St Paul Ice Show deals+more

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, I made it to the Ice Showtonight and had a blast. It was nice to meet some of our sponsors and talk with people who share the same enthusiasm about Ice fishing! Also met up with quite a few FM'ers. It is always nice to put some faces to names.

I found some good deals on some products that are going to get used a ton this winter. Today's Tackle had some great deals so I picked up their Ice Well and Tackle Pouches Also helped my Dad make a Thorne Brothers purchase on a Panfish Sweetheart Plus rod and Tica Reel. He's going to absolutely love that rod! I also found some good bargains on Panfish jigs at various booths (gotta try to make a deal with them ). If I had some more money it would have been spent for sure.

Great time and well worth the drive for us.

Be sure to check out some of our sponsors if you make it down there.

Have a great weekend,

Corey Bechtold

[hanson]

Hey Corey-

We meet again tonight.

The show was pretty sweet! I went down there with the intention of purchasing one thing, a small bottle of Amsoil Saber oil for my auger. Mission Accomplished for $3!

I then bumped into Ray Esboldt at the Reed's booth and while he was helping a couple other guys, I stumbled onto the absolute best deal at the show IMO!

Reed's had Abu Garcia Ambassadeur's for $20 off!! I quickly shuffled through the stack of boxes and decided on (2) Garcia 6500C3 reels for $39 a piece! How can you beat that!

So, I went to the ice show to look at stuff and I bought catfishing tackle!

I spent the evening cruising around with fellow FMer 'Kaz' and we had an awesome time!

I hate to name drop but also bumped into Matt Johnson & family, Corey Bechtold & family, CrappieTom, Bob Horn (sorry I didn't get to chat Bob), Jeff Dosch (who I think talked me into a pike trip this weekend), and others as well.

I believe I also saw Hawkeye43. Would have said Hi dude but you disappeared on me.

[ivegottabite]

Can't wait to get there tomorrow! Wish I could have made it today.

Hanson, does Amsoil have their own booth there or did you get it someplace else? I was hoping to try some in my auger this winter.

[BradB]

Was there anything new there this year? I have been to every one of these shows since it started (10 years, more?) and they always seem to have kind of the same things. Not that ice fishing is the height of technological innovation, but it would be nice to see some new vendors every once in a while.

[hanson]

Loren-

Yes they do have their own booth. When you come down the escalator, Team Otter is in front of you, Outdoor News is just to the right of Otter, and Amsoil is behind the Outdoor News booth.

Pretty easy to find.

I'm going to have to shoot you an e-mail again. I was talking with Jeff Dosch at the show and he was telling me to get out to DL soon. I may just have to.

[Matt Johnson]

What a great time! I got the chance to talk with a lot of people tonite! A ton of FMer's walking the floor all over the place, very cool to see! I don't want to start naming people off because there were too many and I don't want to forget anyone.

My dad and brother had a great time, and we ended up topping the evening off with a nice dinner at the Timberlodge

Also nice to see a few FMer's making the long trip to St. Paul...

Bob Horn made the trip from Illinois, always a pleasure hanging out and talking fishing with Bob.

Jeff Dosch also made the trip from North Dakota. He offers some excellent insight on Devils Lake and if you get the chance to talk with him I highly recommend it. He has a booth set up at the show, so keep a look out for that.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday. Gonna be a fun couple of days!!

[Shawnny B]

Myself and Fellow bud Hovermn will be out Sat night when i get off work around 4-5 so we will be stumbling around looking for deals and what not, does Fm have a place there?

Shawnny B

[dougger222]

Reading this I'm even getting more excited to go! Tomorrow morning at 10am and Genz will have the floor at 11 am.

[Captain B.R.K]

Glad to see that the show is a "success" again. Not that I doubted it, but always good to see the positive response about the show.

I'm going to do my best to make it down there this weekend. So many things going on I need to get done before I hit the ice next weekend at LOTW.

[harvey lee]

My second year at the ice show and a good time was had.I spent a fair amount of time at the Thorne Bros booth and to say the least they are always very helpful and the items purchased all had some kind of a show special.I for sure will return again next year.I didnt buy to much as the want list is very small,so I got out of ther without having to explain to my wife why I needed more stuff to catch fish.Matt,sorry I missed you but I think I was gone before you arrived.

[nytelyter]

show was great met up again with crappie tom and got some great advice from him. as well as re-met matt, and now his dad and bro. also got a chance to chat with corey nice to meeet you as welll dude. was my first trip there didnt spend as much as i wanted to. being unemployed kept a bit of a lid on my spending but will be sure to get in there next year employed and more money to invest. and i use that word on purpose. i look at all of my hobby purchases as investments if you take cost divided by years of use it makes the purchases much easier to deal with.

well anyways look forward to seeing matt on my home lake as we have set up a day to target some pannies and eve walleye i plan on having note book out and be ready to get some lessons from one of the masters. hope you all can go it was worth the time.

[hawkeye43]

And I didnt think it was you Hanson, for some reason you looked differnt. sorry I should have stopped and asked but my kid was on a mission. Someone had show some control.

[hip_hop_fisherman]

Was hoping to make it down there, unfortunately Red Lake is calling. Can't stand waiting to wet the lines anymore, so its northward bound. Anyone else heading that way this weekend?

[jltimm]

Your a lucky man hip hop!I wish I was going!Waiting to get my upgraded Marcum back so if I do get to go on the ice before it gets back I'll have to use my "backup" known as the Vexilar!

[Ray Esboldt]

Yep. Very good time last night. And, thank you Chris for pointing out the good deal on the Garcia baitcasters at the Reed's booth. Funny stuff, a guy goes to an ice fishing show and leaves with bass fishing implements.

The best deal I saw was actually the retail price on the MarCum 350 camera. Last night was the first time I got to mess around with that camera. What a great unit for under $200! And the LX-5 and LX-3tc are everything I hoped they would be. When is the brown truck Santa bringing mine? After playing with those units last night, I just can't wait to put it to use.

Bob Horn, I didn't mean to blow you off at the MarCum display at Reed's. I looked around for you at the end of the show to chat, but you may have left. Next time you're up here, please hit me up for a fishing trip.

Good to see MJ along with his pop and brother. And, CrappieTom, thanks for remembering who I was this time.

You know what made the show really fun? We can actually walk the walk this week after we talked the talk.

[gvg_uwec]

I had a great time at the Ice show last night and brought home some great deals as well. My girlfriend and I made it up to the show in time to catch the Genz Seminar, I learned quite a bit and the gf even showed some interest during the seminar. After hearing about the people that have already gone though this year my gf wouldnt let me out of the building without icepicks. Picked up my new rodrocker and cant wait to try it out on some crappies and walleyes soon. I also picked up some ice shack anchoring screws so i dont have any "kite like" episodes again this year, along with a frabil tip up light to try out.

The best deal i thought that i found of the night was that Strikemaster had hooded sweatshirts for only $15! Overall i thought it was a great time last night and hope everyone else finds the deals too.

[Random guy]

Went in WITHOUT CASH to talk to some of the old pros from up north and left with one heck of a deal on a new handheld GPS from Thorne Bros. Dang cards.

Got to talk to a bunch of FMers and meet some new faces. Good show this year.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

I had a good time as usual just lurking around the booths. I only bought a reel, but my dad and cousin both got an LX-1 for $200, no tax, plus they got the the soft cases free. They may not be the new units with all the bells and whistles but they still got a good deal on a great machine.

[The Yeti]

Me, my brothers and my best friend were there today. WOW did we find some deals. Younger bro finally got his vex. We all got lots of new lures and ideas. Good show this year. Looking forward to the season.

[Borch]

Just got back about an hour ago. What a full day! Had an errand to run in Apple Valley. Then hit the Ice show with a friend of mine. Lots of great stuff to look at and of course....buy!

Saw lots of Fmer's there. The place was packed! Man this show has grown over the years. Picked up an Ice Well from Today's Tackle, A LED Flashlight by JB Tackle at Thorne Brothers, plus a handful of other goodies. Spent a fair amount of time at the Marcum booth checking out the LX5 and LX3-TC units. Man that display is bright and sharp!

I didn't see the baitcasters at Reeds but I already picked up a couple there earlier this fall. Although at that price probably would of picked up a couple more.

Then off to Cabelas where we met up with Dietz. Lots of folks there as well.

Only way I could have improved on today is to have met up with a few more FMer's and been on the ice.

[lilman]

TUTF-

glad to see your circus side show for a cousin got him MarCum, now he has a chance to keep up with me on the ice.

[SteveWilson]

I didn't pick up too much at the show, but I did manage to pick up a bunch (2-3 dz) of jigs from J&B's. Also decided to try a St. Croix Legend since Marine General had them onsale for $39. What I would have loved to take home would be a SnowBear but $30K is a bit much although the wife loved it. After the show I went up to Joe's Sporting Goods (20% fishing stuff) to stock up on lures, line, and pick up a Tica for the new rod.

[Captain B.R.K]

Darn it Borch, we missed each other again! I made an appearance at Cabela's this afternoon and talked with Dietz a bit. I had to pick up a few things for next weekends trip to LOTW and totally forgot the Ice Expo going on at Cabela's.

Nice to see ya again Dietz!!

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Quote:

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TUTF-

glad to see your circus side show for a cousin got him MarCum, now he has a chance to keep up with me on the ice.

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Chris? It was nice meeting you at the show. As for Clay, he might have a chance if he actually gets away from his other half and gets onto the ice.

[Captain B.R.K]

What a great show again this year.I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get down there this year and sure enough, I got down to the River Center.

For those familar faces I saw, nice to see you again. Looking forward to putting some time on the ice with you this year!

Had a chance to meet Paul Thorne from Marcum Technologies. I would never hesitate to talk to Paul or any of the Marcum guys. They know there stuff and they have put together some great products! Looking forward to getting my Marcum and putting it to the test this year.

I hardly pick up a thing this year. Only purchase I made was a pair of the Ice Armor Gloves that came out this fall.