Wahoooooooooo!!!! Off to Nestor Falls/Kenora for a week of fishing in about 30 minutes. Can't wait to see a Kagagi ski eat an Alien! Fish on, get the *^%)$$# net!!!

Have a great 4th of July.

Al

Check out the "Have you seen an Alien post".

Ohhhhhhhhhhh- Cabin FEVER!!!! The weather has been absolutely beautiful. The walleye guy's are catching muskies and us muskie guy's are sitting at home going bonkers. It's not fair! Maybe I should go walleye fishing.

Have fun!
Al

Ahhh- spring is definitely on the way- developed a new stinger rig for the ESOX Alien. The stinger hook sets in front & has free movement on hookset-just like the rear hook. Thought I'd test the Alien with the stinger to see if it affected the action in actual water- ~10th cast playing around- ~ 30" fish takes a wack at it on the drop, give it another pull & drop, fish on. Didn't really want to catch a muskie- just checking the action of the lure. Quick fight, she was on the stinger, kept her belly up in the net while unhooking, no roll's or violent reactions- she was green, but very calm belly up- dipped the edge of the net under and rolled her over- she was gone in a flash of the tail.

Barbless hooks sure make releases easy.

Decided the new Alien rig action test was sucsessful & left. God it was tempting to take a few more casts. Checked the water temp- ~34F.

Saturday off to Rainbow Casino for the fishing show- Onalaska Omni Center was sold out of booths for that show & Mike didn't have info on New London. So I guess I'll have to put up with some WI River fisherman. Should be a fun day. They tend to be a little more rustic than your average muskie guy. I think they were trained by Ranger & SWorrall.

Have fun
Al

Aaahhhhhhhhhhh- Finally just got the call from my buddy Mike Hofmann-ZaltNAD. The Aliens are here! Stop by our booth at the Madison Fishing Expo this weekend to see the most innovative lure to hit the 2005 Muskie scene, i.e., the ZaltNAD "ESOX Alien". Available rigged or unrigged. 6". 9", 12' or for the big girls, 16" of extra tough molded soft plastic. Hands down tougher than any Bull Dawg and better action.

Ssssssssssssh- When hooked behind a herring dodger it's also rumored to be a great lure for Great Lakes salmon & trout.

Now it seems like forever until the 2005 season opens in Wisconsin. So many hot colors, so little time!

Have fun.

This blog is intended as my personal reaserch journal in the realm of muskie fishing.

Yesterday- I took my granddaughter (9) & grandson (6) to the Muskie Madness show put on by the God's Country Muskies Inc. chapter.

My partner Mike Hoffman is down & out from rotator cuff surgery and I had just gotten home from a business trip Friday nite ~ midnight. So we couldn't have a full booth. Anywho- I said what the heck- I wanted to see what people's reaction would be to the new Alien & Ambusher. So I paid the $25 (soooo reasonable) and setup my demo kit (the stuff I normally carry with me anywhere I go with my truck) -

It probably seemed pretty insane- this guy & his grandkids with nothing to sell at the show. Well - the Alien & Ambusher are rubber baits that are so new we don't have stock built up yet- I'm still waiting for the hardware to build them.

I did have chance to chat with a couple of folks who were pretty positive in their response to the lures and my patent pending method of rigging them.

I was a little disapointed that a lot of folks just strolled on by, including the pro's that were there. Maybe I should have worn my Zalt Pro Staff guide shirt instead of my Kenora Muskie t-shirt.

Nether the less we had fun, all the kids at the show definitely stopped by to see & play with the lures, the ones w/o hooks of course. Jazzy (Jazmyn)& X-man (Xavier) enjoyed setting up the table & being my little helper's. we left early (3:00PM) cause they were getting a little bored.

Xavier won a 4 " Gold w/ brown tail "Thumper Tail" bucktail. It's his first addition to his own tackle box. He sure was proud of that, and I'm sure it will get a muskie or northern pike attached to his line.

The show wasn't as big as the big-name show's- I'd put it in the class of the New London show. Very nice facilities with room for growth. I'd say the pool is little better than New London, because it has an overhead viewing area. Bill Green & everyone associated with putting on the event were very friendly and positive. We'll definitely have a full booth there next year.

My only suggestion to Bill & the guy's for improvement next year would be to let 4 manufacturer's demo at the same time- one on each corner with longer time periods.

Have fun