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Posts: 44
| After looking at the prices of lures now are we keeping a younger generation from participating? I don't know how a new fisherman just starting out could afford to get going. |
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Posts: 426
| Not just younger guys. The price of baits is outrages or us all. Several times I've told myself that I could never afford this sport if I was just starting out. All of my favorite baits are now priced through the roof. The best thing a any one can purchase or make is a quality lure retriever. It's like money in the bank. As for rods and reels and line; good luck with that. |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | Not just musky fishing, check out some of the prices of boutique bass swimbaits. |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | I think skinny jeans are a bigger obstacle than bait prices. |
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Posts: 347
Location: Vilas County, WI | Flambeauski - 3/29/2019 5:56 AM
I think skinny jeans are a bigger obstacle than bait prices.
Skinny jeans don't allow proper flexibility for a good figure 8. Therefore, wear skinny jeans = don't catch any muskies. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | When I was young my dad and I were out walking the dinosaur he told me one day you will need a wheel barrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread. Men as single household wage earners were supporting familys on $60 a week. About 10 years ago I told my grandaughters that I paid 4 times more for my last pair of work boots as I paid for my first car. Two years ago I traded in a well kept 6 year old truck and still wrote a cheque for more than I paid for my house for a new one. The dollar is continually being devalued so you better get used to it. When i see people bidding $500 on line for a muskie lure and others living on the street I think I'm glad I'm closer to the end than the beginning.
Edited by horsehunter 3/29/2019 7:17 AM
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Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | TheShow - 3/29/2019 6:56 AM
Flambeauski - 3/29/2019 5:56 AM
I think skinny jeans are a bigger obstacle than bait prices.
Skinny jeans don't allow proper flexibility for a good figure 8. Therefore, wear skinny jeans = don't catch any muskies.
Haven't you seen skinny sweatpants yet? Problem solved! |
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| I think if you are willing to buy used equipment and not need four or five big boxes of baits, you can fish on a budget. If you read some posts, you would think it impossible to catch a musky on anything less than the latest Tranx and a top of the line St. Croix. If you believe that, then yes you better have a lot of cash or a big line of credit. And yet, working as a clean waters volunteer at the boat landing on the chain where I live, I see successful anglers with the most basic of equipment. A guy who fishes by himself and a retired couple come to mind. I have seen each several times and they have caught fish because they know the water, they work hard and smart. They have a handful of lures that they have confidence in and that is what they use.
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Location: Eastern Ontario | I really don't catch any more muskies today than when all my baits fit in a styrofoam minnow bucket. I got 2 young guys started and picked out and gave them each 25 lures in a divided milk case telling them if they were a lot smarter than me that's all the lures they would ever need . Most of you know how long that lasted. |
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Posts: 93
| It's untrue that muskie fishing is too expensive, people just think it is.
It's called "relative deprivation," where you come to believe in "must haves" based on pressure from seeing what others have around you, and you feel excluded or lacking if you don't have it too. Over the last 15 years, the internet has created a hugely false sense of what someone must have in order to enjoy fishing for muskies. We're overexposed to the latest greatest hot bait, rod, or boat to the point that it's easy to forget that muskies will eat more than just Fat Buggerer topwaters, Skully Skull bladebaits, and Pub Wanker jerkbaits.
They do still like to eat TopRaiders and Buchertails and Suicks just fine, thank you very much, and a person starting out can get a nice rod/reel combo and 5 very effective lures at a pretty reasonable cost.
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Posts: 735
| I think one thing guys could do is to start learning how to use replacement parts. For example, take a Mepps giant killer. After a few fish, the bucktail seems to wear out. Why replace the whole lure, when u only need to replace the bucktail. Same goes for hooks, plastic tails, replacement eyes, paint touch up, etc. Musky lures are expensive, so replacing parts when u can is an economical way to go. Kdawg |
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Posts: 1000
| As a millennial, cost isn't the issue. The people buying those $2-500 bass swimbaits are youth.
New angler recruitment is the issue. People don't take kids out fishing and hunting - or the outdoors for that matter - like they used to. |
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Posts: 8721
| I'd say the answer is no. Think about when you were young. No wife, no kids, presumably good job... I had a new truck, I had 8 weeks of paid time off, and just a handful of bills. No mortgage, no property taxes, no home repairs. I had some bills.
SOME... But every paycheck there was more and more money in the bank to spend those 8 weeks fishing. The young folks starting out today are no different. Maybe they don't have the best job, maybe they have a lot more student loan debt than we did, but at that age all your income is disposable. It's nothing for someone who is in their late 20's, not married, no kids, no house to go out and spend $20k in a summer fishing all over the map. What's a few thousand in gear?
If I had known then, I would never have bought a single lure, rod, reel, etc.
By joining muskies inc and going to their functions, fishing a handful of tournaments, etc. I could have eventually outfitted myself completely for $20/month in raffle tickets.
Edited by esoxaddict 3/29/2019 1:53 PM
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Posts: 1636
| $100 Shimano Corvalus
$50 Shimano Sojourn Musky Rod
$20 spool of super line
$8 leader
$15 lure
Someone can start Muskie fishing... with their own gear - for under $300 (depending on tax).
*Price list does not include $100 release tools, $200 net, vehicle, boat, gas, sun screen, ham and cheese gas station sandwiches, sunflower seeds, water, phone/emergency service, Figure Eight T-shirt, etc... |
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Posts: 1671
| tolle141 - 3/29/2019 12:45 PM
As a millennial, cost isn't the issue. The people buying those $2-500 bass swimbaits are youth.
New angler recruitment is the issue. People don't take kids out fishing and hunting - or the outdoors for that matter - like they used to.
I'll agree to a point. Recruitment is key, however I'm not going into the kids house to drag him out. Several times I have been launching or landing the boat and there were kids bank fishing and messing around. Very seldom did they ever leave without a bag of plastics or even some baits.
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Posts: 517
Location: WI | I think they’ll be fine. I’m slowly getting back into musky fishing after 6 years off and while I certainly noticed the increased prices, I also noticed there are also more manufacturers knocking off the same 2-3 basic lure concepts as well. Clearly the industry is bringing enough new people to the sport and I would bet most of the new people coming in are closer to starting their careers than they are retiring. |
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Posts: 102
| I agree that the costs of all of our equipment is out of hand. $500 reels?!?!?!? Who would have thought? $60 or more for a lure? And this is regular price from a catalog not the going rate online for a "hot" bait, which may be well in excess of $100.
So many people make it sound like you need to buy a Tranx 500 and top of the line St. Croix. They say that you should have different gear ratio reels for each category of lure. In reality, a guy can start out by buying a brand new Abu Ambassadeur S 6500. Walmart currently has them for $47.99. They also have a Shimano Sojourn rod for $49.99. Throw some old mono backing on that reel and add a 150 yard spool of Power Pro for $15 and a guy can start out with a brand new combo for a decent price. Many guys want new and not used.
I realize there are additional costs for lures, etc. But even if a guy buys one topwater, jerkbait, crankbait, Bulldawg and a couple bucktails to get started it won't be all that bad. Although a Knipex is a nice tool, hooks can be cut with a cutter from your toolbox. Long nose pliers can be taken from your toolbox too. A net would be the most expensive item, but chances are you will be starting off with somebody more experienced that has a net.
A few years ago over winter, a guy that I know decided he wanted to fish for muskies the following spring. Each paycheck over the winter he bought something. Rod one check, reel the next, etc. By spring he had a nice selection of lures and the Sojourn rod mentioned above with a lower end Abu 6500. He was happy as could be. |
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Posts: 1220
| I think it’s a non-issue. My kid is 42, lives out in Colorado, and spent $10,000.00 on a bicycle. One at Walmart that looks a lot the same is $300.00. That’s what he wants to do with the money he works for, he could have easily binged out at a Musky expo for less. Kids today think they need more stimulation and immediate gratification than our hobby provides, it’s that simple. Last, the 10 inch Kick’n Minnow I buy on sale for $7.97 will likely still out-fish whatever you just overpaid for. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | Custom lure prices are not stopping anyone. Most newbies aren't buying barfighters or true gliders, they're buying suicks and hellhounds. The biggest obstacle is the older generation getting over themselves and their ridiculous notions of the younger generation and asking a younger guy who may not have a boat out to fish for the afternoon. Access to fish is essential to new guys catching the muskie bug. WW2 generation hated the hippie boomer generation. Boomers hated Gen Xers. Gen Xers have never liked millennials, so on so on. This phenomenon is nothing new |
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Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | Lots of young people fish hard up here in northern MN. There are a ton of young Muskie fisherman out on the lakes as well. But the truth is that you do need someone to introduce you to it. I’ll make it a point to take at least one new kid out this year. |
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Posts: 1080
Location: Aurora | cable - 3/29/2019 12:24 AM
After looking at the prices of lures now are we keeping a younger generation from participating? I don't know how a new fisherman just starting out could afford to get going.
If you're referring to the price of muskie lures being too high and thus making them inaccessible to youth just starting out muskie fishing, I would suggest getting involved with Muskies Inc. if possible. Considering the nearest chapter is a group of welcoming, non-elitest, buncha folks, they can be a tremendous source of lures for youth just starting out, not to mention information and how to be a responsible steward of natural resources. Besides a straight donation, they also have swap meets and i've seen the leftovers at the end of the night get donated to youth pretty regularly. Also, Tackle Industries and other knock off lure suppliers have frequent sales that put their proucts well within reach for those that lack the necessary spondulix.
Lastly, not being critical of your post but I've never heard or been witness to any youth starting out as new fishermen gearing up exclusively for muskies. In fact, i'd venture to guess that most start out bobber watching with someone baiting their hook, wiping their nose, and zipping their coat. However, if you're talking about that mischievous dirt bike ridin age, I remember my friends and I being fairly resourceful during that time, "borrowing" what we needed from our father's tackle hoard when money from our paper routes wasn't enough to fuel our love of fishing. Even then, our patience was too short for targeting muskies, opting instead for hard pullin bass and carp that would eat more affordable bait such as bubble gum, corn or bread. Exposing youth to fishing is great and all but i'd argue that teaching them to be resourceful is more valuable and will serve them better in the future. Take these new topwaters i'm working on for instance (see below). The harnesses i've designed so far are too heavy but am i giving up? Hells no!
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 Topwaters.jpg (55KB - 424 downloads)
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Old people always think the younger generations are doomed. We’re fine, I promise.
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Posts: 267
| In 1992 I bought my Lund Pro Angler 1700 with a 60 hp Johnson for $8995. What can you buy a 17 foot deep V boat with a 60 horse outboard for today? Before I retire, I will buy a 60 hp Yamaha, new trolling motor and couple depth finders and I'll pay way more than I did for my whole rig back then. |
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Posts: 455
| The price of boats is what shocks me the most. When will they see their peak? |
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Posts: 32800
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | chasintails - 4/1/2019 8:01 AM
The price of boats is what shocks me the most. When will they see their peak?
Crazy increases, but right along the same average as automobiles and other machines. I remember clearly back in about 1988 selling a Rampage dual console rigged with everything one could for almost 18K. It was the most expensive retail price I had ever seen on a Tuffy by a long shot. I remember saying "that's more than I paid for my house 14 years ago" |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | Pointerpride102 - 3/30/2019 9:51 AM
Old people always think the younger generations are doomed. We’re fine, I promise.
you are an old people now ... |
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Posts: 8721
| Just for fun, I priced out the 2019 version of my truck... Wow. I see a ton of new trucks on the road. What do these people do for a living?!
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | jonnysled - 4/1/2019 10:22 AM
Pointerpride102 - 3/30/2019 9:51 AM
Old people always think the younger generations are doomed. We’re fine, I promise.
you are an old people now ...
I still meet the technical definition of a millennial. |
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Posts: 32800
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Pointerpride102 - 4/1/2019 10:34 AM
jonnysled - 4/1/2019 10:22 AM
Pointerpride102 - 3/30/2019 9:51 AM
Old people always think the younger generations are doomed. We’re fine, I promise.
you are an old people now ...
I still meet the technical definition of a millennial.
An old and jaded one maybe. |
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Posts: 315
| esoxaddict - 4/1/2019 10:30 AM
Just for fun, I priced out the 2019 version of my truck... Wow. I see a ton of new trucks on the road. What do these people do for a living?!
And sadly many are just 84 payments away from actually owning it! |
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Posts: 3
| I caught more muskie here last year with a 6500C3, $29.95 Bass Pro Flipping stick, and a $4 glide bait I picked up used. Oh, and I spent more time in my $100 14 foot cartopper boat with a 1986 7.5 Evinrude than I did in my Polar Kraft..
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Posts: 612
| Fishing important but families 1st, so I do buy some rather expensive gear at times but I know when to walk away. Us older guys on fixed incomes need to be as price conscious as most folks. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I’m still pretty OK with the custom rod, tranx and ranger myself ... |
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Posts: 8721
| If your boat, truck, and gear cost more than your house you may have a muskie problem. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | esoxaddict - 4/1/2019 4:06 PM
If your boat, truck, and gear cost more than your house you may have a muskie problem.
Or you live in an area with pretty cheap housing. |
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Posts: 51
| Introduced my then new son to fishing at 5, fortunately it stuck.
To bait casters at 7.
This not only gave him a love for outdoors BUT it definitely kept him out of trouble as a teenager.
Now he tells me his biggest problem is getting off the water and out of the woods.
He's also a great father of a daughter and son (Hunter).
Never forget that it's not just the fish that we're after. |
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | M Ruff - 4/1/2019 4:58 PM
Introduced my then new son to fishing at 5, fortunately it stuck.
To bait casters at 7.
This not only gave him a love for outdoors BUT it definitely kept him out of trouble as a teenager.
Now he tells me his biggest problem is getting off the water and out of the woods.
He's also a great father of a daughter and son (Hunter).
Never forget that it's not just the fish that we're after.
Many men fish their whole lives without realizing it's not fish they are after .. |
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Posts: 8721
| Pointerpride102 - 4/1/2019 4:46 PM
esoxaddict - 4/1/2019 4:06 PM
If your boat, truck, and gear cost more than your house you may have a muskie problem.
Or you live in an area with pretty cheap housing.
If I wasn't married, I'd be living in a loft on the second floor of a 6 car garage full of all my toys and gear, so I'm not really one to talk. But I still laugh when I look at the boat ads... "Gotta sell my 621 Ranger because I ordered a new boat!" The truck in front of the boat is at least $50k, sleds or ATV's in the garage, and the house looks like Sanford and Son... |
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Posts: 267
| In all honesty a newbie could probably go out and buy a cheap rod, throw a 6500 on it and cast a 700 Buchertail or Mepps Musky Killer and catch as many as me in a year with all my crap! |
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Posts: 112
Location: Illinois | 8 weeks vacation and $$ in your pocket??...I want your job. Lol |
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Posts: 112
Location: Illinois | I have started simplifying my arsenal and have started catching more fish. I used to snap on a new bait every hour or so. Now i throw 1-5 a day. |
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Posts: 112
Location: Illinois | I have started simplifying my arsenal and have started catching more fish. I used to snap on a new bait every hour or so. Now i throw 1-5 a day. |
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Location: Eagle Lake Vermilion Bay, Ontario | its easy to get caught up in the designer baits and bait/tackle costs. a guy can really get by with a doz lures...i keep telling myself i'd be better off...but look at my boat! ha ya rt easy to say . however it is the truth. some of the very best and consistant anglers i get to spend time with are that way, 8-10 diff types of baits and a couple diff basic colors to cover conditions they have confidence in and put the baits in the rt places at the rt time...no magic. ya equipment is way more expensive but way better, more specific, more forgiving,and lasts longer. like i buy a pair of meinke boots last me 4-5 years buy a pair of rockys last me 1-2 max.. buy less but better,more presentation specific instead of looking for magic and fancy colors to replace time on the water, a couple of good top end rod reel combos from med heavy to hvy or heavy to extra heavy or what ever combo fits depending on your fishery(s) and lures/presentations....every year as i reflect back the top 6-8 biggest fish come on pretty much the same 4-5 baits or types and colors...but still its hard to convince yourself of that...and even tougher for a beginner i'd imagine. so the disease spreads ha!
boats and thier equipment ya wow! and it seems you got to keep chasing the new technology every year.
but as far as requitement ya 8-15 yrs ago i was really really worried but last 1-5 yrs or so because of efforts across the board by individuals/groups donating thier experience/time, fishing and hunting communities including internet,tv,etc etc, schools and teams,etc etc,seems everywhere concerned people in our industry are using many diff media sources both interacting and social to get kids...(and thier parents because of it) involved i see lots of kids getting back into the outdoors again and the biggest jump in new entrys...women...and they arent doing it to get to go along on vacation, they are serious about it and learning how to do it rt. i dont think we will see an explosion but we've slowed down the losses and seen some new growth in our exciting sport.
good luck this season...you make it!...and take a kid or a gal fishing.
herbie
Edited by Andy Myers Lodge 4/4/2019 10:32 AM
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Posts: 4
| I have paid $80+ for lures and mostly use StCroix LT rods and have a Tranx as well as other high end reels. I also have numerous old 5500 and 6500 reels I bought used and new 15-20 years ago and old rods from that time I still use. Last year I threw expensive and cheap lures (down to $2 spoons) and ended up not catching a fish on a lure that cost more than $25. I started muskie fishing out of a kayak and still use the same one about 25% of my time now.
Like many things you can spend a lot for a little to get started. I currently have hundreds of baits and most have not seen the water in 10 years. I usually take around 10 lures with me and use 1-5 for the day. Fifty lures for different applications, time of year, etc is all I really need (could be even less).
About half my time on the water is with my daughters (12 & 13) and both enjoy it for different reasons. My oldest likes to catch fish and my youngest likes to hang out and talk (catches some fish as well). Both are good reasons. I try to introduce them to activities that they can possibly enjoy for the rest of their lives. So far fishing looks like it may stick.
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| there is lots of lures as good if not better than the one that charge a tons for molded cranks,or blades with a lil skull head etc etc the lures from drifter and joe bucher,musky mayhem will catch you tons of big fish under all the situations. at less than 25 dollars imho its fairly cheap. with all the crap that we got from climate change it will surely help if there is less pressure from the new gen. with internet info musky have never been that targeted so to be honest it would not be a bad thing if a lots of kids move towards another species that really enjoy hot water like bass |
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| The late Al Denninger, who guided on the Chippewa Flowage and was an EMT in Milwaukee for many years, had a good plan for getting young folks interested. For years he made a type of bucktail that was a little different and he would have a booth at sports shows in the Milwaukee area. His wife said if a kid came up and showed interest in musky fishing, Al would take whatever time needed to talk to them and when they left they most times had a free musky sized bucktail. He got them fired up (master story teller) and then gave them a base tool, the bucktail. |
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| sry dbl post
Edited by supertrollr 4/7/2019 12:03 PM
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | I have a 14ft princecraft that's seen around 800 Muskies netted. Some incredible days and weekends too. My best days in fact over the years. My best day for action last year was 8 fish eat in 4 hours caught 3 and lost 3 more of those at the boat. That was in the princecraft. I paid 13 bucks for that bait. I paid 2 grand for that boat. Is the expensive stuff nice? Yep. If you know what you are doing and can make the right choices you can be extremely successful. Cost does not define success.
I went multi-species fishing yesterday. Took my crestliner, cause it was windy. I put on one crank bait and slayed them. The crankbait and fishing in the wind where no one else would were not random guesses. I told a couple at the ramp what to throw as I launched.
Edited by ToddM 4/7/2019 1:42 PM
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Posts: 47
| Meh... where there's a will.when I got hooked back in the earliest of 80s I got tackle sticker shock too. Learned to roll my own hair and got good enough at it to sell enough to buy what I couldn't make. Caught a ton of fish out of a 14' Sea Nymph that I miss to this day. Still on a budget, no Ranger but got a good glass boat adequately outfitted within my means. Already paid for itself a few time over in tournament winnings so I'm good.
Just retired and I'll probably die in that boat if I don't win the lottery. Since I don't play, guess what.
You either got it (the sickness) or you don't. |
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Posts: 95
Location: MN | I'm a millennial. It feels weird acknowledging it, but I am. I first muskie fished with my buddy and his dad on Vermillion when I was about 21/22. I had no idea what I was doing and they had me throwing a Tally Whacker for a majority of the time because it was easy. I had a blast. Didn't see a dang muskie, but enjoyed the time and nature. That was really my first fishing experience. I had done a little fishing for panfish when I was a kid, but had no idea how to fish until that Vermillion trip. My buddy was amazed how terrible I was at casting a baitcaster and did a pretty good job fixing it as best he could. After a few years, I was finally out of college and thought it would be fun to start muskie fishing more often, so I bought a 6500 (for $90 brand new at Gander in 2010!) and had my buddy's dad build me a rod. Went fishing a few more times, but never really went gung-ho for it. After buying a bunch of lures a few years later,I went to Eagle lake with my father in law. He didn't really know too much about where to go, and I had no idea either, so he caught one fish and we did fine with northerns/walleyes. The 6500 stripped a gear mid trip and I used a backup reel off one of his setups until I could get home and send it in.
I now have three casting setups, and the 6500 that was replaced by Abu is now my northern reel. I have a bunch of baits (way less than a lot of you, by the looks of it) and have tried to get out as much as I can. I don't have a boat, so I'm limited by that and very little free time yet. Learning to muskie fish before any other species, and working backwards from there was fun. It's been awesome to know that family to get me into this crazy sport, and I'm blessed to have a wife who lets me do this as often I can. I have never paid more than $40 for a lure and that included shipping, and don't plan to pay any more than that going forward. Price can absolutely deter the young newcomers, but there are things to be done to help that.
Edited by ndsumiller 4/16/2019 12:14 AM
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