online fishing gear?

[Gregotis98]

What are some good online fishing stores? I've been very disapointed with Boaters World, the orders I've made in the past. They claim to have things in stock and ship the next day, but what they really mean is the supplier has things in stock and Boaters World ships the day after they recieve the items. Their prices are good just very poor service. I'd like to buy a reel and other gear but haven't found a spot that has great prices with a good selection. Where to go?

[Deepslayer]

I have used bighook.com. I ordered a Penn 345I fishing reel from them and had it in three days! Without any special shipping needed.
Their prices are reasonable, but the best part is they charge a flat rate for shipping no matter what you order.
,Ed

[Flatfish]

Ebay has everything.Havent paid more than 30 bucks for a 5500 or 6500 in a long time.Yeah it's used but how many worn out 5500s have you seen.Very few.In places like the midwest and south these things never (almost never)see anything bigger than a 5# largemouth.Have yet to buy anything that was not as advertised.I'm sure it happens just not too often.
See you on the rivers.
Mark.

[Snagly]

Without doubt the two biggest sellers of on-line fishing gear are:

www.basspro.com

www.cabelas.com

Go to their websites, order catalogs and then when you have your (very long) shopping list then go to the web. With product codes in hand, ordering is a snap.

[MasterCaster]

Gofishin.com

Great site have not had any problems with them yet!

Jon :smile: :grin: :smile:

[Thumper]

I have bought tons of high-end stuff on eBay. Nearly all of it brand new for 20-30% of retail or less. Mostly overstock from dealers or wholesalers. Incredible deals. In more than 100 transactions I have never been screwed.

[ 06-14-2002, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Thumper ]

[Straydog]

Have you ever seen a Cabella's or Bass Pro person at an ODFW meeting?

Ever seen a Ebay or Gofish person lobby the Legislature to keep us fishing?

Ever wondered if ANY of these online people do ANYTHING positive to help your community or our fishing?

Used gear is one thing..... new is quite another.

Buy it locally. It is NOT all about price. Stop and think about it.

[Pursuit]

The best place on the net so far for me is www.berrysbait.com they are in Canada so you get the exchange rate discount and they have great sales also. They have all kinds of fishing stuff for trolling to fly fishing. Even with the freight they are much cheaper than any where down here.

Fish Till You Drop!!!! :grin:
Phil

[wetaline]

I had asked this similar question a couple months back and compared all the recomended sites - the bargain sites had better prices for odds and ends but stock changed daily - in the end Cabelas had everything i was looking for and at the same price as everyone else... and I know from experience that they'll back their products or products they sell... i've broken 3 leathermans and only bought one.. and that was about 9 years ago.... and if you dont like the product they'll credit your card upon returning it... As well, my last order was dilivered in about 3 days.... standard shipping....

[Kinebra]

fishingonly.com all you nedd to know!

[ 06-16-2002, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: Kinebra ]

[Steelheader69]

I'd have to agree, ebay is a wonderful thing. Gofishin is good too.

Now, onto the buy locally BS. That's what it is, BS. This world is built on buyer/seller. He who has best prices vs best service wins. Some of these online businesses are either local or started out as a small business and went big (Cabela's is a PRIME example). If you have a good tackle shop, then it will be frequented for gear that is needed. But, do not knock anyone for buying at best price. Should I pay $20 more for an item just because it's being sold locally, but they buy it from same distributor the other guy is? Alot of these companies sponsor organizations, and help the public locally and nationwide. Just because they don't specifically focus on your community doesn't mean they don't deserve your business. There are alot of "local" businesses who don't nearly focus on anything more then the business at hand, and don't give a thing back to their communties they work in (not just fishing, but all the way around).

Sorry to vent, just have seen this argument so many times. Does this mean if ABU, Loomis, Lami, or any of the other companies don't come to an ODFW or WDFW meeting, we should go to other companies who do?

[Straydog]

It simply means that to me it makes more sense and is the right thing to scratch those backs that are scratching yours.

Sorry it makes you want to vent.

To each his own.

What is BS to some is simply helping ones neighbor to others.

Have a good evening.

[jcarufo]

I too have heard the arguement frequently expressed. Straydog, when you say shop locally do you mean with companies like Fisherman's Marine or GI Joes here in Portland? They're local to me, ocassionally sponser a local event, but when I try to shop there they either don't stock what I need, are out, or it's at list or inflated prices. Are they supporting me as a local fisherman or their corporate owners. Then again if you mean a vender like BC Angling Post in OC,(or lot's of others here just like them) you bet I shop there. They are locally owned and operated, good quality items typically in stock at better than competitive prices.
I think blindly saying shop locally possibly misses the point. We need to act locally but think globally. As an example: We fish Cabo often. When I need something, do I shop Fisherman's, because they're local, who has what used to be a fairly large Saltwater area, but is overpriced and never restocks, or do I shop at Charkbait.com. A So. Calif. company owned by a gentleman that is a high school teacher by profession of at risk youth that started his company in his garage and grew it because of service to his customers (I realized I needed an item 2 days before we were leaving for Cabo and Mark sent it overnight the day of his father's funeral, I found out later, competitive prices, and dedication to fishing issues in his area?
Do I support shopping locally? You bet I do! There are lot's of local companies like BC Angling Post that we need to seek out and help survive. I just feel that just because a company is a 'dot.com' or not in your local neighborhood shouldn't make it immoral to support.
We are fortunate to fish many areas of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Mexico. We are utilizing their fishing resources. Should we not support their local economies as well?
Enough, sorry for the rant: a great topic though in these difficult economic times. By the way, the typical disclaimers apply-not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above. I picked BC Angling Post because it was the first one that came to mind. There are lots just like them. Have a great day!
jean

[crabbait]

I would much prefer to use local merchants and craftsmen, especially those that support or sponsor ifish and other causes that I believe in.

No matter who the merchant is, I am disappointed when they do not have an item that I need in stock. Don't you hate it when they do not have the sturgeon swivels and clips that you want? Or bead swivels? The worst is when they advertised an item and then do not have the item available.

Another pet peeve: A specific fishery is going strong and they are out of the lure that I need. Didn't the buyer know that this fishery was coming up? (I knew, and still didn't stock up ). I don't understand how some merchants expect to stay in business when they neglect to order ahead of time.

At least with Kwikfish they got it right this spring. If you could not find the color and size Kwikfish that you needed you didn't look very hard.

Enough whinning. Hope you had a great fathers day all you Dad's out there.

[Straydog]

Wow, The Dog digs up another hornets nest.. :smile:

This could become a book but let me respond to some of the comments.

First off, obviously there are no absolutes. If one is going to Cabo it probably makes more sense on various levels to order or buy elsewhere. Selection of viable tackle comes to mind as the first issue....... the stores I service in So. Oregon don't carry a lot of Yellowfin lures.

I will say, as a distributor, my ability to hear gets shut down a bit when I hear blanket statements like "never" in stock, "never" reorder, "$20.00 higher on same item from same distributor", etc, etc......

From 25 plus years in the business I can confidently tell you that if a store is "always" out of key goods, "never" reorders and is "always" $20.00 higher than the comp. it is in your mind. There is no store out there that does those things and survives...... I have seen too many come and go over the years. So we can throw those notions out of the conversation if we have any desire to be accurate.

Yes, stores will run out of merchandise and yes, it is EXTREMELY frustrating to visit a store for advertised goods and have them be out.

However, please know that there is SO much more to this than the buyer simply not ordering enough.

There are many issues at play in the question of "why don't they have the danged merchandise when the fish are in and I need it most?"

Let's start with faulty Crystal balls. They mess us up all the time..... last year we were told we were going to have a banner year for springers and coho. Since we had had crappy years for the most part for the last decade, how would our manufacturers plan for a banner year and the first summer salmon season in the Columbia in over 30 years?

Do you have a crystal ball that will accurately tell you how many K-14, 15 and 16 Sil. Char. Hot Head Kfish we will sell? If so, I want to buy it! Realize they can't just make a gazzillion and sit on them if they don't sell them....... inventory is money.

Beyond the simple crystal ball scenario, please realize there are many, many other factors affecting whether or not the widget you want is on the shelf the day you visit a particular store.

We are in a recession. In a recession money for raw materials and production is tight. Maybe a particular factory just didn't have the money for enough raw materials to produce enough merchandise. This happens more than you would realize given many tackle manufacturers are small cottage industries.

We are in a post 9-11 economy. We had a fall good item that was HOT! HOT! HOt! at the retail level and preseason sales were phenominal. When we got into the season we were all out yet re-orders had been placed months ago..... wasssup?? What was up was the fact that it was an imported item and the time to pass customs about doubled due to 9-11. Your merchandise was held up at customs for weeks..... how does the industry prepare for that before the fact?..... we had it happen with Shimano reels too, now that I think about it.

Then there is the new item scenario. Someone produces a new item and it is the talk of the tacke world. However, being a new item, no one knows for sure how it will do. The factory says it will be the best thing going but it is unproven and again, in a recession especially, money is tight.... how many do we buy? If it is a dog, we will have a lot money sitting in dead merchandise. If it is a winner, we expect we can go back to the well for more so we buy conservatively. Then the thing REALLY takes off and we go back to the factory...... well, he is a small cottage industry and simply can not produce enough fast enough to keep up... (tried to buy all colors of puff balls in So. Oregon/No. Cal this last year?)

These are but a couple of the challenges the industry faces daily. I havent hit on weather factors, world events, (wars can put a bind on certain goods and materials, coups in developing countries affect labor, etc. etc..)regulation changes, water releases, droughts, early melt offs, late melt offs, fire seasons closing woods and campgrounds, chub infestations in lakes, etc. etc. etc....

Please consider three things if nothing else from this post.

1. We are all in the business to make money from the sales of sporting goods. Yes, we are blessed to be dealing in such fun merchandise and I feel very lucky to be doing so. However, it is still business... big business, and we must operate to remain profitable or we will go away. Our desire to is to sell as much merchandise as possible in a profitable manner. No one plans to be out of any merchandise anytime anyone wants to buy it.

2. We in the industry are but human. We do make mistakes and we do dislike it and try to learn from it.

3. The local tackle shop or employees of the local Joe's store have a vested interested in our local fisheries, are generally participants in our local fisheries and are usually at least indirectly involved in the support of our local fisheries as well as our local schools, search and rescue, watershed councils, and other community groups that support your community.

I will continue to support these folks where I can and I will continue to urge everyone I come in contact with to do the same.

Have a great day!

[Straydog]

OOppsssss...... once was enough.

[ 06-17-2002, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: Straydog ]

[monoman]

Fisherman's, Joe's, Bimart and so on are all local companys that do donate to NSIA. Their buyers and management spend many hours at meetings with DFW, and yet you think buying at Dot this and dot that to save a buck and on a rare case two bucks is just fine. Fine! than who will pay for NSIA or other groups who help us with fish. Do you belong? Do you go to the meetings? We all must buy out of our area sometimes, but to make it how we buy, is very poor managemnet of your monies.
These stores are not bleeding you out of unfare profits. The mark up of sporting goods is very low, you will not find them cheaper in any local outside of the northwest. An item here or an item there, yes, but not overall. With all the different types of fishing we have, the local stores have more fishing inventory than most. Go to Ohio and find a store with as much local tackle. This is hard for me to say, but Straydog is right!

[cosmo]

As a board member of NSIA all I can say is that your local retailers put an incredible amount of time, energy and resources into keeping ifishers on the water. Whether it be by going to bat for hatchery funding, fin clipping, harvest allocations or water flows, people like Dan Grogan and B.G. Eilertson, among many, have worked extremely hard just for the opportunity to compete with one another for your business. The local guy deserves a lot of credit. That's the short form truth of it.

[Thumper]

When I consider a purchase on eBay I am talking about buying $349.99 Penn 1.5G fly reels for $80-100, and Fin-Nor reels that retail at $200 for $85, etc., etc. Big, big differences. Most of my high end tackle has been from eBay overstock sellers and regional distributers. These are not $1 or $2 savings. Sure, for my immediate needs I support the local dealers, but for real bona fide steals I go to eBay.

[Straydog]

Thanks for some positive support folks....

That didn't hurt too bad did it Monoman???? :grin:

Do you suppose you could teach my wife and kids those words...... "Straydog is right"????? :grin: :grin:
NNaaaaahhhhh.... probably not.