Fishing Michigan

I would have to conclude after my state retail tour that Gander Mountain as a chain has the 3rd best selection by area of all the stores that I visited.  Each store tries to cater to the angler in their area, and their wants and needs.  If I had to pick their top two stores in Michigan, it would fall on the store in Coldwater, and then Port Huron/Ft Gratiot near Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River.

Coldwater really stepped up and had one their nicest displays.  Bulk stacks of product, knowledgeable staff and everything in one central location.  Port Huron was a close second, display area was slightly smaller, but the staff was top notch, and they had everything the local angler could want for perch, which rules LSC during the winter.  Even the Taylor store which still had product coming in, as they were one of my first stops, had a decent display with their limited amount of room.

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.

Its been short of a week since the last post while the website was being updated.  And if anything looks different on your side of the blog, my side is going to take a tutorial to figure out all the new bells and whistles, or even if I have access to them.

So in the meantime, its catch up time.  What have I been doing since the shutdown?  Actually wrapping up my around the state tour visiting all the major players in the outdoor world, doing some employee training and checking on sales of the most popular items in the fishing world.  My conclusion is this, all stores south of Lake St. Clair are severely lacking in the newest and bluest in the ice fishing realm.

I would have to say Frank’s ranks slightly higher than Jay’s, but probably too close to call, so its a tie for first place. Third place is also a tie between the Gander Mountain in Port Huron and Utica.  Actual location of the Utica Gander is right out in front of Selfridge, so call that Lake St. Clair area.

The stores ranked high because of their location, as well as cross merchandising their gear.  Everything ice fishing in one central area.  Frank’s caught me with the RAM mount for the Polaris for the GPS.  The mounts were on a small rack, with the power cables on the other side.  GPS units only a short distance away, next to the flashers……..and so on.  Will have a breakdown with pics from the trip soon!