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In-Fisherman Storyline S1 E16: Roadtrip Edition, The Jon Bondy Story

He changed muskie fishing forever by inventing a bait that is in all serious muskie anglers' arsenal.

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There may not be a more fascinating guy than Jon Bondy—he changed muskie fishing forever by inventing a presentation and a bait that is a regularly utilized technique in all serious muskie anglers' arsenal. Plus, did you know he fished for bass professionally? What a story.

Truncated transcript: 

00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:17.100: You are listening to In-Fisherman Storyline, North America's top voice in multi-species, freshwater angling. Here is your host, Thomas Allen.

00:00:23.340 --> 00:00:34.980: Hey, welcome to In-Fisherman Storyline. This is a, a road trip edition. We are actually on the road, we're in Detroit, Michigan, here to film a muskie piece with the legendary Jon Bondy.

00:00:34.980 --> 00:00:49.530: If that name is familiar to you, it should be, because in the muskie world, he developed a bait, I guess we will refer to as a jig, right? That's a, that's really what it is when it comes down to it. But it's unique. It's a, a rubber body, a soft plastic.

00:00:49.530 --> 00:01:04.680: He's gonna tell you a little bit about how they're, how they're made, but I just learned about an hour ago that Jon was also an elite series angler on Bassmaster and I, I worked at Bass for five years and I was embarrassed to tell him that I did not know that.

00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:19.440: And we, we got into some stories and, and come to find out that it is not just muskie's that he's passionate about. It's everything that swims. So we're gonna get his story. We're gonna, we're gonna dig into the history of Jon Bondy and the Bondy Bait, but along the way, probably hear some bad stories.

00:01:19.440 --> 00:01:31.920: And before we get too deep in the conversation, you are gonna hear a little feedback going on. We're actually in the conference room of a Holiday Inn Express in Detroit right now. They graciously gave us this room to record the podcast.


00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:51.930: You know, we, we gotta record where we can record. We did a show in a hotel room, as weird as that was. But sometimes you just gotta take advantage of where you're at, and the intercom here is actually kind of buzzing. So if you hear that and it's annoying, I'm sorry, but I think the content is gonna supersede the annoying feedback we got going on. So, Jon, thanks for joining us in Holiday Inn’s conference room.

00:01:51.930 --> 00:02:05.250: Hey man, I've been a big In-Fisherman fan my whole life and it's, it's great to be with you. Well, I have a lot of questions for you and I'm excited about the next couple days here. Here's a story for you, two stories to start things out.

00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:20.490: First of all, on the drive here, we blew a hub out of the trailer, the boat trailer. And if you drive a boat, if you have anything that, that, that requires long distance wheels turning around, you're going to run into problems.

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00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:33.060: And we, we've driven that particular boat across the country two times this year and a couple times last year. So like it's been on the road and I, I have not ever done any wheel maintenance on that thing, so it is what it is.

00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:42.780: So we're driving down the road, pull off to get some gas, and Dave walks around, he goes, yeah, we're, we're missing the hub component here. And there's smoke coming out. And so we got delayed today.

00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:59.590: But thankfully we're here in, in Detroit, we're gonna fish the Detroit River, which is the river between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. And Jon was telling us before we got here that the wind is supposed to blow 30 something out of the south and would've made very unenjoyable and likely day.

00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:14.170: So while we got the trailer fixed, the wind blew, and we're gonna get on the water tomorrow. And the goal is to produce an In-Fisherman TV segment about jigging for muskies. So fingers crossed, we'll see how it plays out.

00:03:14.170 --> 00:03:26.860: But a blow day sometimes is a good thing. So we're able to record a podcast. Yeah. You know, I don't know what it is about that, that south wind in the lower river anyways, when it blows up from Lake Erie, whether you're walleye jigging or whatever, it just seems to turn the fish off.

00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:46.030: Not only is it hard to fish in them big waves in that river, you know, trying to force your way down the river, but there's something about that south I've never liked. Well, I've been here when it's blown outta the south and, and I've seen motors almost come off a boat. So it, it worked out just, just fortunately worked out. So we're looking forward to the next couple days.

00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:52.210: Jon, as a muskie guy, you know what a Suick is. Absolutely. I've never told this story publicly…

Click here to listen to the entire In-Fisherman Storyline Podcast.

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