Curious questions for East Coast FMers

[hanson]

Blaine, Bob_D and others.

Blaine posted about buying a new Frabill house and how stores out east know squat about fish houses. This got me to thinking. What kind of gear, augers, shelters, and such are available in sports stores out east?

I can tell you when I walk into Gander Mountain, Sportsman's Warehouse, Scheel's, Cabela's, Joe's, Thorne Bros, and other local shops, I'm truly overwhelmed by the shelters, rods, augers, etc.

I can't remember where I was but one store had most of Strikemaster, Jiffy, & Eskimo's augers on display. Sorry, no Nils. When you look at houses, I've seen almost every model from Otter, Clam, FishTrap, Frabill, Eskimo displayed at times. If you take a trip to 2 of the above mentioned stores, you'll probably see everything produced in this neck of the woods for ice fishing.

I think this is great that there is a place for ice fisherman from all over the country to share ideas. Even though the lakes you fish out east or elsewhere in the US may differ from ours, we can still swap techniques, tackle, etc. that may work in similar situations on similar bodies of water.

[Bob Horn]

Hanson, you don`t have to go out east to have that problem. Illinois puts out the stuff that is the most popular and leaves it at that. Unless, you have a few people ask for something extra they aren`t going tho carry it because most have not heard of it. So I guess the lesson is if you want us to buy it advertise here.

[Blaine]

Ice fishing out here has a rabid following. All of the small shops and many of the big stores are afraid to stock up and get caught with a lot of inventory if we have a lousy year. My shop is no different. We have such unpredictable winters and greatly varying weather here in CT. In the same winter, I can fish on 8-10" in central CT, drive 45 minutes to the northwest corner and be standing on 24" or go to the coast which is 30 minutes from home and find barely 4"... That's on an average winter. We try to carry what will sell. We carry 10 different tip ups, a ton of jigs, augers, spuds, scoops, buckets... the basics and order the high dollar or specialty items on request. There just is no place to go within an hour and a half to see the big dollar items on display, and a shop like mine can't lay out the cash, especially when we don't even have skim ice yet, to risk not selling 2 different kinds of shanty's and have them collect dust in hopes that we have more ice the next winter.

We have no Gander, Cabelas, Thorne or Bass Pro within 200 miles at least... Personally, I don't want them I am entering my second season running a Bait and Tackle shop here in central CT. There have been 5 shops that I can think of off the top of my head that have closed in the last year within 30 miles of us, so we are the only game in town. I have been trying very hard to get everything the guys need for the ice. I special order stuff and ship to the customer all the time. It's taken a 2 years to slowly build our inventory and we're nowhere near done. It's tough to compete with the chains. They are selling power augers for $10 more than what I can buy them for! ... I still match them just to make the sale. After shipping, we make ZERO, but the bottom line is the customer came to us and went home happy. Customer Service is what it's all about these days. We do lots of extras that the area chain stores can't or wont. You buy a reel from me, I spool it with mono absolutely free. You buy the line, I'll spool all of your tip ups while you wait. We just did an ice fishing seminar at the shop on Saturday for free, we had 40 guys and gals show up. I'm sitting here at home, I don't have to be to the shop till 10 but I just got done putting an order in for a customer that emailed me at home. His order will be here on Friday... This is what we have to do to succeed.

Dick's Sporting Goods is the ONLY big chain out here. They have a so-so selection, you folks out there would probably laugh at it They have good prices but it seems like once they run out, they never restock because they don't want to be sitting on inventory that didn't sell. That gives us the edge

[ny angler]

Well im new to ice fishing .. located in central ny ... most stores dont carry a (Contact US Regarding This Word) thing .I just bought my trap pro at the bass pro in Auburn NY.. drove an hour and 20 minutes ... had to on line order my cover because they didnt stock them at the store and to be honest the tackle selection for icefishing was two rows including rods ,dissapointing at best .We have a Dick's ,I use to be employed there before i quit .I got tired of telling customers "we dont have it .. cant order it go to walmart.This store has at the moment 3 fish houses clams and a half row of tackle.Same deal nobody wants the inventory .I was lucky enough to talk to the purchasing agent for the store and when i asked how come they dont stock more hunting and fishing she said because theres not much money in hunting and fishing .. they are dead sports excersise equipment golf and clothing has a bigger mark up .Did i say dissapointing ... i ment depressing .

[Blaine]

The Dick's closest to me has 2 Clam 2000's and 5 Strikemaster Mag2000's and a Lazer Mag... Other than that it's a few tip ups and some jigs. It also looks like they loaded up on Buzz Sticks this year. I was there last night comparing prices and it doesn't look like they've sold one of those jigging rods yet

[hanson]

Funny you should mention a lousy year Blaine- we are currently having one in the midwest. Temps are forecasted for the Twin Cities metro for the next week to be in the upper 30s for daytime highs, and upper 20s for nighttime lows. Ice is hard to find.

Northern Minnesota lakes are making ice but very slowly. Some have been stuck at 3-5 inches for a few weeks now. With the way this is shaping up, I might not need that auger extension to get through the 4' that typically happens on Lake of the Woods.

I know the buzz stix have caught a lot of fisherman. I think people that experience success with them are using them to jig with and hitting the button at the same time. I don't know how that little vibration can get down to 30'. I prefer to spend my money on a quality rod instead and there are some nice ones made here that you probably wouldn't see elsewhere either.

[Blaine]

Quote:

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Some have been stuck at 3-5 inches for a few weeks now.

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Gee, I really feel for ya Your poor year already has our normal season beat by 3 weeks. It's really my fault though... I just purchased a Nils Master AND a Frabill XLTwin, I've cursed the entire northeast region