time because this is the time of
year when most anglers or many anglers are using glide baits but it's also the
time because your selection is at its highest don't wait until july.
(35:44):
All right vance well i don't have
much else to add to this episode i think we covered you know the
ins and outs of this bait really well talked about where you can
find it what you can use it on how you use it a
little bit about your background so i just want to thank you for taking time
out of your schedule to talk about the new
stinger baits from vk musky lures i'm anxious to see how this goes i know of
(36:05):
course i anytime we get something new in the shop i gotta play with it so i
i had to grab a couple uh the tro colors to uh throw my boat so we're gonna
get some six inches and eight inches working this year as well it'd be cool
thank you so much i appreciate it and,
thanks for having me on and uh thanks to everybody for listening to me talk i talk for a living so,
(36:28):
i ramble on so be it i'm sorry but uh thanks for listening i appreciate it yeah
absolutely i want to thank all of our listeners for tuning in again with us
for another episode of the team rhino outdoors muskie fishing podcast we will
be back with another episode again next week monday so So stay tuned,
check us out on all the places that you can find podcasts on all the most popular podcast apps.
(36:49):
Thank you again for listening and we'll see everybody next.
Music.
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