THE ICE FISHING SHOW IS HERE!!

[castmaster]

The funniest thing about this whole thread is you have some guys saying how dumb it is for the hosts to have the show this time of year, and then others complaining about how crowded it is!!

Listening to how many gripe about the crowds, reinforces my opinion that they just didnt advertise that eraly bird deal well enough. I cant begin to tell you all how enjoyable it was to share the full show floor with only 160some other customers!! THE BEST $6 I have spent in quite some time. We ended up staying until around 10:30-11 when it really started getting busy. It was amazing how may guys were walking around with $6 beers complaining about how many people there were. So either they didnt know about the early bird tickets, or they werent willing to pay the price of 1 beer to not have to battle the crowds.

I only hope they dont do away with the early bird opening due to the lack of interest this year.

[mwal]

Were there any vendors selling custom made spears?

MWal

[Dave]

I think that was a hard side wheel house with a Canvas Craft "porch" on it.

[Dooley87]

We talked to the guy who builds those houses and he designed that house and "awning" and canvas craft did the canvas work. That house was the best layout and designed house I've ever seen, from the electric winches on the ice house to the floor plan that's designed to fish to that awesome awning.

I did see my fair share of bells and lights and whistles through out the show and it's amazing to me what people will spend money on. Like a lighted rod with interchangeable rod blanks from beam, really? Gimmicks if you ask me.

[FishinFools]

Quote: "The guy standing there said $589. Then I grabbed a Navionics lakes north chip and stood in line to pay. When it was finally my turn the gal asked how much I told her 589......she asked a " manager" and he said 579 and then she only charged me 89 for the chip, so yeah I think I got a good deal."

Maybe I am not reading that correctly. The price was $579, but she made a mistake and only charged you $89? And you didn't say anything?

[Twins Guy]

the way I read it he got a better price than negotiated on the headunit 579 and then also got an unexpectedly good price on the chip 89.

[FishinFools]

ah! Thanks for clarifying.

[Brad B]

that might have been a canvas by the stitch house or one of the Logde houses that havve the canvas craft enclosed awning . Canvas Craft was not at the show.

[weld1]

got a great deal on a jiffy pro4 10" propane! was looking at one across isle from reeds and it was 500 walked back over to reeds and same unit was 450!! best price anywhere! then went and talked to the jiffy booth and they gave me a bunch of freebees for buying there product!! I did well at the show!

[B-man715]

I picked up 4 TALL hole sleeves for scouting around and not having to drop the shack down.

I've seen them at Fleet Farm for $29 a piece ($31 with tax), got four of them at the show for just $68 (tax included) which equates to $17 a piece.

Also picked up some BlueTipz and a bunch of miscellaneous jigs and such.

Got out of there with out spending near the money I did at the Blaine Show

[SwivelDigger]

the way I read it he got a better price than negotiated on the headunit 579 and then also got an unexpectedly good price on the chip 89.

Bingo! I think normally the chip is around 140-150? Not really sure because it's the first gps that I've had that you can put a chip in so I don't know much about them except after I got home and got everything dialed in I messed around scrolling to different pothole lakes that I fish and seen a bunch more spots to try. I'll be happy if it works half as good as people were telling me it would.

[Savage Brewer]

Picked up a new Clam insulated shelter, TBros had some good pricing when I was there on Saturday.

[seaner]

The show is generally the place i make my larger ice fishing purchases. this year we got a strikemaster honda strikelite for 490 out the door.... plus hoodie, extra set of blades, rod bag, skull cap... love it!

[Chad Holst]

Im wondering why the Beam rod with the interchanable blanks and built in lights is a "gimmick'?

its a pretty good idea actually. if you need a light, its right there on your pole, if you are fishing at night and want to be able to see the tip of your pole, its right there. If you buy a high end rod, and can save money by only needing a screw in blank, rather than the purchase of a whole nother high end rod...seems like a good idea.

A gimmick to me is something that doesnt work or something that is suppoed to be alot better than it actually is. Dont get me wrong, its a specialty item, for sure. but its works as intended and there is a place for it in some fishermens bags.

They also had a fish/pole glove, that allowed you to hold your rod, inside a mit. its different,m but again, it works. So it isnt a gimmick, its a speciallty item.

The house that someone "near clam on the main floor" was talking about was "Team lodge". Dave had their 16+4 at the show. It has a toy hauler door in the back, 4 beds and an awning that creats another 16 foot area to fish out of. its a great design. We are laying our house build out just like that, extept for the toy hauler door.

the only thing that i still question from the show is the price of some of the ice suits. You could pick up a stikemaster or Ice Armour suit for $100 bucks, yet there are places still trying to get $450 for their suits? im not saying these suits werent much nicer, but a Great suit for $100 means that the $450 suit better do my dishes, take out the trash and give back massages. If the float suits are a few hundred bucks...ok, i can see that...but regular ice suits..not on my dime. Double the price..even triple it, but you wont convince me they are worth 4.5x as much as a light Ice Armour or a strikemaster suit.

[Big A]

I passed the $700 mark with an out the door price of $435 for an ION. Chalk that onto all of the reels and tackle and there was no EPIC Fail

[Northlander]

Founds some sweet bobber stops upstairs (SmartStop). Can't wait to try em out.

Had a pretty light bag headed out the door, and then Northlander had to go and show me a smokin deal on some TOF rods over at Marine General.

Dont feel bad man I wound up with 6 of them. LOL. At $20 a piece I couldnt pass it up. I got some of them bobber stops too. Plus 6 Stone Lagacy rod bags for $7 a piece. Also got about 100 spoons from different vendors at really good deals. Forgot to pick up my Digger anchor auger rack.

[20lbSloughShark]

I just thought of something. I was talking to the Amsoil guys about outboard oil specifically. He stated that the Amsoil Saber, made for outboards, is in fact TCW3 certified. I know lots of people have stoped using it because it does not clearly state on the bottle. I agree it is shady, the bottle reads "for any use where TCW3 oils are required", however, Amsoil claims it is certified. Now you guys can run Amsoil Saber in peace. I would still shy away from pre-mixing 100:1 in a motor designed for 50:1.

[Redlineracer12]

that might have been a canvas by the stitch house

[Chad Holst]

Um, not true, they were selling the suits at the strike master booth for $100. The same as the Blain ice show. We were going to pick up several for our boardmembers, so we all had the same suits, but the back has the big strikemaster logo acrossed where we needed to put "stevens outdoors", so we worked with drew at reeds and they agreed to sell their red/black ice armour suits for $100 to us. Then they ran out of them before we could get him the order with all the sizes we needed, so we went back to Strikemaster and they ended up simply sponsoring us, so now we WANT the logo on the back...and we got the suits. They gave us a deal on them, but the cost for other show goers was $100.

maybe we are talking about two different Strike Master suits. We are talking about the ones that were set up right at their booth near the entrence to the food area walk way on the main floor.

[tweeder]

Quote:

Dont feel bad man I wound up with 6 of them. LOL. At $20 a piece I couldnt pass it up. I got some of them bobber stops too. Plus 6 Stone Lagacy rod bags for $7 a piece. Also got about 100 spoons from different vendors at really good deals. Forgot to pick up my Digger anchor auger rack.

Northlander, you didn't get 6 stone legacy revolution bags did you? I want another one but didn't see them at the show. if you did and they were $7 that was the steal of the show, if you want to make $ on one let me know!

I did see a red bad that had some similar features to the Rev bag but got distracted by something and forgot all about it.

[mozy]

Got an 8" Lazer Mag for $370 plus tax. Headed over to the Strikemaster booth and got a free shirt, hat, bag, and extra blades.

[hawkeye43]

We took 15 units home with us, I think there are 6 left if you want one. I got one 5 years ago and loved it

[fisherman-andy]

Um, not true, they were selling the suits at the strike master booth for $100. The same as the Blain ice show. We were going to pick up several for our boardmembers, so we all had the same suits, but the back has the big strikemaster logo acrossed where we needed to put "stevens outdoors", so we worked with drew at reeds and they agreed to sell their red/black ice armour suits for $100 to us. Then they ran out of them before we could get him the order with all the sizes we needed, so we went back to Strikemaster and they ended up simply sponsoring us, so now we WANT the logo on the back...and we got the suits. They gave us a deal on them, but the cost for other show goers was $100.

maybe we are talking about two different Strike Master suits. We are talking about the ones that were set up right at their booth near the entrence to the food area walk way on the main floor.

The Strikemaster suits definitely were being sold for $200 and the Arctic Armors for around $250+ to the general public. So I have no idea where this talk of $100 comes from unless it's was a large group buy or some sort of sponsorship discounts.

[tweeder]

We took 15 units home with us, I think there are 6 left if you want one. I got one 5 years ago and loved it

15 units of what?

[Redlineracer12]

The Strikemaster suits definitely were being sold for $200 and the Arctic Armors for around $250+ to the general public. So I have no idea where this talk of $100 comes from unless it's was a large group buy or some sort of sponsorship discounts.

Exactly, I just decided it wasn't worth arguing on the internet over