We finally finished up Alex's Fishing Show for 2017. We improved very little on camera stability, its hard to keep it steady when watching the kids and keeping close to keep them from getting hooked or falling in the water. Also jumping bench seats for nets, etc makes it difficult at times. I am really happy with the background music I used this year, and I worked on doing a better job fading videos out for the next scene. We started out really struggling this spring, water temps were stuck and the post spawn was the toughest I ever faced, drawn out and brutally tough fishing.
​
When the summer water temps finally hit, fishing became fantastic! We didn't have one single disappointing trip this summer whatsoever.

We started with Great Grandma Shirley Squirrely. We had a blast with her and saw more wildlife on the drive home than ever before. We then got out on the river bank night fishing, then got up north with Sam, and finished up on Popple lake this weekend with the twins. Every trip was fun and every guest caught good fish by the time our trip was over.

A SPECIAL Thank You goes out to  KEVIN VANDAM, AARON MARTENS, MIKE IACONELLI, & BRANDON PALANIUK for the intros to the Alex Fishing Show!!!!!

We have had great lure sales in July, our best month ever. We are on track to double our sales from 2016! Thank you to all of our awesome customers and continue to send us your fish catch pictures on our lures! We still have a small number of James Gang Flexfit hats remaining in both L/XL and S/M sizes. Our Dunkin Frogs completely sold out in Bass Size, and it is appearing that we may be out for the year! Stanley Jigs has completely ran out of their 4/0 Double Take Frog Hooks. We are still building the larger Musky/Pike/Giant Largemouth Dunkin Frog with the 5/0 Double Take hook, in fact Ross's Sport Shop in Phillips just placed another order of them and our skirted Bee Whacker LM and will be stocking them in a few weeks. We have a decent amount of Lovertail 2's still in stock, and have the parts to build about 4 more custom Lovertail 2 Musky Waakers. We have a lot of parts to make several BABY SQUID BAITS, and tis lure was by far our #1 lure of 2017 for catching fish. Also, the biggest fish of the year, no question. I think this lure will be absolutely incredible in the fall months. 

We are holding a fall tournament on the Dairyland Flowage near Ladysmith, WI on October 14, 2017. Entry fee is $20. This is an invitational event. For more information, click on our "EVENTS" menu and fill out the RSVP if you are interested in competing in this event. This is a "fun" event, so we expect honesty from all anglers chosen to compete. 100% of the entry fees will be paid out to the angler with the most weight, and the angler with the heaviest bass of the tournament. This will be unique being that it is based on an afternoon/evening bite and has a late start time. As of today we have 13 anglers very interested.

We have parked the GENERAL LEE boat until Labor Day weekend. We will fish hard in the early to mid fall period and take a break during the month of August. Have a fun summer fishing, and check out 11-year-old Sariah Maylee below. She competed in the MIDWEST HMONG OUTDOORS Junior Tournament on Bald Eagle Lake, MN this past weekend, with no experience on this body of water. Sariah managed to boat a full 4 bass limit with off shore deep water tactics on her dad's secret finesse lures. Way to go Sariah!!

After the struggles of the drawn-out cold spring, we finally have found some fantastic success in the last several weeks. In the last three fishing trips, we landed quality fish during every trip! We have found that our BABY SQUID BAIT is an excellent lure when the fish are deep, but also in stained water we can catch them at any depth with our brighter colored variations. Our green pumpkin with a nickel-plated spinner blade is the one to throw in clear water. I found success last year in late summer on Lake Michigan on this color, and lately a clear lake in the Shell Lake area has been producing some outstanding fish on this color as well. Also, our white body/chartreuse blade worked well in stained waters, such as the Mississippi River and a few other stained lakes in the region. I fished Lake Menomin on July 4, and got into fish at all 3 areas I worked over. I had no previous experience there, and the algae bloom was severe, water clarity was around a foot, tops. I landed a pike on my 3rd cast of the short trip, and later hooked into a largemouth and smallmouth bass under the I94 bridge on the bright variation. I did land a beauty on our Flappin Jig with bright colors and a Trokar hook as well..

Alex and his fishing buddy Sam H. headed out with me on July 13th to break Alex's bad streak in 2017 of not catching bass. He turned it around big time, getting a 19" (+/- 1 inch margin of error) to the boatside while Sam and he tried netting it for 17 seconds. A few errors were made by both parties and the bass had enough, throwing his squid bait and leaving the scene. Even though he failed to land the giant, only 10 minutes later he found another beast on his squid bait, and this time Sam & him teamed up and landed the bass perfectly. The fish measured 18.5" on the bumpboard and weighed 3 lbs 9 oz on the digital scale! This is the second largest bass of Alex's life, and naturally he screamed Iaconelli - style as he celebrated.

Sam boated the first fish of the trip - a nice 23" Northern Pike. It battled hard at the boat and took the fight under the boat for a while. Sam had a blast battling this angry guy and it hit the Squid Bait will 100% effort 

Time was winding down, and it was about time to fire up the Evinrude and head back home. In the final minutes, Sam picked a fight with a thick 16" Largemouth bass, weighing in at 2 lbs 11 oz on our digital scale. Another fine battle and another fish that drilled the Squid Bait with full force and gave us plenty to celebrate and be proud of!

We ran out of time, pulled the two beauties out of the livewell, took some pictures and like always, we released them to fight again. A great tip by MARK ZONA, Bassmaster host and host of his own ZONA'S AWESOME FISHING SHOW - always kidnap your better legal bass. At the end of the day, you end up with a multiple fish photo opportunity before you release them. We made some great memories after a fun night of swimming, camping, McDonalds Playplace, fishing, and playing tag in the yard while shooting each other with Nerf guns James Bond style.

There is nothing more fun than spending time in the outdoors with children. Start them young and they will impress you with incredible accomplishments. A 4 year old boy had a crazy idea to start a lure company, and within a few years established it, had great sales, come up with outstanding lure designs that catch fish when store bought lures don't, and possibly an opportunity to pursue his business as an adult. Take a kid fishing and teach them about how much fun the outdoors can be!! For tips or information on this fantastic opportunity, look up the IKE FOUNDATION at www.theikefoundation.org.

Our shirts have arrived, and all but 1 have already been sold. We do have one XXL Orange long sleeve performance fishing shirt available for sale, and will be listed on eBay quite soon. Our navy blue versions were incredible, and MBC Sports once again impressed us. Our Flex Fit hats are on the way, expected to be ready by the end of the month. 8 L/XL and 4 S/M are coming. Most L/XL are already sold, and we will not order more until the 2018 Madison Fishing Expo. Let us know right away if you are interested in a hat, they probably won't last long! Also Ross's Sport Shop has run low on the larger Dunkin Frogs (5/0 Hook), and will have us build another variety of colors in a shipment around the end of the month! Best of luck fishing, and check out Tori and her 9" bluegill caught in the past week!!