Ranking of major fishing gear suppliers in Southern Ontario

[MuskieBait]

(02-20-2013 04:47 PM)OldTimer Wrote:  Perhaps - but they do leave me with a negative impression for this practice. It shows lack of long term vision and support for the sport and industry as a whole.

BassPro in turn sets up their own spring fishing and fall hunting seminars at their store. There are some free seminars each year for both. They also have a reel trade-in, which I think is a great program for anglers to upgrade their gear...yet the trade-in used reels are donated to fishing programs.

What I don't appreciate is having to pay $19 just to walk around a convention center full of people with very little new things that I can take away from the experience...and then to pay more to go to these seminars...and further having to pay ridiculous amount for parking, food and drinks. You have the same ole vendors year after year just trying to make a buck or two. You walk by vendors after vendors selling similar spinnerbaits at $10 for 3...or similar jigs at $10 for 4...or similar hand pour grubs...you get the idea. To me it just feels like a huge money grab and everyone is just out making a buck. After going to them every year when I was younger, and seeing the same things year after year after year, I have just all but lost interest in going to any of the fishing shows.

I'd rather walk around BassPro for free to see if there are new lures that are stocked, and then check out blogs, vlogs, online fishing programs and TV programming like WFN to see the latest and the greatest at my leisure...instead of with thousands of people hurrying here and there trying to look for good deals.