Being "Rude" Has A New Meaning

A sweatshirt hanging over the back of a bar stool at my house, to some that means nothing.  To me and many of us in the industry it is a brand and company known for building outstanding products-many related to the recreation business.  

No longer can I keep the hat on the fact that after only 2 years away I am back with Evinrude and very excited to be back.  I spent the past 2 years with Mercury and was very pleased with my results and the product they build.   

It was a very tough to decision a few years back when I decided to leave Evinrude after the better part of 8 years to switch to Mercury....  It was a decision I had to make in order to get a motor at that time that offered me a 5yr warranty(resale).  Evinrude used to not allow "pro's" to get any more then a 3yr warranty.  Mercury offered us a 5yr transferable warranty.  Times have changed and Evinrude is now able to offer a longer warranty and great service plan.    

Now 2 years later I am back to running Rude and going to be using the most quiet, most effecient motor on the plant.  I am excited to be back where I started and get to work with familiar names, faces, and products.  I have an opportunity with Evinrude to run what I feel is the best outboard motor on the market.  The Evinrude Etech 250 HO that I will be running on my new 2014 Ranger Z521C will not need any maintenance for the first 300 hrs.  It also has a self winterize mode along with low gas and oil consumption-all things that help make it the outboard motor choice of fishwithmatt.com!  So it's "out with the old, and in with the new".  Time to get on the water and stretch the string, Fish On!

Northwest Sportshow

With the Northwest Sportshow going on in MPLS Krugerfarms.com is offering a 10% discount for all online orders! If you can't get to the show you can still get in on the deals.

Where Gold Has Been Replaced By Green

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Just returned from another amazing trip to Lake Winnipeg where Tony, Jen, and Myself all hunted for "donkey" greenbacks or as I have always called them, giant gravel lizards. Here are a few highlights of the outing. As you can see the ice was as thick as any ice we have ever drilled through and the weather was bitter at times. All in all the trip was a huge success and we managed some dandy fish pushing 30-31"! We caught most of our fish on either a Psycho Shad from Clam or a Livetarget Golden Shiner rattle bait in 1/4oz. We found that the two best colors were fire tiger and gold/black. We also caught some fish on big spoons. As far as a set-up goes, we fished with 32-36" MH custom Thorne Bros. rods with a shimano sahara 1000 spooled with 8 or 10lb power pro. We then would attach a swivel to the braid and a 3' piece of 10lb fluorocarbon leader. If Winnipeg isn't on your bucket list I would put it near the top real soon. The fishing is amazing and the people are great. We fished one day with my good friend Jason Hamilton and he honestly drove us right to where the "big fish roamed"! If you are looking to do a trip, I would highly recommend giving Jason a call and booking a few days with him.

Living The Dream

This is the recent MN Bound(my part starts at the 11:20 min mark) that aired where long time friend Travis Frank and I headed out on Mille Lacs for an over night ice trip. We managed to wrangle a few nice gravel lizards and also a dandy pike. We filmed this show last winter in early Feb and the big fish bite had slowed down a bit but the ones we did manage to catch were really nice fish. For many years now Travis and I have lived by one motto-"living the dream" and this is once again an example of how we have chosen to live our lives. Both Travis and I chased our dreams and passion since we were little kids and I don't see that changing any time soon. Until next time, get out and stretch the string!