Scheels ice fishing

I stopped at scheels today in EP to pick up some fall fishing supplies and there wasn’t much left…ice fishing stuff is starting to be stocked, and it’s September

I’m just going to say get what you want early. I can tell you from the Clam side, that most of the gear and shacks are sold out already. They had record orders from the retailers, so what is in the store is what’s going to be on the shelf. A lot of the other companies are in the same boat.

Was there yesterday. Should have seen the jiggin rap section. Totally cleaned out.

Ditch the department stores and go to the local small bait shops. Sure, their inventory isn’t as large or they might not have the latest greatest “lure” with 3 glow sticks and 9 rattles inside of it that you saw on a tv show, but they generally have the tried and true lures. They are also far less likely to be completely cleaned out on the first cool Saturday each Fall. If their prices are a bit higher, I always keep in-mind that it often comes with a fishing report, tips, and the money is staying in the local economy.

I found this tactic to be helpful with the ammunition shortage as well. I had friends complaining about finding shotgun shells calling and driving to Fleet Farms, Scheels, Cabelas, etc. while the local shop had a decent selection 3 miles down the road in town.

We are still having shortages on everything. If you see something you want, get it and don’t wait for a better price or sale. It might not be there if you do. I have already started Christmas shopping in fear of not finding gifts for people. Heck my Bosch dishwasher is still on back order and it has been 10 months.

olas88 wrote:

Was there yesterday. Should have seen the jiggin rap section. Totally cleaned out.

I was there yesterday too. Minimal open water tackle left other than rapala crank baits.

Didn’t realize that they actually removed and stopped selling most of the open water tackle there to replace it with ice fsihing stuff. Most other retail stores don’t actually get rid of that stuff. They just add a section of ice fishing seasonally and remove it, while all the open water stuff is there all year. Slightly disappointing to be honest.

gimruis wrote:

Most other retail stores don’t actually get rid of that stuff. They just add a section of ice fishing seasonally and remove it, while all the open water stuff is there all year.

Removing open water and replacing it with ice gear is very common at many of the stores. I have notice this at Fleet farm, Cabela’s, Thorne Brothers, and Gander Outdoors. Some of the open water stuff does stay.

Rodwork wrote:

Removing open water and replacing it with ice gear is very common at many of the stores. I have notice this at Fleet farm, Cabela’s, and Gander Outdoors.

Both the Cabela’s I frequent in the winter keep all their open water stuff out all year round. The Fleet Farm I visit regularly keeps all their open water stuff year round. The Dicks Sporting Goods near me is the same.

Scheels is literally the only one I’ve seen do this.

Rodwork wrote:

Removing open water and replacing it with ice gear is very common at many of the stores. Some of the open water stuff does stay.

x2 Fleet Farm always has a big change over to the winter gear. Floor and shelf space is a commodity that suppliers fight for, so they try and maximize it seasonally. Plus I doubt they are selling many musky gear, boat supplies or trolling motors in January.

Craig Sery wrote:

I stopped at scheels today in EP to pick up some fall fishing supplies and there wasn’t much left…ice fishing stuff is starting to be stocked, and it’s September

Mankato store was the same. The shelves were getting empty. They were switching over to ice fishing but it also looked like they might be struggling to get product too.

I’ve asked when ice gear is expected at Reeds and Blue Ribbon. Both were guessing end of October or early November.

Both the Cabela’s I frequent in the winter keep all their open water stuff out all year round. The Fleet Farm I visit regularly keeps all their open water stuff year round. The Dicks Sporting Goods near me is the same.

I’ve only ever been in 3 different Dick’s stores but their fishing selection is pretty slim pickins in my opinion. Usually only a couple short isles.

mxskeeter wrote:

’ve only ever been in 3 different Dick’s stores but their fishing selection is pretty slim pickins in my opinion. Usually only a couple short isles.

Ya its not a huge selection, I agree.

My point in my previous post is that I think Scheels is losing out on some open water tackle business by removing it during the winter ice fishing season. People surely still shop for that stuff in the winter or for holiday gifts for others. Not leaving it out all year is a bad business move IMO compared to other retailers that leave it out all season. That’s all I’m saying. When I was in there it was mostly void of bass plastics and hooks which I was looking for so they lost my business that day.

from my experience a couple times i looked online and the store said it was in stock even though it was not on the shelf. when i asked them they went in back and grabbed the stuff i was looking for. ive done that a couple times now with fishing stuff and mountain ops stuff

At a macro level, Scheels seems to be the only bigger box retailer that you can depend on to have hunting, fishing, camping, etc. supplies in stock during the main season. When others shelves are bare, Scheels will most likely have it – maybe not at fringe end of season but in main part on pre-season, they can be counted on.

I was in EP several weeks ago as only place that had decoy weights I was looking for and low and behold they had ice augers out – something that was on my list for the year – and I snapped it up.

I am guessing they have figured out that they can make more $ on putting stuff out early for those that are itching for the upcoming season vs. keeping stuff out at end of season for the couple of hard cores that are out there.

They must be doing something right as people seem to love their stores vs. others that have been mentioned in this thread that seem to often run out of basic merchandise early – stuff will typically not be out of.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mxskeeter wrote:</div>
’ve only ever been in 3 different Dick’s stores but their fishing selection is pretty slim pickins in my opinion. Usually only a couple short isles.

Ya its not a huge selection, I agree.

My point in my previous post is that I think Scheels is losing out on some open water tackle business by removing it during the winter ice fishing season. People surely still shop for that stuff in the winter or for holiday gifts for others. Not leaving it out all year is a bad business move IMO compared to other retailers that leave it out all season. That’s all I’m saying. When I was in there it was mostly void of bass plastics and hooks which I was looking for so they lost my business that day.

It makes sense because they need the room to bring in all the ice gear. Which sells 10x faster than open water gear sells during the winter. This is why they switch it out as do most businesses. Fleet Farm, Joes all shrink their open water sections to fit in more ice gear in the winter.

mahtofire14 wrote:

It makes sense because they need the room to bring in all the ice gear. Which sells 10x faster than open water gear sells during the winter. This is why they switch it out as do most businesses.

I understand ice fishing stuff may sell better but removing most of the open water tackle is still not a good idea. People like me still buy that stuff in the “off season” for holiday gifts and such. They should have both, not one or the other. Sales during the holiday shopping season likely represent a very large portion of their overall yearly sales. I’ll give you a specific example: my Father wants a new muskie lure tackle box for Christmas. Low and behold, that stuff isn’t available on the floor at Scheels until next spring. So I’ll be shopping elsewhere.

The other retailers I visit don’t do this. I don’t know what Fleet Farm you shop at but the two I visit don’t remove their open water tackle. Neither does Cabela’s or Dicks.

And good luck finding anything worth while at those retailers. I have wasted more time walking through cabellas and leaving without what I needed. Can find all the clothes, grilling and coolers than I could ever imagine. Don’t even bother with them anymore. Dicks well I don’t bother even going for fishing equipment. I can by hooks at any bait shop/retailer.

I realize that Cabela’s is not the company they once were before Bass Pro bought them but they still have a better selection of fishing tackle than most places I frequent, including Scheels at this time which has almost NONE. That includes a whole aisle of musky tackle that I’m looking for.

Every store has its time and place. Can’t expect everything out of these retailers.

Just glad the ones we have are still around.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mxskeeter wrote:</div>
’ve only ever been in 3 different Dick’s stores but their fishing selection is pretty slim pickins in my opinion. Usually only a couple short isles.

Ya its not a huge selection, I agree.

My point in my previous post is that I think Scheels is losing out on some open water tackle business by removing it during the winter ice fishing season. People surely still shop for that stuff in the winter or for holiday gifts for others. Not leaving it out all year is a bad business move IMO compared to other retailers that leave it out all season. That’s all I’m saying. When I was in there it was mostly void of bass plastics and hooks which I was looking for so they lost my business that day.

I totally agree gimruis. As big as most of the Scheels stores are you would think they would keep some soft water product on display.

My buddies and I went to BPS yesterday. Plenty of fishing gear and tackle on the shelves. I had no problem buying $202 of stuff. They were also starting to roll out their ice fishing gear.

Why don’t you just go online and order what you need? Hell, it’s usually cheaper and you can get free shipping most of the time. If it’s out of season I’m almost always going online for it. Most places around here don’t have what you need when it’s IN season.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Why don’t you just go online and order what you need?

I’ve been buying a fair amount of my tackle needs lately from Omnia Fishing. It’s an online order warehouse kinda place and near my house. They run decent sales on random items too.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Why don’t you just go online and order what you need?

I’ve been buying a fair amount of my tackle needs lately from Omnia Fishing. It’s an online order warehouse kinda place and near my house. They run decent sales on random items too.

Omnia is a great site. Almost always have what I need and gets to you the next day or two also. I’ve picked up at their warehouse too. Great guys and are getting pretty darn big with their new investors.

Mills and Cabelas will be out of most anything desired by the time the water turns hard. Other stores above keep well stocked until the season is about over.

Mills loves to have rows of empty and mostly empty shelves.

A couple years ago I called a couple of Mills stores in Wisconsin along I-41 in January. Each one told me they stock ice fishing gear one time. They would rather lose sales than have unsold inventory in the Spring.

To all due respect to anyone selling gear on this site …

If you ice fish, go to Scheels and go now.

The amount of product they have from both mass / commercial brands and custom (including rods) is insanely impressive.