New Bass Pro Shop opens today

[MikeAxsom]

I don't get out of my home area much, but last summer I drove out west on a business trip and made my first stop at a BPS. I had stopped to see if they had a particular type of ultralight rod I was looking for. I had driven about 4 hours when I pulled in and was in a notable hurry to get to a bathroom before starting to look around. I was stopped about halfway through the store by a guy who was pitching a deal on cabin rentals at Gatlinburg, TN. He was as insistant as a door-to-door Bible salesman and by the time I convinced him that I really needed to get on about my business it was almost too late for that business. On the way back through I was stopped again by someone pitching something else and had to rescue myself in order to get to the fishing rod area. I did indeed find the rod and bought it, but I may never go back into that high pressure sales environment again. Are all the BPS stores like that?

[Topwater2004]

Mike,

I believe all their stores have this going on. I had seen the same thing in Cincinnati and Charlotte stores.

Its still better to put up with that, than to go the the Gander Mountain in Terre Haute. I like the Gander Mountain in Indy, so was excited to hear they were putting one in Terre Haute.

The fishing department is the most pathetic excuse for a tackle shop of that size, you almost can't believe it. Real short on Rattle Trap selection, Yozuri selection is small with most baits big enough to go great white shark fishing with. It looks like they fitted the store with baits that didn't sell anywhere else.

The only good selection is Rapala's and Bandit, and Yum plastics. Zoom plastics area is small, and not much selection. It is a major let down. I even tried to talk to the manager and asked him just set it up like the Indy store, and he didn't want to change a thing.

I will save my money and go to BassPro or just order it online and pay the shipping, with gas being what it is.

topwater

[Viper201]

Mike,i've never seen or dealt with any timeshare salesmen at a BPS outdoor world anywhere and i've been to 4 different locations.In your situation i would have been a little frustrated also but i wouldn't let that stop me from going back to the store,i'd simply blow the person off and go about my business next time.Awesome stores and apparently i'm not the only guy that feels this way or they wouldn't keep opening them.There is a new one opening this coming monday,november 28th just east of knoxville tennessee and only 5 miles from douglass lake,i'll be there next month to fish and can't wait to check out that new store.

[MikeAxsom]

Viper201, the store I was in at the time of the sales pitch was in St. Louis, MO. I agree that the BPS stores have a lot of great stuff and I'm sure my outdoor gadget addiction will find me in them again. But I was put oof with the come-on I was hit with that day. I have shopped at Cablea's stores for years and never pass one up while treaveling; and have never been approached like that in one of them. I do like shoppinhg in the outdoor superstores, even if my budget always leaves me wanting more than I can afford.

[crappie66]

Mike, you should have countered his sales pitch, by trying to sell him on a time share at West Boggs.

[MikeAxsom]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-05 AT 01:34PM (EST)[/font][p]LOL. I'll remember that next time. I suppose SOMEONE must buy from those sales pitches, or they would not keep doing them; but I don't know anyone personally who will admit to it. Maybe my lack of understanding on that type of sales is why I never seem to have enough money when I'm out shopping, do ya think? I have began using a new trick on the telemarketers who try to raise funds for the charities, like my persoanl nemisis the Indiana State Police Alliance. They call about once a week, and it is always a new person who can't answer any questions about the Indiana State Police. I have started telling them that I will give them a donation of $50, but they have to come and pick it up. If they can get an ISP car to come to my house, I'll write them a check. So far no one has showed up. I think I'll up my contribution offer to $100 since it is Christmas time.

[Topwater2004]

Dave,

You can get some information from the smaller tackle shops, but sometimes they too are a little short on providing it. Many times I have asked at a bait shop what the bite is or pattern and can't get too much info.

It is also true that the help in these large stores lack knowledge of the sport in many cases, but lets face it those jobs are not supporting a family on minimum wage so you can't have a true professional working for $6/hr in the store.

As in your case, you are a true professional and no matter what tackle shop you go to, I doubt that the help or owner even could keep up with you on fishing knowledge. I admit that I myself don't know what a slab spoon is, but I have a good idea and could find it quickly if I worked in a tackle shop.

My goal this year was to become a better crankbait angler. I actually was a better crankbait angler 15 years ago than I am now, and was trying to get some of the skill back. Went out and bought $250 worth of what I thought would work, and had some success but never tore em' up like I do on plastics.

So what did I do, I put the cranks down again and pretty much fished plastics. Got a big full box of shiny pretty crankbaits though, looks impressive anyway.

Good luck and let me know when that Kentucky Lake tailwater bite takes off in the spring. I want to give it a shot.

topwater

[Dave Stewart]

Jackson: Thanks for the kind words. The small tackle shops I normally frequent here at Ky Lake are pretty good about talking to folks...I know I follow up with some of my clients that I recommend a certain shop to get their baits and ask them what they thought of the shop and/or the folks there..mainly because if they don't treat my clients right I don't recommend them anymore. Haven't had much of that happen but I have had it happen and one in particular that I even suggest to my clients that they do not do business there....the folks there will tell you anything to get you to buy a lure....I hate folks that think they have to do business like that. Of course their business rep suffers in the end just as the one I mentioned has.

Sorry to hear about the luck with the crankbaits...I like to fish crankbaits too but just like all the other techniques..I have found that you don't need a whole lot of different patterns...just some of the higher percentage color patterns in different running depths. Took me years to figure that out and not go overboard on buying a lot of different baits...of course like most folks at that end of every season I will go thru my stuff acquired that year and weed out those lures that either never get thrown or don't produce on a high percentage basis...there are so many times a weird color will come out and be hot for a week or two then they never hit it again....If one looks at the lures they catch fish on most of the time they will see that a very high percentage of them have been repeaters for years and still sell well.

I don't keep up with the tailwaters bite much as I don't fish down there....not that you can't catch fish there..I just have too much lake water to cover on the other side. Hope when you come down you tear them up though and even better on some of those crankbaits you have.

[Topwater2004]

Dave,

Thanks for the info, I plan on fishing Kentucky Lake this next season. Bought a map and never went last season, every time I brought it up, nobody wanted to go.

I found a great lake up in Wisconsin to fish, and ended up going there all 3 vacations I had last season. Got hooked on smallmouth up there.

I did ok on crankbaits this year, just seems like the plastics are what I do best. Probably just a confidence thing. I do pretty well with spinnerbaits too. They are my favorite baits because many times I can see the strike as it happens, you get that extra adrenaline going when you see the strike a split second before you feel it.

I want to fish Guntersville, Pickwick, and Kentucky Lake all next season.

I know what you mean about having a lot of water to cover, I was studying maps of Kentucky Lake and Guntersville last spring planning a trip and it is intimidating trying to figure out where to begin. Big water on a map, even bigger when you get to that ramp and look out and take it in.

[Moose1am]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-05 AT 11:48AM (EST)[/font][p]Well I like to try to support the small mom and pop stores. Everystore starts out small and those that have great effeciency and logistics will become the bigger stores. I use to have a large K mart store within 4 miles but they closed down due to Walmart competition. Now an Ace Hardware store had located in the old K-mart location. I go to this new ace store to buy stuff and support it simpley because it's closer to me than the two Walmarts. With the price of gasoline this summer it paid to shop closer to home even though Ace was higher in price than Walmart on most items. Also time is money so closer saves me time when I am working on a project.

While it's great to want to grow the store as a businessman and that is what America is all about we still need competition for the consumers. If you let one store monopolize the business then the consumers will be hurt. What happens when the small stores shut down and there is only one big store left? Price's will skyrocket. Don't think so? Just look at the price of Diamonds and the DeBeer's story. Until recently DeBeer's had a monolopy on production of diamonds and withheld diamonds from the market to force prices high. It can happen with any comodody if you don't enforce antimonololy laws. Think of Steel and other necessities and the story repeats itself over the centuries. For the market to work you must have competion. Competition makes for better stores as well. When Banks Compete you win!

OT_______________________



Hey Topwater:
Are you aware of Pat Hahs's www.kentuckyhydrografx.com web site and his topo maps of Kentucky Lake? I think I got that web site correct. I'll double check it. Pat uses his gps and his depth finder and laptop along with autocad software of somekind to make highly detailed topo maps of some areas of KY lake.

I got a new scanner last month and yesterday I went out to my mom's house on the other side of town and got some of dad's old picture. Color Slides. My new scanner allows me to scan 2" x 2" color slides four or five at a time and also to scan color NEGATIVE. So last night I spend about 4 hours scannning some of dad's Kentucky Lake Fishing Pictures. These pictures were taken back in the 1950's. Man KY Lake sure has changed over the last 50 years. Lots of the wood and stumps are not there anymore. Event the sky looks different these days. Back then the sky was very blue. I wish I could post some of these pictures on here. Some of the catches consisted of limites of 3lb bass with an occasional 6lber or 8lber thrown in. Looking at those photos on my computer last night got me ready to go back to KY lake and start fishing. These pictures were taken in Oct which was my dad's favorite time to fish KY lake.

I was reading an article in this month's issue of In-Fishermen. They were talking about two things. Global Warming having a GOOD impace on Smallmouth bass in Northern North America. And then one article talked about water clarity being better due to ZEBRA Mussles. That got me to thinking about the Kentucy DNR Crappie Study that was conducted last year or so. The study was trying to find out if the black crappie populations were actually increasing in KY lake. They tagged some crappie and tracked them for a few months over the spring and summer with transmitters that were implanted into the crappie.

But I started to think that if the black crappie populations were increasing maybe it's due to better water quality ie less turbidity or clearer water. I wondered then if there are any ZEBRA Mussels in KY lake? Surely there must be some in there as they seem to have taken over North American in the last 5 to 10 years. I read that Zebra Mussles filter the water and take out a lot of the particles making the water much cleaner. I have also read that Black Crappie Seem to prefer clear water more than white crappie. So I wonder if the zebra mussles are effecting the fish population on KY lake?

I also read that small mouht bass populations have increased on KY lake over the last 50 years. While I can't know for sure as I don't get to fish the lake that much I wish I had been fishing the lake more. I would have loved to know the changes going on down there. I read that at times the lake has weeds which I never saw back when I fished the lake in the 1960's and 70's. I stopped fishing KY lake around 1983 and started fishing Patoka Lake since it was closer. But Patoka is no KY lake.

Regards,

Moose1am

[mperry]

just a quick question for matt. i am looking for a new depth finder. how do you compare on prices to bass pro

[Topwater2004]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-22-05 AT 09:16AM (EST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Nov-22-05 AT 09:14*AM (EST)[/font]

Matt,

You make a lot of good points. I love tackle shops no matter how big they are, I always get a compulsion to buy something that I have not seen anywhere else.

You have to admit though, that when they can sell name brand crankbaits 1/2 price on their sales, it is going to bring people into the store and they are going to buy other items that are not on sale.

I have seen this same example when the SuperWal-Mart opened in Terre Haute. I could get $5 crankbaits for $3 etc.... That was when there were other tackle shops in town, several very small ones. 5 years later, all the small tackle shops are gone. Predator business tactics that the small business man can't compete with.

The only way for the small business to survive now is with quality. When spring time comes around and most anglers are looking to re-stock the box, the big sales at BassPro and GanderMountain types etc... are going to be the first stop.

I will promise you I will come on in your shop and check it out when I am in the area, I for sure will be making some purchases.

I have seen your ad on the Outdoor Channel last week, but the ad does not mention your location unless I missed it. I need my electronics updated next year and would be glad to give you a chance to sell me the unit and install it.

thanks,
topwater