Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. Today, we're sitting down with the man. You've seen the products, they're everywhere. If you're a troller, you use them. If you don't, you need to be. We're gonna sit down and talk to the CEO president of Offshore Tackle, Nick Deshano, the predecessor to his father, Bruce, who's ran the company for years. And now Nick is at the helm for the last few years. They're doing great things, great products. We got planer boards, we guppy.
Snap voice. We tad pulls a whole plethora of items. And we're gonna let Nick kind of explain all those and the evolution of the company and where it is and where it's going. pretty cool stuff, interesting things. And I'm telling you, if you're a troller and you don't have planner boards, you are missing out. I get this from clients in the boat all the time. What are those things? I've seen these, I got them on a boat. If we're not using them, we'll snap them on, I'll show them, I'll give them a little rundown on how they work. Very handy, very effective tools. So let's sit down and let Nick give us a little history of how they.
became what they are today. And besides just awesome. So sitting down with Nick Deshano here with Offshore Tackle right after this message. So stay tuned folks as we're gonna dive right in.
Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. Today you're gonna learn a little bit about all things, all tools necessary to be an effective troller, more or less, in a sense. So we're sitting down with the boss man himself, Nick DeShano. What do we call you now? CEO, president, boss man with offshore tackle. Nick, Nick, so how's it going over there in the you're up in Michigan, right?
Nick (00:21.578)
Nick just works for me. Good. Yeah, yeah, Saginaw Bay. I'm I'm a l actually live on Lake Huron. Then my dad's straight across from me a half hour on Saginaw Bay. So we've got big water covered and we got wallout covered and pretty good little location we got.
Yeah, you're in the heart of trolling country, obviously, but obviously we use these planner boards everywhere from east to west and north to south because super effective. And it's not just a walleye and salmon thing anymore. I mean, these crappie guys, catfish guys, everybody's on. It's I mean, words out. This stuff works super effective.
Nick (00:48.182)
Mm-hmm.
Nick (01:03.286)
Yeah. Yeah it is. Well, and it's it's it's interesting as we go a little farther deeper into this stuff. Like I said, we started exploring the crappie stuff. Boy, it's been about ten years now since we've been doing that. But then we touched on originally it was striper, I guess. Then we went to crappie. And then now catfish, there's a lot of guys most of the catfish boats down there, they have planar boards. They've been using for a long time. They're a little different setup 'cause they're going a lot slower, usually four tenths of a mile an hour, so
It's a different setup. But yeah, I mean that's anywhere you're pulling a line through the water, there's there's an application for it.
Off shore (01:39.458)
No doubt. Let's let's go back to the beginning for those that don't know. Offer Tackle, you and your dad started, founded this a couple of years ago. You've stepped up in the last you know a couple of years and have taken over fully. As I imagine Bruce is retired and is playing with his Mustangs and and enjoying those cars in this Caribbean where he spends most of his time.
Nick (01:56.547)
yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, we just got it loaded on the trailer. We're gonna hit the track this weekend for the first time, so he's excited about that. We were fishing last weekend, so now we go racing next weekend. Yep.
Off shore (02:04.376)
Aria. But
racing this week. Two good hobbies to have. So how did how did offshore get started? Where did it come from? What's kind of the the the roots of it and the the brainchild behind it.
Nick (02:22.303)
Well, my dad he started the you know, when the salmon fishing really started hitting on Lake Huron in the late seventies, he always came up with his dad as a kid and did a lot of the small boat fishing and land stuff and things like that and he liked the area and and the salmon started going good up here. so he decided that they moved up here. He works worked for Detroit Edison down in the Detroit area and moved up in here and he was one of the first
if not the first charter captain up out of out of the Port Austin Port Austin area. So started out there, had a tackle store and first release was I think in nineteen eighty one is when we started doing the downrigger releases and there are your old metal alligator clips. I can remember just a little I was probably five years old when we were doing that and had a board on our lap gluing gluing pads in these downrigger releases and
It just kinda took off. It's it's timing, you know, perfect perfect timing. The salmon was exploding, the big water stuff was exploding and people were transitioning into little bigger boats and and out trolling with downriggers and stuff like that. So it was just kind of a natural progression and you know, and he he he learned he is pretty decent at learning the water and the fish and he had some some good guys that he worked with and they come pretty successful at it and it was it was pretty neat.
journey. It's been quite the trip. You know, I've been my whole life as long as I can remember, it's pretty much been been part of my life. So, you know, pretty unique perspective. And nice thing I can still remember a lot of the aches and pains and going through it and the the pressures and all the stuff on it and going into where we are now. So it's kind of neat to see. So
Off shore (04:08.758)
Yeah, owning, you know, running a company, especially in the fishing industry, is it's gotta have its ups and downs and and growing pains and and such is and as you said you brought up in it, so you've got to see all. But it's typically it seems to where the products come from or from charter captains or you know, with within obviously the people that fish every day saw the need for something and went, We're all pretty good at tinkering and went, or or something exists and you modified it to make it better. And that sounds exactly what he did.
Nick (04:36.681)
Right. Well Yep, you know, the release is a prime example. We had you know, they were originally just metal releases and one of the one of the guys that came up fishing with us and and stayed we had a small marina or a dock few docks at our our place in Port Austin on the river there. And you know, and he said, you know
Why don't we make these out of plastic instead of these just old metal clips? And sure. So it just kind of turned into that. And you know, then we had our regular our the OR one, our downrigger release as a first product, and then the stacker releases and the planer boards are about in in ninety-three and that was that was about the same kind of scenario. The the the salmon fishing on Lake Huron was in its first crash, its first downturn.
Off shore (05:02.55)
Yes.
Nick (05:23.219)
So we started looking at other stuff and we started fishing more walleye for for the longest time for walleye, we were salmon fishing. We didn't want these walleye. We wanted the salmon, you know. But when the salmon left, we're like, Well, maybe these walleye aren't so bad. So we started fishing walleye, but it's one of those, you know, the the planer boards that were out there at the time, they got the job done, but as we did it more and more and more focused on we're we're realizing that it just there's gotta be something better out there.
You know, we w started working with a few of the walleye pros and Mark Romanek and Keith Kavaeas and Gary Parsons and those guys and started getting the criteria what we wanted in a board and how we wanted it to work and just worked at it from there. But again it's prime time. That was right when the the P W T was going hot. that was just turning into being a a big thing, you know. So it's it all comes down to that. Everything is at the right time. We got the right people and
Yeah, it was th it worked out pretty good. Can't complain.
Off shore (06:22.936)
No, I mean obviously it it's I mean that planter board's been around, you know, the offshores for over thirty years now and it and there's not too many boats I don't I don't see in, but it's amazing how many people still are learn learning about You know, as a guide I get to people every day and and if I'm not pulling one, maybe somebody else is or they or we're just talking about they went to Erie and they saw these things. Now some of those charters using those big mass systems, you know, with the big wooden boards out there they got ten lines hooked to and you know, it's different, but guys will ask and all
Nick (06:27.777)
Yeah.
Nick (06:32.981)
Yeah.
Nick (06:36.703)
Yep. Yeah.
Nick (06:47.381)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (06:52.95)
Like, I mean then one of these I'll pull them out of the back and hook it on and like, yep. And they're just like, it just blows their mind, you know, how it how it works. I think you know the the teaching of it, the evolution of it, it well we got new anglers always coming up and trolling isn't going anywhere, even though we have the whole forward facing sonar thing going. But for the day to day angler and the recreational guy and families and guides and and even obviously the Great Lakes people.
Nick (07:11.637)
I think.
Off shore (07:19.936)
It it's a tool that you definitely if you don't have it, need it and you need to figure it out.
Nick (07:21.833)
Yeah. Right. Well, like I said, you know, you touched on the the the Ford face and stuff and and that's great. I've done it. It's neat. You know, it's cool. But it's it's different way of fishing. You know, it's not the social aspect. You're not sitting around telling stories, you're focused on the screen, you're worried about boat control and all that. So, you know, and it and it's hard with you have a boat full of people, you know, it's not taking five people out fishing for it sonar, you know. Usually it's if you're lucky you can get two in there.
Off shore (07:47.907)
Yep.
Nick (07:51.316)
So it's it's got its time. Tournament wise, you know, it it's it's hard to beat for tournaments now. But yeah, there's still like anything else, there's weapons in your arsenal and whether you use them as much as you did before or not, there's still gonna be a need for planer boards and and certain, you know, trolling equipment and stuff like that out there. So it's changing. It's always changed. You know, the the planer boards changed it just like forward facing changed it now. So it's just the evolution of fishing and
Off shore (07:51.682)
Yep.
Off shore (08:10.904)
Yeah, I'm yep.
Nick (08:20.479)
You know, you've seen it every five years or so it there's pretty big change. Every ten years it completely flips around. So it's it's it's interesting to watch and that's part of the fun about fishing is learning new techniques and different ways of doing it and ways of increasing your catch and just changing things around.
Off shore (08:38.922)
It is and it and it and then things can always get flipped back too, you know, if things get banned or modified and and there's systems where I mean Erie was the first N W T tournament this year and there was a good portion of guys that were s trolling, pulling boards around. And guys forward face and so on around were dodging boards 'cause there's a lot of locals, you know. You know, the even the last one on Mowbridge became, you know, another kind of you know, there was quite a few guys trolling that did well, a lot of lead corps pulling there, but
Nick (08:43.157)
No.
Nick (08:56.001)
Right.
Off shore (09:05.486)
Ain't nothing says you can't put a planter board on lead core for sure. Trust me, it works. You know, and you can run that one up shallow and then run, you know, run that sucker out here deep and or just spreading the presentation to cover more water, which was pretty, pretty key for that one because these fish are moving fast. So what so you got more in planar boards? Let's dive into all the other products you guys got kind of got going. Go down the the list a little bit.
Nick (09:08.213)
Yeah.
Nick (09:24.512)
Yeah.
Pretty much Yeah, we got we got main our main our main lines, planer boards, weight systems and releases. You know, the releases were first and then you know, we've got a lot of different weight systems now or a couple main ones. We've got our our snap weight kits, which everybody's been using for for a long time with O R sixteen release and you clip the weight on the line and you can adjust it.
deep you want to get and it's whether you're running spinners or crankbaits and you know the person trolling's got that fifty plus two thing out now for a lot of the big crankbaits for when you want to get really deep down and trying to simplify that stuff. And then our our tadpole weights have been
really catching on in the last few years pretty good. So a lot of people like our little tadpoles. It's a little resettable resettable weight diver. So our our little ones, small ones go anywhere from twenty five feet down to our Magnum. The guys are fishing on the bottom in the eastern basin of Lake Erie with them. They'll go seventy, eighty feet down if you need to. So it's just it's a versatile way to do it. Yeah.
Off shore (10:27.404)
Yeah, those are those are slick.
Off shore (10:32.846)
throw that over like a a dipsy diver or something. I mean it's gotta I mean obviously just you pop it and then it slips and boom, you're not having that resistance of the tap coming up. And a great way to get a little down deep.
Nick (10:40.821)
Yeah. Yeah, well it's just Yep. Well and it's consistent. The differen with a with the tadpole, the way it's got that diving kind of like a dipsy, the way it does dive, you can get more consistent of a dive curve with it. So I like to use tadpoles if I know I want to fish twelve feet deep. If I want to fish twelve foot down.
The tadpole, you know you can key it in. The the snap weights come in really handy. cold front situations if you want a little more subtle presentation or if you're wanting to to search the water a little bit more, you know, you can put a one ounce tadpole, whether you do it fifty fifty or however, and you know, you you can tend to search the wallum c water column a little more that way. So you know they've all got their our ways of doing it and and you talk to ten fishermen out there and each one of probably has their favorite and
And that's the fun thing, you know, everything everybody's got their favorite way of doing it and whatever works for you, that's that's the best way to do it.
Off shore (11:38.21)
Yep, this is true. It's the the guppy weights, the snap on weights are huge out here on the Missouri River. A lot of guys will love pull a lot of lead core, but a lot of us will run lead core on the sides and then drop two heavy snap weights right in the back. And it may not even be guppy 'cause some are running six or eight ounce weights, but it's still the OR sixteen clips. So red ones with the little pin, those things are you must have. Everybody needs a lot of those.
Nick (11:57.514)
Well, that's
Yeah. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well and that's and that's those dead wave, you know, we use those dead rods off the corner and that's where I really like the tadpoles too. You put a number three tadpole, you can zip that down there and it's and it's pinned pretty well straight down. So you can we'll run that like a downrigger up and down and check it and and yeah, and like I said, the OR sixteen's a it's a great release. It's you just gotta make sure you put the line behind the pin and and you're doing good. We have
Off shore (12:25.898)
Yep. Yep, you're gonna put me behind the fin. You got a three out weight on there. It's a good chest to have I pull out of there, but it's those things are I mean they're I I've used them to clip on, you know, a walleye's fins to keep upright and alive. Well to keep alive. Come in handy for so many things. There's a whole box of that I keep in the boat. They are are just they're good to go. You got the catfish guys using crappie guys. You got the
Nick (12:31.487)
Yeah.
Nick (12:40.853)
Yeah. Yep.
Off shore (12:51.65)
The salmon guys using the magnums, you got the crappie guys using the minis and the OR twelves. I mean they're just they're so versatile. touch on the minis a little bit where that came from. I imagine Tommy had a hand.
Nick (13:01.503)
Mini Yeah, originally the mini board was just as a small looking for something for panfish and things like that. And then yeah, and then I know we just had there was just that the original one was the OR thirty four and that was just just a plastic plate kind of board and it didn't have any flotation on it. So as long as you were moving it was fine. But the issue with it is you would turn
Or putting them out, you had to feather out a little tougher and they were just a little harder to use, not quite as user friendly. So when Tommy won the crappie tournament, the crappie masters championship, it that you know, of course blew up that whole that whole thing and we s really started looking at and okay, well if we're gonna w how do we improve on these? 'Cause it's a it's a good board for people starting out. It's nice, it's it's
not real expensive. You can pack a bunch of in a tackle box. They're good for especially like doing a fly in trip in Canada or something like that. You can throw a couple of them in there and they're not taking up a lot of room and and we can pull a decent amount of decent amount of weight with them. You know, and then we added that that float on the top and and that now we can just put them on the rod holder and it's it's sets just like an O R twelve does. my dad fishes you know, we fished Saginaw Bay with either small crankbaits or
or corral harnesses and he don't hardly use an O or twelve in the boat for him doing it. Just he's run he loves running on little mini boards. They're so light on the line. You can tell. I mean crappie we've had times with Crappie where it would go you'd get five inch fish and you'd see the flag on the twelve, the flag would go down and pop up. So if you miss that bite, you don't know. Or is that little mini board would sit there and just kinda shake and act all funny on the water and you'd bring in and
Off shore (14:30.498)
Really.
Nick (14:49.757)
So the there's there's quite a l I think it's overlooked a lot. People think you need that big OR twelve for everything and they'd be surprised. That that OR thirty eight we call it now with the float on it, that that pulls a decent amount of weight. Like so we've crappie fished with the three hundred bandit and the number one tadpole behind it and and it it pulls it along fine at, you know, one five. So it it does a decent little job.
Off shore (15:11.906)
Yeah, that's definitely a little bit of weight on it there. And you you don't need your right, right or left, right? It's it the menu will go on either side.
Nick (15:18.111)
Yep. You just flip the bracket. There's a slot where the bracket goes and you just pinch it and pop it out of there and flip it around, stick it on the other side, and and there you're going out the other direction. So it's made that one pretty easy. You don't really it's so light, you don't need to mess around with changing a bunch of releases on it. It comes with the yellow OR ten off the bracket, that's our lightest tension mini release. And of course the sixteen on the back so it doesn't come off the line.
Off shore (15:44.834)
have set and I just kind of like you said, they get overlooked. I forget about sometimes and unless it's like targeted, you know, a a smaller species. But you're right, 'cause they're super easy to use and to to put back there and they don't take up a ton of space. So there's I mean, you can stick in your boat, you know, anywhere. These boats nowadays have an awful lot of storage. So
Nick (16:04.569)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we f I like running out of Lake Huron. We'll fish steelhead out here. And I like putting like a silver streak or spoon behind it, fifty, sixty feet behind the board with no weight on it, just enough so it so maybe I'll put a little something just if it's keeps popping out of the water, but just to g on that surface. And there's a riot on a nice calm day when a steelhead whacks that line on that bait. I mean that board just explodes out of the water, but you don't have the resistance. So it's pretty easy to to fight the fish in.
Off shore (16:32.076)
Yeah. Big boy bobbers we'll call We love When we see those flags put out, or even if those eerie wallets are just the board starts to shake, get over and shimmy and boom. When they pull that with they pull the board under that OR twelve especially, you're like, Okay, it is a good one. that's crucial when that's when I take those OR sixteens off and and put the two orange clips on so we can pop it and release it and you're not fighting it back. So that is a a pretty slick and I think
Nick (16:34.131)
So Yeah.
Nick (16:41.728)
Yeah.
Nick (16:46.943)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nick (16:56.351)
Yeah. Yeah. Well and that's one thing to keep in mind too, 'cause we before when we first started doing these, nobody shipped their boards. So everybody left them locked and brought in. 'Cause we only most of the time we were only running two out each side, so it was a little easier to do. Now in Michigan with three rods and in Ohio and you know, we're running a lot more rods, so we'll run five, six boards out a side now and it and to to have to crank five boards in at a time or drop stuff back and so we've gone to back
to tripping them like we used to be when we first started out. the the biggest thing to remember with the RC, even monofilament now, with the bread the release on the back, you want to wrap that through. You want to double wrap it. So you push it through the pad, you wrap it around again one of the jaws and pinch it in, and that'll keep it when you pop the front release off, the board flips around to let the board go behind the boat.
But it still keeps it in place on the line. As soon as that release slides on that line, and we're finding even with the new monofilaments, there are a lot of them are thinner and they're making them a little slicker and stuff like that. so we're seeing some some pads, you know, the pads get worn out a little bit and stuff. But if you wrap that release, you won't have any issues at all with it. And and eventually if the pads do need to be changed out, we make replacement pads so you can
Chip out of there. It's kind of a chore, but it gives you something to do on a on a wintery day. Chip out of there and put some new pads in.
Off shore (18:19.426)
Yeah. I always gotta share those notes and the winner about you know maintenance gotta do a little maintenance on I mean it's a I always gotta say it's a product that doesn't really break and unless you lose it, I mean it's hard to keep selling something when you don't have to replace it, you know, but maintenance is good and you do lose here, there. Yeah. I mean you've I've d I've got one that I don't know where it came from. I'm sure it was floating in the middle of Lake Erie and picked it up and didn't have a guy's name on it and he didn't get it back. So it's
Nick (18:34.923)
Yeah. Yeah.
Off shore (18:48.482)
It's a good thing to pencil, take a sharpie and write your name or phone number on it 'cause you get snagged up or turned around or they blow out while you're blazing down the lakes. You didn't have you know, set properly. but they're still selling, they're still moving. So apparently we and like I said, there's still a lot of people that are just learning, you know.
Nick (19:05.117)
It it amazes me too. I mean, we'll get emails and and and and not even I mean, like, you know, in Minnesota and and out in the Dakotas I can understand it's a little more
more foreign to a lot of the people out there, but we still get a fair number of, you know, well I'm in Ohio and I'm just trying to learn planer boards or stuff like that. So it's that's a lot of people around and that's good. And a lot of it's it's good to see some some new people getting involved in it too. You know, it's like any other sport out there. It's it's if you get the people going and and keeping involved in it and everything it's you know it's good for everybody. Yeah.
Off shore (19:39.725)
Yeah, the industry is growing. The sport continuously grows, whether it's fast or slow. It's, you know, it ebb and flows and that. But there's always going to be new new anglers coming up. And they're not all forward-facing tournament anglers. They're going to be whatever in every fishery. And I'm seeing more and more planar boards out on the river and you know, and out here in in the Dakotas as well. We're getting some clean we're getting a lot cleaner water due to zebra mussels, which is making people go, things have changed. I'm like, Yeah, you got to get those baits away from the boat.
Nick (20:01.963)
Right.
Off shore (20:07.542)
There's no better way to do it than to snap on an offshore player board. You wanna cover a bunch of water quick, you troll. You wanna, you know, be efficient and effective, spread those lines out, get those, you know, things away. then maybe you find a pod of fish and you can double back and and jig or something like that on them. But we did it yesterday actually guide trolling. I said, What we're gonna troll until we can find a pod, but they were so sporadic and spread out, we didn't really find a pod, you know, maybe three or four or five in a group. I'm like, nope, we'll just
Nick (20:10.997)
Yeah. Yeah.
Off shore (20:36.312)
Just keep cranking. This is the most effective, you know, unless there's like twenty of them sitting on a piece of structure or something, we can come back and and target those and just kind of spin circles on them or something. But even with the bottom bouncers, I'll still stick one out, you know, or one or two out a little further away. Just because it gives it a little different speed when you're moving those things. Obviously when you turn, yep.
Nick (20:56.415)
Right. On a little search. Yep.
Off shore (20:59.02)
Yep, you'll get a little surge, what have you. And then if you turn you can basically pause that thing out there for a while and it and it never fails. That one just gets cranked on at the time. 'Cause you got you know, you got fish following and if you have a a forward facing, you know, a live scope, whatever on a pole, you can aim it out there and watch those and you could you can see it. These fish follow these baits forever until they decide to eat. So I think what underwater wolf cameras have been around, guys have clipped on their trolling rods and watched some of those and you're like, I mean for
Nick (21:06.771)
Yeah.
Nick (21:20.363)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Yeah.
Off shore (21:28.778)
hundreds of quarter of mile or so, these fish will just follow until they eat. And I think guys have sitting down with their scoping, they'll have one track at forty, fifty feet, you know, until you run out of water 'cause your your bait's back to your boat and you're like, How he would have followed you for another hundred feet. So yeah.
Nick (21:37.601)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, we had back in we had some friends that had the old Downrigger cameras. This was long, like probably one of the first underwater cameras. I don't yeah, l like old school monitor in the cabin so you couldn't mon you could watch it as it was coming up. And it it's the same thing. Yeah, this big salmon would come up and you could see they'd come up swimming, look at the bait and turn around, look at the bait, turn around. There'd be five, six fish coming look at that bait before one would decide to grab it and
And to me i it's neat to watch, but I think it's more frustrating than anything 'cause they're so we tried everything. We'd speed up, slow down and say they'd just come up and look and go away.
Off shore (22:14.722)
Yeah.
Off shore (22:20.51)
It's it's so some things have never changed, obviously. They've been looking following forever. You see that in ice fishing when they're, you know, on the old 2D and the flashers, you're like, they're there, they want to hit the sonar. You watch the same thing, you're like, they just won't, you know, three fish just came and chased my bait all the way to the boat, but nope, none of them touched it, you know, or they nosed it and and swam away. And that's what I don't think people understand how difficult some of these things are and how gratifying it is when you do figure out the right crankbait when you're pulling a board or the right bait on
Nick (22:23.753)
Yeah.
Nick (22:29.761)
Yeah.
Off shore (22:50.006)
F you know, forward facing whatever that finally triggers them or gets them to go. it's yeah, they don't just cause you have the stuff doesn't make these fish jump in the boat. You gotta keep keep adjusting it and and the platerboards can give you that can give you a different action. and the turns and surges and hunt mode and stuff like that. So that's I mean, rather than just a straight, straight, you know, long lining it it it does make a big difference and and they're just phenomenal. And like I said, a lot of us run
Tad pulls the guppies right out the back corners. Boom.
Nick (23:22.603)
Yep. Yeah, it's effective. It's easy. You know, we like to get a good longer, a little more rod and and just yeah, it's it well and it helps 'cause then you can kinda get if you can bracket it by just cranking a reel up and down and you get a couple of fish on the corners, that kinda tells you, Okay, well now I can bring my other boards in, put them back farther or ch closer or whatever you gotta do at a distance, instead of having to bring a board in all the time, you zip it up and when you find it then you can start narrowing it down a little bit. So
Off shore (23:23.511)
It's it's a
Off shore (23:42.061)
Yeah.
Nick (23:52.128)
You know, it's definitely gets you lets you do a lot of different looks and depths and like I said, just search and water. It's just all about cover and water.
Off shore (24:00.705)
It is, yep. And like those inside ones start are cracking. A lot of times early spring, you'll get those bigger ones or 'cause they're closer to the bottom. I've told for years that no, you can't get those to bite. And like they seem to be biting and they seem to be the ones we want. Or a tournament, it's like drop those babies down deeper and then and also I don't need to have them a hundred feet away. I can bring in and and we'll put some video links below. People are talking about shuffling boards and these clips, wrapping the lines. I'll put two or three links below here for those that are watching.
Nick (24:11.889)
Ha ha ha.
Nick (24:24.609)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (24:30.188)
YouTube and you can go check those out because if you're foreign to it, you're like, what the hell are these guys talking about? but the board shuffle is yeah, Scarlet has I think some good videos out there on shuffling boards, but I think it's called shuffling boards. that's a little bit of an art within itself, but it'll save you a ton of time. And for years I was just like just a tournament if there's there we have two rods each, so it's just crank that one and move it out of the way. I usually just crank it to the corner and then just stick it straight up in the back of the like the ski po holder.
Nick (24:34.911)
Right. Yeah, the loop track.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nick (24:53.91)
Yeah.
Nick (24:59.542)
Yeah.
Off shore (24:59.874)
just let it bounce there and then of course it'll get hit. but yeah it's nice just to pop it and when you do that you release it that fish usually will pull your bait right to the center. So you see the charter boats that have six or eight on each side and those things just snap off the line and let it go back. It's just hard for people to imagine letting a big fish just kind of fall back, you know.
Nick (25:20.577)
No, and that's the thing, it's not it it's not even really falling back that much. There's there's still more movement ahead of time. There's a weight of the board, you know, there's still a fair amount of tension on that line all the way through. I mean, yeah, if you drop it and you just freeze spool it and let it go back, then but as long as you're keeping tension on it, I mean there's there's always some, you know, the argument if you lose a fish this way, but I I think you have a tendency
Off shore (25:40.461)
Yeah, that yeah.
Nick (25:48.332)
To either lose or miss more fish by not tripping them, because when you're reeling one in, you're changing the speed, your inside one, it's not it's fishing, but it's not fishing as efficiently as it should be. You know, this the speed's changing on stuff. Now if you've got to put out, if you got your outside one and you want that to stay on the outside, you got you can't put the other one in until you got that one out, and it's whereas, you know, like I said, we've frished four or five boards and the third board out.
gets a fish, say we're fishing from, you know, eighty to thirty foot back and they're staggered and you don't want your high one on the inside. So we just pop that out and you can just kinda let it s when you let it out, we just let it drift behind the boat a little farther and give it a little little extra line and you kinda watch it and you can lock it in and you can move it right up up into that spot where it was originally at without even touching the other ones.
Off shore (26:46.636)
Make it sound so easy.
Nick (26:46.793)
So, you know, there's some Right. Well, that's it. And you've got to watch. I mean, if you're running you really need to be running all the same kind of stuff when you do that. Because if you're gonna mix in that, like crawler harness with a snap weight or a spoon, or you know, where the depths are all different, you kind of need the lines to be doing the same kind of angle so you know how to bring them around each other. But yeah, and it's it sounds a lot more than it is. Like we've had people that
Off shore (26:55.747)
Yeah.
Nick (27:14.877)
especially getting into these crappie stuff, trying to trying to tell that and they're like scratching their head and we get on the water. Within thirty minutes of playing around, they're popping boards, tripping around, setting stuff and and doing it. It's just a matter of getting out and it's you know, if if you've never done it, I can see how it could be seeming a little intimidating to begin with. I always tell people, if you've never fished before, just get two boards. Get a right and left. Put that out. Get comfortable setting tripping what do you even
Do you even tripping just to get used to doing it. And then add boards as you go along there. a lot of it too, I think the for the for the beginning people is to make sure that when you're trolling, if there's any kind of waves, you wanna go with the wind. You don't wanna be sideways or crabbing your your boards, you kinda wanna square your boards up with the waves. Now that doesn't mean to be in a perfect line. I mean, we can count on one hand how often the boards are gonna be in a perfect line out to the side. But
Off shore (28:12.024)
Yeah.
Nick (28:14.143)
You know, you just get staggered far enough apart.
He should be good to go. So it's it's fun. Like I said, you just gotta go through it. It's like any other new technique. We went spider rigging and for crappie and my dad and I spider rigging for the first time was during a crappie tournament and and that was a that was a show for you. You know, we got chasing stuff around, we got a fourteen foot rod with two foot of line out of so we got a crappie and all of a sudden this crappie's ten foot over the top of our head. Well, what do we do now? You know. So it's kind of see the see how people that never fish planar boards.
Off shore (28:33.654)
Yeah.
Off shore (28:43.192)
Yeah.
Nick (28:48.009)
Or trying to run, you know, four planer boards out each side would probably feel about the same way.
Off shore (28:52.334)
Not the same way. So it's like anything you'll get used to it. It it's not really all that hard and like I said, start small, work your way out, you get a little confidence in it. I've been tripping boards for a while. I'm like this so much easier to take that tension off that fish and and just get it, you know, and and slop dropping them back. You're right, your boat's going maybe two mile an hour forward. Y there's tension on all time, but yeah, you definitely don't want to freeze pool your your eight pounder back there and and I'll see if you salmon or something that you're you're yeah.
That's big. There you're gonna know. So crankbait tuner, you got that tool? I know we've been trying to push that thing and get it used out there. It's if you're a troller works.
Nick (29:26.773)
Yeah. Yeah. It works great. It works great. There's there's a little learning curve to it. you know, once once you get used to it and start using it, it it's just it's hard when you've been conditioned your whole life to grab that pair of needle notes. But you get especially you get some of these baits now, like the the flicker shads and stuff with the real thin the thin eyes, it's it's so easy to overtune it with players. or if you're you
Off shore (29:41.196)
Yep, it is.
Off shore (29:48.172)
Yeah.
Nick (29:53.002)
you know, you worry about you can scratch up the bill with them, whereas this thing you got you can just fine-tune that, you get just a little movement at a time, just a little change at a time and and and fine-tune it and you can get those dialed right in good. And and most of your baits now are are okay out of the package, but they're factory tuned, but as soon as you fish with them, they get knocked around in the net, they get maybe on the bottom, the fish bites them, that's in their mouth. It does not take much to get that bait out of tune.
Off shore (30:22.892)
No, not at all. And I like the boat flip a lot of the smaller walleye so not to mess with getting crankbaits out the net. Well then that's pulling that up a little bit, which is a little little different. But I'll I'll be like, Man, now that side's getting all tangled up. I'm like, Real then, that freaking bait it's all and it's because we're whipping in the boat on a twelve foot rod or whatever and 'cause they're just like a fifteen, sixteen inch or I'm like, we don't you know we don't need to net it, just whip it up in here and thinking but then it's
Nick (30:23.167)
You can see a you can see a difference.
Nick (30:38.977)
Yeah.
Off shore (30:51.128)
Totally putting all that stress on it. But yeah, it's just it's simple. Against the bill and it's just cook one click. a lot of people probably don't tune you know. Obviously the pros and stuff all do and they and they get it, but you know, drop that bait in the water, rip it a couple times beside the boat, and you'll see it shooting far left, shooting far right. Or if your crankbaits, if you're targeting fish on the bottom, you this one's got a hundred and fifty feet of line out and this one's got a hundred and it's the same lure. One fifty isn't one one of the two isn't running right. Usually
Nick (31:19.509)
Right. Yeah, well you think about you know you got a hundred and fifty feet of line out. If you've got just a a couple degrees of an angle on the bait not going, by the time you get to a hundred and fifty feet, there could be a couple feet of difference one way or the other. So, you know, it depends on and and again for for your average fisherman, they don't think about it that much, but to really maximize your time and maximize everything out there, it's it's you need to tune one way or the other for sure.
Off shore (31:47.779)
Yeah, totally. Check throughout the day and it's such a simple tool. Like you said, it it I mean I I got a couple and I just look at it like, well, what how the hell does this work? We'll put a video down below on on that too, 'cause Mark's explained pretty well it it it's like it's so easy, it it's like kind of stupid, it's so simple. You just
Nick (31:58.178)
Yeah.
Nick (32:06.943)
Well, the the biggest thing to keep in mind when you're using that tuning tool is that when any time you make an adjustment it it pushes that jaw open. You've got to close that you gotta pinch that jaw shut before you're making another adjustment on it. That's that's the key. I get into a habit, that's the first thing I do. I make an adjustment, it snaps the jaw open, I close the jaws so I don't forget. 'Cause you put it back on the bait, you think you can squeeze and you keep squeezing and squeezing and and nothing's gonna happen. So
Off shore (32:33.622)
Yeah, and it seemed like I had to s you squeeze kinda hard, but it but it's just it just makes such a minor adjustment and that's what you need when you tune it's amazing even with the pliers in the day, you just you know, easy to grab it and over overdo it. I mean like things going far right and you'd think you've moved it a sixteenth of a inch and now it's going four feet left. I mean you you need to move these things in millimeters and it doesn't.
Nick (32:56.245)
Yeah. Yeah. If you s if you can tell it's moved, you move to too much. If you see the eye move, that's way too much.
Off shore (33:00.204)
Yeah, that's pretty much right. Yep. I mean I look at it and look at try to look at the top and you can see some of it, like I said, most of mine lately are getting pulled up and that's from and that that's you know, you gotta take pliers and try to pull it down or some of like, yep, that one's just shot. We've bented too much. It's or it's just gonna be one that runs real deep with not a lot of line out 'cause the way the other bills like this. So, you know, it's what it is. I like to take Sharpie and put a little X on the bills when you got ones that are really
Nick (33:06.954)
Right.
Nick (33:22.205)
Right.
Off shore (33:29.634)
really good and and fishy, but like everything, you get a a a big fish on there and they'll do a little damage to your crankbait. But that's why Walleye guys have five hundred crankbaits in her boat at any given day, right? So
Nick (33:40.833)
Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's an addiction.
Off shore (33:45.827)
The yeah, yeah, it it is. I think I talked to the bass guys about it. I'm like, Walley Bass World's a lot bigger market, but I'm like the walleye people buy more tackle. Because we have so many more different presentations and it crankbaits and crankbaits are there's an addiction, and then you got all the custom colors, and then you got the crankbaits that you need for the you know, Erie and the Great Lakes versus Inland Lakes in Minnesota or on the river, even though bayonets are becoming big over here at Lake Wai because I'm chasing
Nick (33:51.954)
Yeah.
Nick (33:56.693)
Yeah.
Off shore (34:14.432)
fifteen pound walleye with them. They're eating baits that are that big. So, you know, it it it works. But yeah, man. A lot of crankbaits. A lot of crankbaits in a boat.
Nick (34:16.481)
Yeah.
Nick (34:23.541)
Yeah. We noticed last weekend we were fishing in the bay. The weather w weather was was nasty, so we tucked in Wildfall Bay and behind some islands, fishing in ten, twelve foot of water and you had weeds on the bottom.
So the the more the minnow shape, the longer little more s subtle action baits didn't produce as well as we put you know, a maglet down there and a big like a hot and tot, the old hottent tots with the big but a lot of erratic action that'll that'll shake the weeds off a little more on and the the fish need that that noise to pull out of the weeds. So it's it's a lot of different different techniques and depending on the water clarity and like
Crappie, we've bit nice clear water, the flicker shads and those kind of baits good. If you're in Mississippi and it the water's a little cloudy, the big three hundred fat bandits. You know, they like that 'cause of this 'cause of the noise going in through it.
Off shore (35:19.33)
Yeah, more water displacement, wobbles, rattles. Yeah, totally. More noise so they can find it. And you're exactly right. When you're pulling stuff above those weeds, you gotta you gotta get those fish to come up out. You can't run a crankbait through the re weeds so much, but but you're gonna get a weed hooked on that treble hook and if it's real erratic like a a salmo or a money badge or definitely a hot and tot. I mean, for those that remember those, we're aging ourselves, but those that's a hell of a lure out there.
Nick (35:42.433)
Yeah. Yeah.
Off shore (35:46.553)
thing. You know, and the thin fins, those b those bad boys caught a lot of fish back in the days and they brought the thin fins back, stormed it, but they just weren't the same. I don't think there've been a new wiggle ward or hot and tot that hasn't come back since.
Nick (35:51.617)
Yeah, absolutely.
Nick (35:55.955)
Yeah.
Nick (35:59.382)
No, I think I think there was a new hot and tot when they when they sold, but it still everybody's everybody likes those old ones. Except there's not too many people using but they we we did good. They were they were the the ticket the other day, so so don't throw out.
Off shore (36:13.622)
Yeah, if you can find them on eBay, buy them. I mean fish get conditioned and bringing something that's twenty, thirty years old back is yeah, it that's a pretty effective I don't that might be the most aggressive lure out there. I the samples and stuff have come out since. But the hot tot still I mean your poles like vibrating big time with that on.
Nick (36:19.254)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nick (36:27.886)
yeah.
Nick (36:33.471)
Yeah. Well and you can run run faster. We used to run We'd bump up, we'd put back and you'd start you'd bump up the throttle until they popped out of the water and then you'd just back off a little bit and that was that was your speed. You were moving with those things.
Off shore (36:46.542)
Yeah, and you can burn those pretty good. That's the problem with a lot of training baits is you can't go three miles an hour 'cause it'll just go and it blows right out. But those I believe hot tot had that metal, flat metal bill on it basically. on many of those and and you can you can burn I pull a lot of lead because of that 'cause they're running real small, number fours and number fives, and that lead will keep those suckers down versus you know, mono or whatever where it lets them float a little bit and and it pulls them up. What
Nick (37:01.6)
Yeah.
Off shore (37:15.22)
In the industry, how how do you feel things are going on the business side, market? You know, we is things moving forward, is it what are we seeing? And we got ICAS coming up here in July and I usually get a good kind of feel from all the other tackle distributors, but it's tough.
Nick (37:27.467)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's going pretty good still. I mean there's it's like anything else. There's fluctuations and there's a lot of uncertainty right now. But people that's the one thing, is people are gonna go fishing. You know, you'd been in the recession in two thousand nine. I mean things were slower, but it wasn't at all where we're worried on how we were gonna come out of it. It was just 'cause you what are you gonna do? You're gonna go fishing and things are stressed out, you go spend a day on the water and you got a good day. So you'll give up a lot of stuff before you give up going fishing, but
Off shore (37:59.375)
Yeah, I think beer sales and fission sales during recessions and and pandemics were all up quite a bit. So those were two staples.
Nick (38:01.985)
Yeah.
Nick (38:06.815)
Yeah. Yeah. But we're we're still seeing everything good. There's a lot of good good sentiment between the you know, the the retail shows we did this winter and a lot of people, the the the show we had in in Detroit in Novae, that was one of the most attended shows yet. So that's that's going especially in in a lot of sports shows are starting to see people
slowing down just there's so much more information available on online and other places, whereas before that was the place you went to get information. and there's still some great information and and good stuff going on there. there are dealer shows at the the retailers or small stores, everybody's seems pretty optimistic yet. So things are things are going good.
Off shore (38:50.358)
That's good to to hear that was their their biggest show 'cause I know that, like you said, a lot of them are kinda they're still around. There's probably a few less shows, but you know, I've gone to some and it seems like attendance is a little lower. so much of those are in that kind of January, February, March time frame and obviously Dakota stuff weather dictates a lot of it. Whether it's we got blizzards or if it's really nice out no one's coming to the show 'cause everybody's heading to the river to go fishing. So
Nick (39:10.613)
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Off shore (39:17.592)
Dakota Angler has their big annual Ice Institute. Well, they switched that to I think it's on Halloween this year. They bumped it up into the fall. And it's just a general sport fishing show. It's they're not doing just the ice no more because the vendors, a lot of them aren't doing shows, blah, blah, blah. You know, then it's you know, they focus on ice, well it's hard to you know, when they when they yeah, they would do it in November, try to get ahead of the ice, you know, but then certain guys have left if if it's a bad year of ice
Then the distributors have tons of leftover product. And so then they're not really if there's nothing news coming out, people aren't coming to the show to see it. It's just it's a real kind of tough thing. So Todd's just made it a general fish and show, which I assume I'll have seminars and stuff. But I I I've gone to the Tom Wins when he's in town at Shields and rooms are packed. I mean, I think the people still want the information. I've done a couple in and Lincoln on seminars and full. Rooms are full. You know.
Nick (40:15.669)
Well and I I think a lot of that too is you know, is your your anglers are still, you know, their their average age is a little older and not of they're still wanting it. Nice so a lot of people that like that personal face to face conversation and touches and stuff like that on there a little better to asking questions and and everybody's just absorbing everything now. The the more information you can get the better and like you said, it gives you out, it gives you an excuse to go to the store and
Buy some more tackle and get some goodies for your boat and lose a little day out.
Off shore (40:48.782)
Yes. I was in a store today and I gotta hit one more before I head off to the Cape Burden Lake. So resupply. yeah, those seven ours those rooms are full. Ages are not a lot of younger ones, but I think some people are getting back into fishing. I don't get a lot of times it's they're a little hesitant to ask questions in the room, but as soon as it's over, man, you get a line of people coming up to you. Or if I got a booth, boom.
Nick (40:56.149)
Yeah.
Off shore (41:15.062)
There's 15 people lined up waiting to have those individual conversations and that's fine. Welcome it. Bring in. You know, and they want that little one on one or they just want to tell you their story or whatever it is, or you said something that resonated with them, you know, or as a guide, some just want to go talk about, you know, what what's coming up, what to expect, book a guide trip, whatever the case is. But yeah, you you still get a lot of that. I know the know we show out there, you got they got a ton of seminars and and that's awesome. And I've always said it and
Nick (41:15.776)
Off shore (41:44.025)
Carlos used to tell us, you know, to me when we would chat about things. And it's if there's another angler at each event I'm at, I'm gonna go watch their seminar. Because just like you said earlier, I can ask 10 walleye guys and I'm get, if not ten different answers, probably nine different answers. You should have so be able to learn something from almost everybody. And if and if you're you're not, trust me, it you you don't know it all and it's always evolving.
Nick (41:54.625)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (42:11.95)
I can guarantee I can go listen to Jay Cahee talk about something or or a Nuss Bomb or a Tom Wynn or a Chase Parsons and maybe something we've been doing the same thing for 20 years the same way, but he's gonna have one little thing in there that's probably different. And I always tell you if you can pick up one thing from that entire 30-minute or hour seminar that you sat through or you maybe watched it on YouTube, that one thing can help you win the tournament. Or that one thing might be the little tweak you had, tuning your crankbait might be the whole thing that gets somebody from having a good day to a great day.
Or a horrible data, all of a sudden I gotta figure it out. You know, it's
Nick (42:45.791)
Yeah. Well and that's the key with like a seminar too. You know, if you're going to a seminar, especially if if you're if you're new or you're just you're learning, it's it's easy to go information overload on those things. So like I said, like the key is just absorb as much as you can, but really find one or two things to take away from each one. And you go to ten seminars, that's that's a lot of stuff to put into practice.
Off shore (42:57.058)
Yeah.
Off shore (43:09.624)
Yep, yep, it is. Like take notes, take out your I a lot of guys are gonna record and and you can come back and watch them later. I mean, it it it is. It's a lot to take in. And as guys that did these seminars, we throw a ton at you 'cause we're like, how am I gonna fill this time? You know, and I don't like to do the PowerPoint thing. I'll put it up with two or three th just for some graphics so you have some visuals to be like, This is what I'm talking about, or this is what this looks like. You know, here's what a OR sixteen is, you know, versus an OR eighteen type thing. What the hell is
Nick (43:21.931)
Yeah. Right.
Off shore (43:37.647)
Or or sick, what what are they talking about? No, right. Not everybody gets this stuff. So it I the visuals are are good. but I don't like the PowerPoints where we're gonna sit there. I don't I'm not gonna read you the screen. Like we're not in school. That's that's horrible. I'm it's gonna put everybody to sleep. you know, and I like to record and and then share some of those those highlights of those points and and things like that later for people. So
Nick (43:38.951)
Yeah. Or what?
Off shore (44:04.248)
Tournament world forward facing sonar, how's that impacting things? How's that what's that what's that feeling like on your end of stuff?
Nick (44:10.881)
Well, it the the biggest the biggest difference we're noticing is like the NWT stuff for in the past. I mean, you'd watch a tournament ten years ago, you'd have a tournament on Lake Erie for NWT and it's it's pretty much you know, an offshore show you know. So now it's different. They're you know they're sitting there with the same guys are are forward facing and you don't see much of it. There's more, there's more than than you th there's more than I thought.
Off shore (44:26.764)
Hundred percent drilling. Hundred percent.
Nick (44:39.093)
looking at it, you know, you start really digging into it and and you know, now you're starting to get more of the more of our pro staff and stuff, you know, showing, say, yeah, here I am trolling here or I'm doing this here, I'm doing that. So there's there's still a a a fair amount of it, but yeah, I mean it it's and it's just what you're gonna do. You know, the same thing. I mean back when before everybody was putting multiple lines out, you know, Lindy Rig is the only way to catch a fish. You know, if you're not using a Lindy rig, you're cheating. You know? So
Off shore (45:04.363)
No.
Nick (45:08.861)
It's this kind of thing and and would I love to see everybody having planar boards out and fishing all the time again, I would. But I'm certainly not gonna say that well, you shouldn't be able to do this or you shouldn't be able to do that. I mean there's I'm sure there's ways of of managing things so it's competitive and everybody could still have a good time and get in it. 'Cause that's that's what the tournament stuff is. I mean, you know, I mean there's not not too many tournament anglers out there that are making a living just tournament fishing.
You know, it's it's still it's still a hobby. It's it's a side thing. So you're you're out there. If you're not having fun, it's it's not worth doing it. So that's the way I look at it.
Off shore (45:35.246)
No, your deputy is not.
Off shore (45:43.116)
Nope, nope, exactly. Yep, we're off to
the the Great Lakes for the l next couple or the last couple NWT events. So you may see some planar boards come into play for sure, especially the, you know, the over the weed bite. I mean, you're talking open water and it's just been even if you're just using it to find the fish, to find, you know, the active fish and stuff, you know, and then you go, you know, try to narrow down that pocket with your forward facing or whatever the case may be. Or when you got slot tournaments and you need to target, you know,
Not just two big ones, but I need to go catch a half a dozen, you know, mid sized ones. Sometimes there's a hell of a lot faster way. You know, four lines versus one out the boat. So
Nick (46:23.359)
Yeah. Well it's a good bit so even if you don't actually fish it in a tournament with the boards, like you were saying earlier, it it's a good prefish tool. So you can cover a whole bunch of water and Erie's Erie's a big place, you know, and there's a lot of places where these fish can be, and it's rough. If you get into four or five foot waves, it's that much fun standing on the bow of that boat staring at a screen all day long. So Right. Yeah.
Off shore (46:39.735)
Yeah.
Off shore (46:43.906)
No, not at all. We experienced this April. So it is it it is not. I've had to put a longer shaft on my trolling motor so you can keep the thing in the water. It's like, man, this there's an easy way to do this. You know, I can just take a direction and go and and catch the hell out of fish. So when it just it works, it works. It's proven, you know, and I know there's impersonators or whatever you want to call it out there of I wouldn't even call it the competition, but
Nick (46:52.705)
Yep.
Nick (46:57.695)
Ha ha ha.
Off shore (47:13.772)
There's you know real quick when you got the right stuff.
Nick (47:15.189)
Yeah. Yeah. Well and yeah, that that doesn't take long. We've got about a year. We redesigned something. We changed our flags so we could add more adjustments onto the the the wire and all that. And it took about a year to come out with that new their their new cattle flag flag. You know? But it's it's the way it is. It's it's in every industry. whether you're talking insulated cups and coolers or whatever, there's always gonna be that stuff going on and you know, we just
Off shore (47:31.446)
Right. Yep.
Nick (47:44.672)
We we've looked at that and the the thought of the sending it overseas and and telling our people that are working for us to go find something else, you know, I just can't do it and we like having stuff made here, but just the quality. You know, it it's hard to control the quality when you're s sending things over on the other side of the world and they don't know have a clue
They don't have a clue what a planer board is. I mean, we get our planer boards made and they're right in a company in Saginaw Bay. So I mean there's at least people there working that that fish with the product they're making. So you got a little more understanding of what's going on and and you can see it. I mean, you know, the way I look at it, if people well, I just fish once in a while, so I don't wanna spend that money on that and I said, Well, if you only fish once in a while, you want the best stuff you can get so you can maximize your time on the water. So it's really not
Off shore (48:07.436)
Yeah. Probably so.
Nick (48:37.811)
It's it's interesting, you know, the next set. We just keep building the best quality stuff we can build. keeping everything kept everything here in the USA and it's just the way we've been, and right or wrong, probably bad business sense, but that's that's the way we do it. And we're gonna keep doing it that way. So that's correct.
Off shore (48:54.23)
Well, I I mean that's why it's often immunated but never duplicated. Because it's because it's all grown. It's right here and I mean I've you know been are your protest for years and and and St. Croix and Seagar, all these companies have one thing in common. Made America.
Nick (49:05.397)
Yeah.
Nick (49:10.655)
Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah, there's certain screws you might not have a choice.
Off shore (49:12.342)
least ninety percent of the products are. I mean we still get some some rings or something. Right. Little things you gotta get from somewhere else and and get assembled here. But most of the manufacturer stuff is done here. Good companies ran by good people. You got a great pro staff with people all over the place, you know, doing doing good stuff and and I I can imagine it's it's tough with the forward facing, but like you said, not there's not really not that many tournament anchors. There there's a ton of different circuits and stuff and you guys have been a huge
Nick (49:22.069)
Yeah.
Nick (49:39.019)
Yeah.
Off shore (49:41.442)
supporter of all those as well as the MPA for years, which is just another reason that you stand above the rest of the companies. But it's probably, you know, five percent of the anglers out there are fishing tournaments. There's maybe it's one percent. Probably not that many.
Nick (49:53.856)
Well and that's it. You know, and and again there i if you're going out this your family you're fun fishing, taking friends, family that don't fish much, trolling is is a hard way to beat. I mean you can get a six year old kid out there and he looks and says, the flag's down, there's a fish on there. So they can they're involved, you know, they're fishing too when they're doing that stuff. So you can start showing putting lines in and out and yeah. Yeah.
Off shore (50:13.602)
Yep. That's right. Big boy bobbers, I love.
Yep, I'm like, we're gonna do some we're gonna pull some bobbers today. They're like, huh? I'm like, these this here with the flags go, I'm gonna toss them like they're big boy bobbers. I think Tommy used to say that word as well.
Nick (50:20.978)
Yeah, yeah.
Nick (50:25.803)
Yep. Yep. Directional bobbers.
Off shore (50:29.75)
it it is it is a guide, you're right, is a forward facing is like, okay, you got a boatload of people. This is a one or two person type thing and and on updrips if they wanna see it and you know, use it and do it, that's fine. But it's typically maybe I'll jump up there and look and try to find a pot of fish or something like that, but I'm like they're they're not engaged and nobody wants to sit there and watch one person on the front of the boat drive around and cast an individual individual fish. So you gotta get get involved, you know. I had a group there today and
Kinda struggle. I'm like, I said, I can go over here and I can catch the crud out of fish right now. But the four of you are aren't kind of if you just just wanna watch. I don't you know, what you I don't think that's what you're paying for. You know, we're gonna stick with, you know, pull your bouncers out over there wherever the case may be. But I'm like, I can go catch 'cause I could right there, but they're all like individual suspended fish here or sitting on a rock type thing. I'm like, We're gonna find them and and pull your bait right over there by it. So yeah, we you gotta keep engaged and
Nick (51:05.148)
Yeah.
Off shore (51:28.718)
And there's no better way to do that than get a lot of lines out and and do some trolling. So I had two younger kids yesterday that one never really jigged. We started off jigging and slip bomber, and then we went to trolling and once the wind got going. And and those two guys liked that because they were both kind of each man on each side of the boat, you know. And one was he picked up his couple and giving his cousin crap. Come on, man, get it together, get with it. You gotta get one, you know. One more and we're done, and they were just kind of jabbing at each other. I'm like, and they weren't talking much when they were
Nick (51:45.601)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (51:58.359)
laser focused and you know, and doing this, but now they're just jabbing each other, kinda talking, telling stories. The dad's sitting there just watching I'm like, all right, this this is when this stuff comes into play. They're they're having a good time.
Nick (52:06.805)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (52:13.406)
Awesome, awesome. Hey we'll wrap this up and get you get back to doing things. And anything new coming that that you can even you can tell secrets. That's good.
Nick (52:23.273)
There's a little bit, not much we can talk about 'cause we really gotta like you alluded to with with the other stuff out there, the people are getting pretty quick at at finding something and then and then all of a sudden, you know, if you get an email you can have your pseudo offshore tackle company out there. So we really like to keep things tight as we can now and you know, maybe keep an eye out something as well. Yep.
Off shore (52:42.744)
That's okay. That's good. That's that's all we needed was a teaser. Folks something coming someday. We don't know what. We don't know when, but something up his sleeve and and that that's perfect. That's what we want to hear. It it's tough to keep innovating nowadays, just with so many companies are getting consumed by the bigger companies and I mean I I don't know, everybody's making a forward facing sonar base and what have you, but it's just keep thinking, Well, what else could they come up with? What else could they come up with? But
Nick (52:48.875)
Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Well especially
Off shore (53:10.936)
There continues to come up with stuff, so
Nick (53:13.289)
Yeah, there's stuff. He likes it. this is different with the trolling things. There's only so many weights you can make. There's so many, you know, planar boards you need different sizes, but there's not much difference in that. And which the thought of having to to do a a lure line with, you know, five hundred different different products and skews to have to deal with and that that doesn't sound like fun at all. So I I like our small thing. That's good. We got a we got a nice little core group. We got an awesome
Off shore (53:18.126)
Right.
Off shore (53:33.526)
No.
Nick (53:39.842)
group of fishermen helping us promote and making it, which you know, if it wasn't for all you guys doing what you do, there's no way we'd even be close to what we are. People say, we gotta come and see your factory someday. And you know, I everybody does such a good job. It makes it look like a lot bigger company than it really is. And you know, I'm still building releases in my basement sometimes. So it's it's still things haven't changed a whole lot. I got my son down there. Yep.
Off shore (54:02.041)
That's that's good. Keep keep the overhead down. So and that's kind of the the goal is always appear, you know, as a media guy stuff. I said you appear to be larger than you are. Nobody needs to know and then it it doesn't even matter. Long as the products speak for themselves. They work great. There's no issues with them. You got the maintenance kits, you know, 'cause like anything, you're gonna usually if I have a problem with the board it's cause it's from rattling around in the boat. Right screw fall falls off, but then it's usually in the compartment I find it and
Nick (54:16.758)
Yeah.
Nick (54:31.329)
Right.
Off shore (54:31.48)
twist it back on and we're good to go. but I don't never had a board break. I've lost a couple from I snagged on a tree and current pulled it down under, you know, 'cause it was on a sixteen cliff, it wouldn't let go. So it pulled it down. I'm like, yeah, it's it's in the river, it's on a a curve. That one's gone. I'm like, this all right, that's fair. We need to get another one. You know, but yeah, they just when the products be for themselves, that's that and everything else really kind of just falls into place. So don't have to worry.
Nick (54:43.871)
Yeah.
Nick (54:58.474)
Yeah.
Off shore (55:00.254)
Anything to leave our listeners with? Any fishing tips? Something about Nick we don't know? Or about offshore? Anything?
Nick (55:07.745)
So Yeah, I don't know. Boy, that you know the the the biggest thing is couple a couple of little tips, like you were talking about the the the parts rattling around. When you first get a pair of oars, you wanna make sure you tighten that nut on the release, on the bracket. Make sure every time you set it out, once you fish it for a while that that plastic kind of swells up a little bit and gets a little tighter on there, but when they're brand new, you wanna make sure that nut that nut is tight.
on there so the release doesn't come off. yeah, and the main things is wrapping the line on the sixteen so the line doesn't slip on that. And then which there's another video out there tell you we're talking about the loop the loop trick. And that's how you for when you put the line in the front release on the nineteen to trip, you give it a little twist and then you pinch the line in those twists. And that gives you helps you helps you pop it off a lot more consistent. So but yeah a lot of there's there's a lot of stuff out there and
There's just just start touching on things and I pick a couple of things at a time to learn and just refine it as you go. It's like anything else.
Off shore (56:14.508)
All right. Awesome. Good stuff, folks. You can go to offshore tackle.com. You can sign them, get their newsletter, and get you can see all those tips. we'll put some of those links below. I know you've been getting a lot of people signing up for it because she sends me the list. So you're that's that's good. We're getting we're getting people on it. Social media get on their page, they're putting out stuff all the time. You can see all the ton of charter captains are running boards and they're posting their picks. It's really easy to tell where the bite's good because you'll see it, you know, these guys are I can't even think of a couple of them.
Nick (56:26.719)
Yeah. Yep. Doing good on that.
Nick (56:41.481)
Yeah.
Off shore (56:44.012)
Name big dog charters and cause there's a couple three guys that are always popping stuff and and you guys are sharing them over there because they're on fish and they're fishing that Saginaw, that Lake Erie, you know, that green area where it it's being used. So but don't think it's just for the Great Lakes, folks. Planer boards are used everywhere. Like I said, I'm seeing a ton more of out in the Dakotas. It's just it's just more and more each year. I go in.
Nick (57:07.745)
We're getting more California. Guys are fishing inland inland salmon, kokanee and stuff like that with them too now. So we're starting to see a little more everywhere. So yeah, it's it's everywhere.
Off shore (57:13.142)
yeah.
Off shore (57:16.92)
Well, California if you give it a few months, they'll come up with some type of chemical code and they won't be able to use them or something. So right.
Nick (57:21.329)
Yeah. Well that's that's why we have to put our this product contains less than zero zero one percent lead on our packaging 'cause of California, so
Off shore (57:29.354)
Yep. Yep. Don't come up with prop prop offshore tackle pointer board and you'll let something pass 'cause they're pretty good at screwing things up. So we'll keep that that's the way that is. But that's too bad 'cause that's some good fishing and a in a beautiful place. So yeah, if you're on the east coast, west coast, get guys. I would love to see some of the inshore guys catching some big bowl reds on them and those things would bury those boards. You can pull them.
Nick (57:34.581)
Yeah.
Nick (57:40.481)
Yeah.
Nick (57:54.752)
Mm-hmm.
Off shore (57:58.329)
Big Bull Red would just crack on that or even get a cobia. So I get to head back down and maybe try that. So
Nick (58:02.565)
yeah. Yeah. Well we were gonna go down and and get involved in the redfish tournaments, but they had outline trolling, so we couldn't so tournament wise it doesn't do much, but proficient, absolutely. It it works.
Off shore (58:10.53)
Yeah. Yeah, it's yeah. Vision wise you bet, I mean, boy, they don't you don't have to be trolling. So the guys on little rivers and creeks, you shore fishermen, can use a plater board. If you got good current, you can sit there on the bank and you can't cast or keep out there. You want to keep your whatever kind of bait you want to put on it. If there's current, boom, you can slide it out there fifty feet or right in the middle of that river off the bank and just stick it in a rod hole.
to sit. I think kind of Yeah, yeah, that's a exactly you can stick it in your back pocket pretty much on on the mi one of the minis or in your little tackle box and panty pack. And that's I've seen a few people done it. I've done it on below the dam on some of these tail races in the spring just to try it. And I'm like, Yep, that works. It's there's so many different ways to use things that people don't think about or when they do see you do it, they're like, Huh, why didn't I think about that? That's pretty slick. So
Nick (58:41.749)
My little mini board's perfect for that stuff.
Off shore (59:10.06)
Yeah, I think I gotta get the minis. I'm gonna go dig the minis out and put back in my truck right now to make sure they're in the boat 'cause I have a couple places I'm like, man, I I could use one of those right now, it'd be easy. Just to we get a lot of stuff, debris floating in the river, which makes it tough 'cause then you're catching the grass that's floating on the top. but when it's clean it I'm like, Yeah, if we could get some of these spread out a little more and cover a little more water, that would be nice. So we're on the main lake, no problem. It's when I fish up in the shoots is when when it gets tricky where the
Nick (59:13.983)
Yeah.
Off shore (59:39.562)
Mini would come into play just for the fact that it's a smaller target to pick up the debris and you're just looking to run it, you know, just another ten or fifteen feet away and put a jig head behind it, really is all you need to do. So awesome, awesome. All right. Thank you, Nick, for sharing all that. That's good stuff, good history of offshore. Folks, check them out. We'll put a bunch of links here below to check out those videos. Get signed up, head over to offshore tackle dot com. Get yourself a crankbait tuner and get in tune. Get your lures running right.
Nick (59:48.073)
Yeah, just get it away.
Nick (59:54.667)
Yeah. Thank you.
Nick (01:00:07.904)
Ha ha ha.
Off shore (01:00:08.696)
catch more fish. and that's pretty much it. So once again, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for watching and listening. Real talk fishing folks. Stay safe. Keep those lines tight. We'll see you on the water.
Off shore (01:00:26.223)
Yeah.