Dicks was way overpriced, haven't been back since. Bass pro was having a huge sale got alot of lures and some rod n reel combos. Walked out with about 250.00 worth of stuff for 85. I will check out tackle warehouse when i need to resupply my lures. I always stop by walmart for my strikeking spinners-all are under 4.00
I guess it comes down to ; Brand Name vs. Generic (inexpensive) . I know a lot ppl have an opinion on this do I'm gona make it a topic n see what ppl think . But to me Expensive lures ex., Live Target , Megaba$$, Jackall , Lucky Craft and a lot of other Brands Dicks now sells , are and will be better quality , better weight distribution , better action .. I don't know but I am curious to see how other ppl respond ..
I have always found Dicks to have really great prices as well as a good selection of quality lures.... right now they have a buy one get second and half price.... I buy almost all my lures from Dicks or Bass Pro.....
Dicks has a lot of New Lures on their shelves , great place for gear . If u have a rewards card you get a 10$ gift certificate every 300 points , and they're are a lot.of mailed coupons that give you 200 points extra for any purchase so its a win win .. Bass Pro is a trip , and its expensive as far as the website goes , any lure I see on Tackle Warehouse or other sites , Bass Pro is at least 3 $ more than just about all of them .. Dicks is great ..lol It just sounds funny ..When I came home from the one in Rockaway Nj , I started to tell my girl how it had to be the biggest Dicks I've ever seen ... Then js silence .. I ws like that came out wrong .. The store I meant .. She still busts my chops when I tell her I'm goin there ..lol
I stopped at a local Walmart the other day. The fishing stuff is in back corner. It's always a mess. They took a ton off lured and threw therm in boxes all for $2.50. There were a bunch of saltwater trolling baits and some freshwater lures. Hundreds of lures all mixed together for $2.50. I was able to grab Heddon Zara Spooks Jr. in many of colors. These all go for $6 retail. I almost wanted to buy everything and sell off on eBay but my wife doesn't see the value. It just more money in fishing gear as far as she's concerned. I figure I could easily make $2 per lure plus a dollar or two for shipping. Anyway, it's always worth thoroughly looking around at Walmart because the people staffing the fishing dept have no idea what is what. Some of the saltwater tackle was easily $10+ lures. Once they run out of shelf space they just dump old stuff in boxes and give away for nothing.
I once purchased an abu Garcia vendetta rod with the tip missing for $15. The sticker was $79. I told them the rod was ruined and I was going to use it just for the graphite. I couldn't buy the replacement tips they sell at same time because I thought they'd catch on. So I went back another time and got the tip for a few bucks and I ended up with an $80 rod for less than $20. Another time I found a abu vengeance with a black max baitcaster. I knew it was a $40 rod and a $50-60 reel. I don't know how they were made into a combo but my gain, their loss. On top of it, it was marked down from $40 to $34.99. Haha. Walmart can be a goldmine. Not to mention how cheap their Mobil 1 oil is...5 qt bottle for $26. I've got it stock piled in my garage.
I once purchased an abu Garcia vendetta rod with the tip missing for $15. The sticker was $79. I told them the rod was ruined and I was going to use it just for the graphite. I couldn't buy the replacement tips they sell at same time because I thought they'd catch on. So I went back another time and got the tip for a few bucks and I ended up with an $80 rod for less than $20. Another time I found a abu vengeance with a black max baitcaster. I knew it was a $40 rod and a $50-60 reel. I don't know how they were made into a combo but my gain, their loss. On top of it, it was marked down from $40 to $34.99. Haha. Walmart can be a goldmine. Not to mention how cheap their Mobil 1 oil is...5 qt bottle for $26. I've got it stock piled in my garage.
Walmart is mostly abused rods and shanty reels .. U get what u pay for , they have been practically giving black max casters out everywhere from Kmart to Sports Authority even my local hardware store has them for 30 bucks .. Sometimes you can get lucky , but try going by Dicks they have clearance items also and so much more as far as " Tackle " goes .. Plus Walmarts don't have a knowledgable (mostly) staff you can ask about ur black max .. " Its not a great reel " is what I have heard from multiple sites and people that have purchased one .. I'm not saying its not good to save money , but my thing is assortment of diff styles of baits swimbaits , Craw , senko style , cranks and whatever else ur hearts desired .. Simply put u actually get more for ur money at Dicks cs of the whole bonus points every 25 (more or less) bucks u spend u pretty much get 10 dollars back .. That makes sense to me plus , a lot of ppl haven't ever been to Dicks poss cs of location and accessibility .. Sometimes its not worth the trip , but you will find someone who will tell you about the bait cs all the fishing department guys get to test the baits themselves before it goes on the shelf .
Walmart is mostly abused rods and shanty reels .. U get what u pay for , they have been practically giving black max casters out everywhere from Kmart to Sports Authority even my local hardware store has them for 30 bucks .. Sometimes you can get lucky , but try going by Dicks they have clearance items also and so much more as far as " Tackle " goes .. Plus Walmarts don't have a knowledgable (mostly) staff you can ask about ur black max .. " Its not a great reel " is what I have heard from multiple sites and people that have purchased one .. I'm not saying its not good to save money , but my thing is assortment of diff styles of baits swimbaits , Craw , senko style , cranks and whatever else ur hearts desired .. Simply put u actually get more for ur money at Dicks cs of the whole bonus points every 25 (more or less) bucks u spend u pretty much get 10 dollars back .. That makes sense to me plus , a lot of ppl haven't ever been to Dicks poss cs of location and accessibility .. Sometimes its not worth the trip , but you will find someone who will tell you about the bait cs all the fishing department guys get to test the baits themselves before it goes on the shelf .
I can say that the Vendetta rod I scored for next to nothing was a kickass deal. That WAS a great rod...7 ft med fast tons of backbone. One piece though which is y it WAS a great rod. Ive learned my lesson with transporting graphite one piece rods over 6.6 ft in my car. Don't do it.
As for the black max/vengeance combo, the vengeance is a broom stick. It doesn't have much tip at all. Not my first choice of rod. The reel, however, is solid. Mind you, it was my first caster so I do not have very much of a frame of reference. But I opened it up, all parts and bearings are quality. The reel and brake are smooth. The drag system and line tensioner work fine too. Now learning to use a baitcaster is another story. But I love the setup for swimming a jig off the bank.
I've got a dicks 3 miles from my house and a Walmart about 3/4 mi away. I get regular stuff there and habitually stroll the fishing and auto depts. As for dicks, I stay away unless I want something special because I end up leaving with targets, ammo, lures, plastics, new line, camo gear, new sneakers, etc.
I guess I just like Dick's.. Sporting Goods , see how easily that can happen .. Honestly , I like the store in Paramus and have made some Fishin buddies in doin so , I felt like in worked there at one point I was there so often .. Besides that now they sell my favorite soft plastics , Keitech . Anyway I don't hunt , so I'm good there ,but I do fond myself wondering a little in there .. Ha .. Dicks is closer for me . To be honest In get most my tackle online , better deals . But if we're talking rods and reels gota see in person first .. The way they cram all of them together n like u said broken tips .. U never know if that has a fracture or chip in something from lack of safe keeping . Had a rod snap on me from a lil tackle shop by me Meltzers , thank god St.Croix deemed it manufacturing defect cs I wuda had to pay for a replacement tip n shipping .. St.Croix backs there stuff pretty good . Walmart I remember going to a few times n they hardly had anything on the shelf either lack of stock or stocking ..Idk js not very promising so I choose Dicks .. Damn it .. See what I mean ..lol
..Idk js not very promising so I choose Dicks .. Damn it .. See what I mean ..lol
Well I was going to head there tonight to get some line. I managed to bungle up the line on all my rods in the last couple weeks and it's time to re-up. Gonna get my usual braid/flouro. I was thinking about giving nano a try on your suggestion for one of my spinner reels. What size you suggest for 6.6 med/hev 25 reel size, high speed? I want something I can chuck a mile and not worry about the whole spool flying off the reel. I also don't want lose any of my gear with break offs. My casting style won't let me use any decent thin diameter mono so I don't even bother. Braid is no problem and flouro around 12-15 lbs holds well for me. I understand that this nano line is capable of much greater loads than what's on the box. What has worked well for you? Mind you I'm solely a bank fisherman and I've been having problems locating these fall bass…so I need to get my baits launched out a mile and do some searching.
Thanks for advice. Obviously we have deviates well off topic but I think it's only me and you in here.