Dive and rise lures have been a part of musky fishing from it's earliest days.
Wooden sticks with little more than hooks added to them have been some of the most successful presentations of all times. Muskies from Canada to Kentucky can seem to resist a lure than plunges head long in to the abyss and surges back to the surface. One can not argue with the effectiveness of the classic dive and rise presentations but as the sport of musky fishing makes leaps and bound forward little has changed in the world of dive and rise.
As a professional musky guide, writer, musky podcast host, and editor of Musky 360 I get asked a lot of questions from musky anglers that are looking to up their game. While many of the questions that revolve around tactics, seasonality and patterning are easily answered one question kept popping up that was far more difficult to explain...how do I tune a dive and rise musky lure?
Any seasoned musky angler can tell you that tuning a musky dive and rise lure to perfection is an art form. You tweak this, turn that, a little bit of fussing here and there and then you throw a test cast to see how it's running. A process that is repeated again and again until the desired results are achieved and then repeated yet again when inevitably things get knocked out of tune.
After attempting to answer the how to tune a dive and rise bait questions more times than I can count, writing multiple long form articles and filming short video tutorials on the subject I started to realize something is in inherently wrong with this scenario.
How are new anglers or those that don't have dive and rise experience suppose to know exactly how a great dive and rise bait looks like in the water. Or know when they are wasting precious time on the water attempting to tune a wooden dive and rise bait that is a "dud" that simply will not run effectively due to the piece of wood it was made from. Looking at it from this perspective the reasons for many musky anglers frustration with dive and rise baits started to come into focus.
Long gone are the days of 6 foot rods and monofilament as modern musky anglers have adopted loner rods, high performance reels and super lines that have changed the game.
As rods and reels have changed so have lures in every imaginable way. Modern musky anglers have perfectly weighted glide baits that work with the flick of the wrist, buck-tails that start every time, crank baits that are pure perfection straight out of the package so the frustration with tuning dive and rise baits is understandable as nothing has changed with them in decades while the sport of musky fishing has advanced some much.
Modern musky anglers demand lures that run perfectly straight out of the box, that are made to be thrown on longer rods with braided line and modern super reels...period.
With this in mind I knew I had to create a dive and rise musky lure that I could snap on a clients rod and say turn the handle and it would be highly effective. As frustrating as tuning a lure can be for an angler from a guides perspective teaching the finer points of properly fishing classic dive and rise baits often ended in frustration for clients of all experience levels. Compared to teaching how to effectively fish a modern glide bait to the antiqued dive and rise lures is simply night and day.
The prerequisites for the dive and rise lure I envisioned where simple.
Amazing Action
Zero Tuning
Easy to Use
Adjustable Weighting
Durable
Replaceable Soft Tail
While all of these requests seem simple enough getting them all in to lure with out sacrifices was not a simple task. I will spare you the nerd speak about vectors, pin force and hydro dynamics and simply say that math is the magic behind the Titan.
Skip forward few days in the wood shop after getting off the water and the first working Titan prototype was ready for testing. I knew as I made my first figure 8 on my first cast with the Titan that it was every thing I had aimed for and more.
The next phase of any prototype musky lures life is seeing if it will catch muskies. The real moment of truth came within hours of the epoxy drying on the fist of two Titan prototypes.
In a surreal moment that would have been outlandish even for a Hollywood script the Titans first catch was a 50 inch monster for an angler new to the sport of musky fishing much less dive and rise baits. Throughout 2021 multiple 50 inch and trophy class muskies where caught using the prototype Titans. A select handful of anglers tested them from North to South and the reports all came back the same, big muskies easy to use. The results simply speak for themselves.
I knew I could not make enough Titans for myself much less friends etc. so it was time to partner with a company. Livingston Lures has stepped in as the partner that the Titan has needed.
They produce excellent quality lures that are tough as nails, have amazing finishes and are affordably priced. During every step of the long R&D process Livingston Lures has ensured that the lures are perfect in every aspect. The action of the production lures is simply better than any prototype made during this entire process. The lures that are now available on store shelves are indistinguishable from the ones I produced by hand. They are perfection in every sense of the word. And exciting attribute if working with Livingston Lures is the addition of E.B.S tech to the Titan giving it some extra noise and vibration while at rest. Livingston was instrumental in the recessed weight cavity and custom poured modular weights that are included with each Titan.
The benefit of mass production has also allowed for a cork screw tail system allowing for easy replacement of soft tails.
The Titan is available at The Musky Shop and comes in 12 custom colors that I have personally designed and tested. From wild colors like brain damage to an all black midnight Titan there is a color that is made to handle any musky fishing scenario.
The development of the Titan has been one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I have ever been a part of. Having my name and face on the box of a musky lure is a surreal moment in my musky career. But above all else I hope that this lure is able to help you catch the musky you have been dreaming of and that I could play a small part in making your musky goals a reality.
Cheers,
Steven Paul