380 - John Bette - Remembering Hans Mann — Mid-Season Musky Game Plan

But first off, I want to start with some, I will say, sad news in the muskie industry.

And I'm not going to say it lightly.

It is definitely sad news in the muskie industry.

the passing of Hans Mann he was instrumental in Red October Baits and if you want you can go back to episode 154 from February 23rd of 2022 we talked to Hans so his legacy lives on through the you know the podcast you can go back and get his words of wisdom and I mean I just I mean everybody's got their stories on Hans and I could just say I mean as many know he was Larger than life, a great personality.

He would definitely talk to you at every single show that I saw him at.

I mean, you know, the musky industry is leaving a deep hole today with his passing.

John, I'm sure you know Hans because you've been in the industry quite a bit longer than me.

I'm sure you ran into him quite a bit.

Yeah, I still remember the days when Hans and Mark, when Red October first got started back in the days of the Chicago Muskie Show back at Harper College when they had their little booth out in the hallway.

But I've known those guys for, you know, since I've been in business.

And, you know, Hans was the kind of guy that was everybody's friend.

You never had anybody that had anything bad to say about him.

He was always, you know, led the helping hand.

Just a pleasant guy to be around.

We'd go out to dinner in the show season.

Our paths would cross.

Mostly that.

I never had the opportunity to fish with him.

We would go out to dinner a few times a year as well.

It's really a sad ordeal.

And my heart goes out to his family, to Mark, who was a brother to him.

You know, I mean, it's just a very devastating thing.

He's, you know, had his issues the past couple of years, but it really hit hard.

We thought, you know, there wasn't a single person that didn't think that the odds wasn't going to be able to handle this, you know, so.

And here we are.