My second stop last Thursday was to Frank’s Great Outdoors , where walleye also dominates their winter set/displays in the store. Pushed back are the blades and trolling gear used by anglers during the warmer months, upfront you will find everything needed for icing “eyes” during the winter. Once you go through the doors with the rack of ice rods, past the checkouts and bait tanks, its everything you could want for ice fishing.
You turn the corner into the main section of the store, and you are confronted with two rows back to back of the latest shanties available
They have all the big name flashers and fish finders available, including my favorite, Vexilar. All the accessories you could want for your Vex right by the units on display.
The one thing Frank’s did better than any store I visited is what we call cross-merchandising. If you have your electronics on display as in this case, you get something from another department or area of the store that compliments those items. You then display them right next to the electronics. In this case it was the RAM mounts and electronic accessories on a rack nearby. Its a good sales technique true, but also good for the customer. If you are looking for something, you don’t have to walk all over the store to find it, and also makes it harder for you to forget an item you wanted to get in the first place. In my case I wanted the RAM mount for having my Garmin right on the handlebar of the Polaris for easy viewing while traveling across the ice. Much better than looking down with the unit around my neck, and trying to drive.
On the backside of the display you would have found all the power cables and accessories for your GPS needs. Thought I grabbed a pic of that, but dropped the pooch on that one. There were were power and data cables on that side, honest.
On to the gear we like using for a second line in the water, a Michigan favorite the tip-up. Actually there were lots of items on display to enhance the experience out on the ice. Augers, extra blades, extra gas caps, clothing, spuds and just about anything else you could possibly think of for gearing up this winter.
Course if you have all this gear already, the fun part is walking in and checking out all the lures on display for catching walleyes on Saginaw Bay. Also, if you plan on hitting Little Bay de Noc or Big Bay even for walleyes in the Upper Peninsula, Frank’s is the place for all things you could possibly need in the line jigs, spoons and swimbaits/jiggers. Its on the way, you might as well schedule some time in your trip to get the right gear.
One of my favorite baits is the Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon from Northland, but then again, I am pretty much a spoon guy for catching walleyes to begin with!
If the swimbait like the new Puppet Minnow from Northland, the old standby Jiggin’ Rap or Salmo’s Chubby Darter is the type of bait you most prefer, they have them up there too.
Mixed in with another favorite spoon of mine, the Swedish Pimple, and the Jiggin’ Raps is the Power Flash from Luhr Jensen. Its a type of light used to charge up your glow baits, and looks just like a flash camera attachment. Yes it is the most expensive type glow charger on the market at $20 bucks or so, but you click once on one side of your lure, click again on the reverse side, and you are down the hole fishing. The other types look like keychain ornaments that the banks hand out when you open a new account. Back and forth, back and forth…ugh, they take too much time to charge the lure and are not nearly as effective. Definitely worth the extra 10 to 15 bucks for the Power Flash which will last a lot longer.
And, as you walk back to the checkout area, you need to pick up some panfish jigs, they have them there too. On the right hand side as you walk toward the counter, in front of the filler spools of line , are two sides of gill, crappie and perch jigs. Remember what I said in an earlier post, if you are spooling multiple reels, filler spools are the way to go for the best bang for your buck.
That wraps up my stop at Frank’s. The guys up there are great, and no matter what level of ice angler you are, they can show you what you need to make your trip on the bay or elsewhere a better experience. If you get that kind of help in picking the right items and gaining a little knowledge in the process, it makes it an easy decision to support a Michigan store where the money you spend, stays in the state and provides jobs.
Excellent review of Franks Charlie. Ive been a long time customer of Franks Great Outdoors. Great people and the gear you want. Not only are they great at getting you geared up, but every year they donate thousands of dollars worth of equipment to tournaments, D.U. events, hunters education etc. to help promote our outdoor sports. Great store with great ownership.
Thanks, this section showed with all those pictures is really such a small portion of the store, too. They have fly fishing, hunting, clothing, home decor, camping and outdoor cooking items as well. Some nice looking smokers were on display. WOULD love to get some of those whitefish out of the bay this winter and get them in the smoker. Sounds like the owners are really true partners when it comes to supporting the outdoors.