Joe's

First time in there this AM, searching out a new combo and not impressed with Cabela’s or fleet farm selections lately in the rod/reel department and was in the neighborhood.

Very impressed with their lineups and what they had. Most st.croixs models, all fenwicks, many shimanos, abus, gloomis and all the good ml-m powers in stock. And with them taking care of warranty and being able to ship through them is a no brainer for future purchases.

Salesdude probably had a dozen reels out for me to try on the rod, very helpful.

Tackle wasn’t the biggest selection but they did have some bfnt colors and styles I was looking for.

I used to live about a mile from Joe’s, your experience was typical nhamm, great service, good rod selection, even good bait for the metro. You aren’t going to get bottom barrel pricing (tho they do run some very nice sales), but we will get a quality selection and a knowledgeable/helpful staff person.

While they don’t have everything, they also don’t seem to go completely out of stock of items towards the end of seasons like the big box stores do.

Joes is solid, and I think they do a good job of stocking higher end rods and reels for avid anglers. Again, not always the cheapest (often not), but a solid shop with quality staff. I’ve been consistently impressed by their stock and service.

I was in there yesterday as well, first time. I’ll be back for sure. I didn’t have much of a chance to look through their rods/reels but they seemed to have a solid selection.

Rapala selection was really thin, possibly just the season changeover still happening?

Live bait is the ticket. I don’t fish a ton of live bait, but I like being able to stop one place for bait & tackle.

Great selection and service there-can be spendy, but they really slash when they have a sale.

I agree. Joes is about the same distance from me as the Woodbury Cabelas. Everytime Cabelas doesn’t have what I want in stock (which is almost every time) I go to Joe’s and can usually find it. Some things are more expensive and others are less. I feel like they have upped their game this season once they got all their stock in. Lots of rods, reels and more fishing apparel from actually fishing companies than Cabelas as well.

pool2fool wrote:

Rapala selection was really thin, possibly just the season changeover still happening?

This is a good thing in my opinion. I don’t throw much Rapala and it drives me crazy to no end that every fishing store in the state has two full isles dedicated to Rapala and everything else get’s a two ft section. I get it, Rapala is king around here but there are a lot of other cranks out there that are just as good if not better and cheaper by about $3-5.

Sorry, “steps of soapbox”

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>pool2fool wrote:</div>
Rapala selection was really thin, possibly just the season changeover still happening?

This is a good thing in my opinion. I don’t throw much Rapala and it drives me crazy to no end that every fishing store in the state has two full isles dedicated to Rapala and everything else get’s a two ft section. I get it, Rapala is king around here but there are a lot of other cranks out there that are just as good if not better and cheaper by about $3-5.

Sorry, “steps of soapbox”

on my trip there they still had a large portion of shelving in the tackle section dedicated to Rapala, it’s just that a lot of the spaces were empty. So worst of both worlds in a way. But again i wouldn’t expect to see those empty spaces too much longer as we get near opener.

Doesnt Joe’s have a big spring sale?

Joe’s return policy is very restrictive. I had an electric knife go bad is less than a month. They would not get me a new one off their shelf. They did offer to send mine back to the company. Little good for me in early summer. So,…I’d recommend asking what they will do should the product your are buying of any significance fails prematurely.

Mike W wrote:

Doesnt Joe’s have a big spring sale?

Just got the liitle post card in the mail a few days ago: Joes fish fest April 19th thru 29th. Seminars every night at 6 pm 23rd thru 27th. Joel Nelson is the speaker for the 23rd. Decent sales.