Bass Pro Shops

[xjchad]

For Father's Day my family gave me a Bass Pro Shops gift card and a family trip to the Rancho store one day in the next couple of weeks.
I'm stoked because I've never been to one of their stores before!
I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas/recommendations for good deals or products there?
I'm sure I'll be a bit overwhelmed with all the cool stuff LOL

[Eric H]

I've been there a ton of times, you are  gona really love it.

[xjchad]

One thing I'm looking for is a better way to carry my gear/terminal tackle.  Right now I just have it all in a back pack.  This is nice to just throw over my shoulders for walking to the fishing spots, but pretty unorganized with everything lumped together. 
Any recommendations for some sort of tackle bag?

[spideyjg]

Tackle bags rule.

I run this one now...
http://www.cabelas.com/product/cabela-s-advanced-anglers-8482-tackle-bags-without-utility-boxes/1391169.uts

Main thing is get your gear into organizer boxes. This bag fits my sput jug which is a Walmart food storage acrylic jar 7" high 5" wide to keep the sputniks in to not poke stuff.  A smaller jug holds other sinkers. Pockets hold various crap from sunscreen, lights, line, tools hooks, shark rigs on and on and on.

I have want to have a Shark/surf bag, cat bag, bay bag, and bait making bag. 

Jim

[skrilla]

Give them a call and see what their tank feeding schedule is. The kids will love it.

[Eric H]

Give them a call and see what their tank feeding schedule is. The kids will love it.

I saw a fat guy throwing popcorn in there once.

The trout stream is cool too. Some people throw their pennies in there for some strange reason. That's not what it's for...

[LONGCAST JOE]

One thing I'm looking for is a better way to carry my gear/terminal tackle.  Right now I just have it all in a back pack.  This is nice to just throw over my shoulders for walking to the fishing spots, but pretty unorganized with everything lumped together. 
Any recommendations for some sort of tackle bag?

Hey Chad, I'd recommend going with a couple tackle binders, which you can still throw in a backpack or incorporate into a tackle bag down the road. At least one just to keep pre-tied rigs organized, seperated and untangled. I use them for all my terminal tackle I mobilize with as well though. I think they're made to organize soft plastics like worms or the Gulp line but I like them because even if you drop it or even throw it and make it tumble nothing gets hurt, mixed together or even moves. When you need something you can just flip through the clear pouches like notebook pages and see everything, although after a while you'll just know where anything is without having to flip through . Extra add-on and replacement pouches are inexpensive. Here's link so you see what I'm saying...
http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Tackle-Binder-or-Replacement-Pages/product/37107/
Within each pouch I keep different sizes each in they're own smaller polybag and label them, as it keeps things more uniform then using the original packaging that whatever came in. For example in one pouch I keep 3-way swivels, with each size labeled (although u can see it as well) and in a 3" X 4" x 4 mil zip bag. And then another pouch I'll keep 2 way barrel swivels, and another coils of leader wire and crimps, and circle hooks in another. I'll just give the small bags to you, I get em for nothing.
The thing I havn't found an ideal way to pack and carry is the damn sputniks. Those legs love to tangle or poke through whatever I try. Every thing else I get to basically lay flat in pouches like pages in 3 ring notrbook. Then again I don't take all my tackle with me, it stays at home in bigger hard organizers and I'll just take enough of each to have enough even if I decide to stay for 2 days in the worst conditions imaginable, so about a dozen of each size of everything, no need to bring 25 10/0 circle hooks. Funny thing is do I rarely even touch any of it when I'm out fishing besides the pre-tied rigs....I should quit rambling and go hit this last window of oppurtunity tonight.....yep
JOE

[Fish Jerk]

For leaders, I just use different size zip-lock storage bags. I use the quart size for individual leaders and a gallon size to stick a bunch of the quart size in. It's the same basic idea Joe is talking about, just without the nifty Binder.

This is what I found to be very good for carrying my sputnik sinkers in my tackle bag. It's the perfect size for my bag, is high enough to clear the legs easily.

[Latimeria]

This is what I found to be very good for carrying my sputnik sinkers in my tackle bag. It's the perfect size for my bag, is high enough to clear the legs easily.

Looks perfect!

[spideyjg]

The sput jug..





In the bag..

[Fish Jerk]

I figured I would post this as well.

Following in the footsteps of Longcast Joe, I picked up a used golf bag, made a few modifications and a Rod carry and deployment system appeared. I always hated the convoluted way I carried all my gear to the sand. I had it down to a system, but it required that I set down the bait cooler and tackle bag so I could lay my rods on them to keep them out of the sand, Then I had to set up the chair, move the rods to the chair, remove the spikes from the bait cooler and set them up, assemble the rods and get them into spikes then start rigging. Then I had to reverse everything for clean/pack up.

After seeing Joe's golf bag, it made it seem easy, especially not worrying about rods and reels in the sand.





The basic mods I made were to cut out some of the club dividers. This allowed me to take a spare rod shipping tube, cut it to size, and insert them taped together side by side into the bag for rod holders. I put the endcaps on the inside ends of the tube to protect the rod ends from the bottom of the bag which is less than smooth.

I also picked up this 24" arc dehooker from fleabay for $20 + shipping. This fits perfectly in the umbrella holder on the side of the bag.

[xjchad]

Awesome ideas guys! Keep them coming!

[Pinoyfisher]

I just went the student back pack route. Lots of pockets to store things. Sputniks went into an appropriate sized tupperware. At my job (biotech), we order lots of small fittings from Grainger and McMaster-Carr. They come in small, but extra thick ziplock bags.About as thick as a vacuum sealer bag. I store my shark and bat rigs in these. There also great for tip lights, mini glow sticks, and zip ties.

[LONGCAST JOE]

Wow, that looks really clean Ron...Like the tube mod alot, a much needed improvement..

.Geeez, looks like we'll all have at least another week of tackle upgrading, tinkering and rig tying by the looks of the extended surf forecast...
Hit Deedo last night for a couple hours, not much swell, but salad a'plenty, couldn't get a clean soak for even a minute before it wrapped near the surface,  and it was the tough, thick, long stranded stuff, not the fluffy pink lettuce & eelgrass mix that has been in recently...

[xjchad]

Ron and Joe,
When using your golf bag, do you remove/install the reels from the rods each time you load/unload to fish?