River Rat316

Forgot to add, the only retrieve I have used with hippy jigs is a super slow drag, with 3-6 second pauses to let the rubber flair out, and the hair has a real subtle action on the pause also. They represent a nice big easy meal!

Double wide beavers, 5.5" craw worms, 6" finesse worms, and the skinny chunk, are all good "big" jig trailers in the winter. Hippy jigs don't really require the monster trailer that everyone thinks they so though. The rubber flairs out so wide due to the fact it floats, and the hair is sparse enough that it just adds a subtle action and a little more bulk to the bait. Here is a pic of a hippy in my tank, the trailer is a 4.5" craw bug that I pour, and you can see the trailer is more than big enough

My wife is out right now.... the more orders the merrier for me..... :'(

My wife is out right now.... the more orders the merrier for me..... :'(

My wife is out right now.... the more orders the merrier for me..... :'(

My wife is out right now.... the more orders the merrier for me..... :'(

NorthStar Baits will be having their annual Black Friday Sale! Sale is as follows 25% off all items on website! There will be a minimum order of $25 with Free shipping on all Black Friday Orders! Also new this year all orders over $100 will receive a coupon code for their next order that is good for $20 off the order! Sale Starts NOW and ends Friday at Midnight! Enter BR25 in the coupon code box at checkout to receive the discount, for orders over $100 your coupon code will be emailed to you after the sale is over. For the free shipping simply check the free shipping for orders of $50 (good for all black Friday orders of $25 or more) Now here is the usual sale disclaimer. I do not keep items in stock, I make the orders as they come in, it may take up to 2 weeks for your order to ship (depending on sale volume!) I will be working as hard as I can to get all orders out asap, but be prepared for slightly longer ship times than usual! www.northstarbaits.com

NorthStar Baits will be having their annual Black Friday Sale! Sale is as follows 25% off all items on website! There will be a minimum order of $25 with Free shipping on all Black Friday Orders! Also new this year all orders over $100 will receive a coupon code for their next order that is good for $20 off the order! Sale Starts NOW and ends Friday at Midnight! Enter BR25 in the coupon code box at checkout to receive the discount, for orders over $100 your coupon code will be emailed to you after the sale is over. For the free shipping simply check the free shipping for orders of $50 (good for all black Friday orders of $25 or more) Now here is the usual sale disclaimer. I do not keep items in stock, I make the orders as they come in, it may take up to 2 weeks for your order to ship (depending on sale volume!) I will be working as hard as I can to get all orders out asap, but be prepared for slightly longer ship times than usual! www.northstarbaits.com

NorthStar Baits will be having their annual Black Friday Sale! Sale is as follows 25% off all items on website! There will be a minimum order of $25 with Free shipping on all Black Friday Orders! Also new this year all orders over $100 will receive a coupon code for their next order that is good for $20 off the order! Sale Starts NOW and ends Friday at Midnight! Enter BR25 in the coupon code box at checkout to receive the discount, for orders over $100 your coupon code will be emailed to you after the sale is over. For the free shipping simply check the free shipping for orders of $50 (good for all black Friday orders of $25 or more) Now here is the usual sale disclaimer. I do not keep items in stock, I make the orders as they come in, it may take up to 2 weeks for your order to ship (depending on sale volume!) I will be working as hard as I can to get all orders out asap, but be prepared for slightly longer ship times than usual! www.northstarbaits.com

NorthStar Baits will be having their annual Black Friday Sale! Sale is as follows 25% off all items on website! There will be a minimum order of $25 with Free shipping on all Black Friday Orders! Also new this year all orders over $100 will receive a coupon code for their next order that is good for $20 off the order! Sale Starts NOW and ends Friday at Midnight! Enter BR25 in the coupon code box at checkout to receive the discount, for orders over $100 your coupon code will be emailed to you after the sale is over. For the free shipping simply check the free shipping for orders of $50 (good for all black Friday orders of $25 or more) Now here is the usual sale disclaimer. I do not keep items in stock, I make the orders as they come in, it may take up to 2 weeks for your order to ship (depending on sale volume!) I will be working as hard as I can to get all orders out asap, but be prepared for slightly longer ship times than usual! www.northstarbaits.com

Thats all fine and dandy, but I was talking fishing wise... more specifically components.... now if you can find me 75% off on some of that then we might just be able to work a deal for free lures

ughhhh don't even bring that up > I could have bought a new bass cat with a yammie show for what my home has dropped... and paid retail :-[

40 - 50% and 38% per item increase......no, there's nothing wrong with a company making a profit, but, plllleeeaaaaaseee. Did the price of food go down after the price of diesel and gasoline fell back below $3 a gallon? In fairness to Manns I will post their reply Glenn, but I think their answer will have something to do with production costs. By the way River Rat, how's things there with the Northstar Custom Baits? I still think you guys are missing the big picture, there are lots of reasons why prices are going up, I have watched my business costs increase dramatically over the last 2 years, you can quote a consumer price index all you want but I have watched real price increases for hooks, skirts, lead, plastisol, I actually can't think of anything that has stayed the same or fallen in 2-4 years. That is not even counting how much employee costs have went up. This whole time the manufacturers have been really weary of raising prices knowing the general public is already struggling to afford day to day living items let alone frivolous purchases like fishing tackle, so most have been eating these increases. Its a sad world we live in imho when a person goes through the pain of starting a business, often working 14+ hour days to get their product on the shelf all while executing a marketing plan, often times putting everything they own on the line to keep the business up and running, then after years of blood sweat and tears they are in a position to finally enjoy the fruits of their labor and they get called greedy. To answer your question about NorthStar Custom Baits, things are going great, I am right where I projected to be at this point in the business. I am still on the 14 hour day thing doing everything on my own, all while working another job and raising a family, but I wouldn't change anything at this point. I have no idea what the future holds for the business but right now I am optimistic that we will continue to grow, and add to our customer base!

I think its pretty sad that people jump on the corporate greed band wagon, all the sudden making money is a huge no no, why else would a business be in business if it wasn't to make money? You ever stop to look at the pay scale for all the "non profits" out there, every business exists to make money. There are other reasons to be in business, but if you are not making money, those other reasons don't matter! I can also tell you that plastisol pricing has went up about 15% from my supplier, it might have been more for them since they buy in a way heavier bulk quantity than I could ever think of. Other supplies for me have raised there prices 10-40% along with increased shipping costs, and this is all in the last year! So if they haven't adjusted there prices in a couple years (which is likely) than this is just a cost of doing business increase. My advice to you is to get used to the price increases, if you want to buy quality american made products, made by quality american made workers, who are getting paid a quality american wage, than you are going to have to pay for it. The cost of doing business in the US is constantly rising, and I know some won't believe this but profit margins are not always through the roof, so those costs are going to be eaten by the consumer, or worse yet the worker!

Just got back from a buds house watching the UFC fights.... roads were like ice rinks, freezing rain, touched the gas with 4wd locked in and all 4 instantly lit up to 60mph! Was interesting trying to find a place to park since my drive way is all hill, ended up parking on the side walk sideways and she still wants to slide down the little bit of grade. Tried to park on the road and she just slid down the little grade thats there, didnt want to wake up with my truck smashed up.... man I love living in the north :

Banning lead is not going to make the cost of Tungsten or any other alternative substance go down. If anything it will drive prices up, most of the worlds tungsten is owned by China. Tungsten also has a 6000+ degree melting temperature, which means you need special presses and molds just to work with it. Tin and Bismuth are also alternatives but they also cost significantly more than lead ($17 per lb versus $1 per lb) and have lower melting points and are lighter. I personally will drop out of the tackle biz if lead is banned, its already a hard enough business to be in, It wont be worth it if I am having extra costs heaped on top of what is already there

Being a "new" angler that is quite the list of accomplishments! My main advice is to put together a resume, and pursue companies that produce products that you have used and had success on. Also remember that "pro staff" stands for promotional staff, not professional staff, think of unique ways you are going to promote this companies product. I get alot of resumes and 90% of them think that just talking about my products at weigh ins and around the local tournament scene is going to be all the promotion they need to do, a good pro staff person will seek out extra ways for promotion. Whether it be pitching the product to local bait shops, Holding seminars or promotions at a shop where the product is at, or as you are leaning towards holding classes or seminars trying to get other "new" people involved in the sport.

I believe Moaners are Mustads repackaged. As far as Trokar goes, I think they need to do something to the point, I fished some of there flipping hooks, and as impressive as they were out of the package, I would put them behind any of the other big three after about 2-3 fish. For me its almost always Owner

I don't think its the water temp they are talking about, colder water temps are probably better stress wise for the fish. Air temps on the other hand can freeze gills and other vital exterior fish parts (slime coat) I have open water fished in temps below zero before, and I wont take the fish out of the water in those extreme temps, its not an instant death but anything longer than 10-15 seconds is going to damage to those fish. Above 20-25 degrees and you are going to be fine

That shipping deal is quite common, it ticks me off also. But as far as ebay goes, I used to sell on there and probably will again this winter and out of the couple thousand transactions I can honestly say there were only a couple I blocked, and that was because of super slow payments, I would say 99% of fisherman you are going to deal with are good eggs, some do have a crack or 2 every once in awhile though

first one looks like pass interference to me ;D

As with everything that sounds good it is not legal in Minnesota, would be considered 2 lines >

In my opinion swim jigs are nothing like regular jigs. Unless you are around heavy cover like pads or fishing for Monster bass I wouldn't use a swim jig with a heavy hook and regular weedguard in it. The speed that a swim jig is normally fished at means you get alot of fish slashing at the bait, heavy hooks and heavy weedguards are not allowing you to get hooks into the fish. If you are fishing a regular swim jig with a light hook and weedguard hook sets are rarely even needed, 99% of the time all that is needed is rotating the hips and sweeping the rod away from the fish, the only time I can think of that I set the hook is when a fish hits it and brings it closer to you, so between taking up the slack and sweeping the rod it can be a pretty jarring hook set. The rod you are fishing with also makes a big difference, I personally like a slower action rod, it allows the fish to take the bait for a quick second before I am driving that hook through its jaw. One of the other reasons I also like a little slower rod is that I also use braid so I can pop it out of weeds if I need to. In some situations I use a heavier faster rod but that is almost always with floro line so there is a little bit of extra stretch there. Before getting completely frustrated with swim jigs try different combinations of rod/ reel/ line and jigs to see which ones work for you. My setup probably wouldn't work for at least 3/4 of anglers out there, but a 7' mh exf wouldn't work for me in 75% of the areas I fish swim jigs. Obviously you have seen that they are capable of attracting big bass, now you just need to find the hardware that lets you bring em to the boat!

The key to rabbit fur, and really any hair jig is slowing down, your usually fishing in cold water and a slow presentation is key. I usually fish them slow enough that an average cast might take up to ten minutes if I think I am in an area where there is fish and nothing has fouled the jig. I tried a couple of Jensen jigs awhile back (like 5 or so years) and caught some fish on them but felt the rabbit fur has so much action it kinda turned unproductive in water under 50 degrees. I also tied some with rabbit trailers and bucktail at the same time and did better with them in cold water, but haven't really fished them again until last winter when i was going through all my jig boxes and discovered a bunch of untouched ones that were still perfect, I haven't fished at all this fall, but last fall and into the winter I used them as a one two punch with a hairy craw and both were quite successful, I would stop getting bit with one, and throw the other and almost always pick up more fish. So I would say don't limit yourself to just one style of hair jig, they all have there days!

For open water/ light cover I use a cut down trolling rod that has a nice parabolic bend to it, I pair it with Braid because I still need to snap it through weeds now and again but I feel the slower rod lets them take the bait a little better because I tend to have a hair trigger on the strike. For Heavy cover, pads, wood, that kind of stuff I use either a 7 mh fast with braid or a 6'10 heavy extra fast with floro