Not much! Its been a minute since we put out a blog post, seems like everything these days is AI generated, so here we go with some reel talk.
It's been a weird spring and into summer of course. Mega rain in March flushed rivers, that helped push alot of nutrients out into open water so we shall see if that nutrient loading helps bait and smolts get a good start to life this year.
Offshore fishing has been up and down, big numbers in Wisconsin of course, the Michigan side started late but pretty much everywhere and all at once. Lake Ontario continues its ridiculousness in catch numbers, but it appears they have what Michigan had a number of years ago with small fish but big numbers. Not complaining by any means.
For the brand, working on some more apparel of course. It seems to be a big hit across the country, it's so weird to be shipping Blood Run merch to the likes of Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, etc. PNW still doesn't dig it too much, maybe they just don't want to rep a Great Lakes brand?
We are expanding the Great Lakes trolling rod lineup just a touch, fine tuning a few holes that legit had to be filled. We should have some updates on that soon.
We are trying to hold the line on prices guys. Man, copper is all time high every time we turn around. Its such a tough product to sell, competitive market, its naturally expensive, lots of new competitors under cutting driving it down for all of you to benefit! But even then its expensive! Packaging and freight is so ridiculous also, it bums us out to have to split on this with you, but hopefully you are all hanging in there and hopefully we will see gas prices get back down to where they should be. That is such a huge cost driver and impact driver for guys getting out fishing.
We've been getting salty! Finally got some physical operations going down in Florida, we have some products we may spring loose down in the inshore market, apparel is super strong down there too. Such an amazing fishery. Of course we are ripping all our gear down there, braid, fluoro, hooks, rods, etc and having great success on tarpon, snook, redfish and all the usual suspects.
We are looking forward to some Michigan trout action very soon, hatches are starting and some regular rains will get the big browns and rainbows chewing. We are so fortunate to have access to such an incredible trout fishery here in Michigan.
Half the Blood Run crew is heading up to Alaska again this summer, July this time. We will report back on how they do. Speaking of big fishery changes, our Alaska brothers are dealing with one thing after another on their fisheries, such a shame that State, Commercial and Feds can't come to an agreement with rec/guide fisherman to make it all work for everyone. It seems like the entire situation is in peril up there at least for Kings and Silvers.
2026 Tournament season started off blazing for our guys in Michigan and New York again per usual. So awesome to hang with these super fishy dudes and watch them work the back of the boat in some incredibly tough conditions.
One more thing on the AI thing, as some of you know we have been running an AI agent on our website to help you guys out 24/7 and it has been getting MUCH better in its responses. We know everyone wants to speak to someone on the phone, we feel the same way when dealing with other businesses we purchase from personally. But we are bare bones staff, we just don't have bandwidth to have someone on the phone ready all day every day to answer "Where's my order" or "I need a new rod section". AI has really dialed in responses on those and other questions and we literally watch and read them all to make sure its not screwing up.
Of course you can always call and leave a VM and we will call you back if its a legit issue. But if its something AI can handle and you didn't even try, its not likely we can get back to you quickly. And yes, for the select few of you that want to call and just give someone a piece of your mind...save it, it's not going to get through.
Thank you all so much as always, if anyone actually reads these things anymore we hope you found some value. We are real people, real fishermen, trying to get on the water as much as we can while trying to get your gear out to you as fast as we can. We do have your back, all 30 some thousand of you since 2008! Its been a long time, its a big family, we aren't different from you!
Tight lines fishing brothers and sisters, we are still here with you all the way!