Can't We All Just Get Along?

[lollygagger]

My boat is what I stand on while trying to catch fish....Older Bass Cat....blew the merc it came with replaced with an Evinrude...before that I had Steve Holley's gold Hydro Sport that flipped when the single steering broke. I stood on it and caught fish. A drunk ran into me off the point in front of Wooley Creek and smashed to heck. 5 minutes to midnight, trying to make weigh in at Cape Fair. I was only 25 yards off end of bluff or they would be dead. Managed to get boat to edge of bluff and grab a tree as the boat sank....Was in shock for a while...My boat is still what I stand on while trying to catch fish...I am thankful for that....Don't think brand had any influence....Only big change was that I'm hesitant to fish alone at night...Had a 7'11! bass I was going to take pic of in livewell....She lasted overnight and was released when the water patrol took me to the wreck the next day. The boat was sitting nose up in 16 ft of water. 17 ft HydroSport. Yanked it off bottom. got it on plane, all goes well till Cape Fair buoys and he slowed down, boat starts sinking . Untied tag end of rope and fed rope while water patrol got me near shore. Tied tag end to tree and called wrecker...Managed to get on trailer so insurance Co could take pic's. Center City Marine rebuilt motor and sold it. Fought w/Insurance Co's for a couple of months.Ran the 2nd HydroSport 5/6 years and bought Lee Jordon's Bass Cat. My boat is what I stand on while I try to catch fish....I Love to fish. I have bought products from Aaron Martens to Z-Tech....Heck I even have 3 US Reel Hibdon Reels cuz I grew up without line guides and worm gears....I own BPS stuff and Lews (original TN and MO) All is good....I support about everybody....After a 150 HP prop crashed into my side and missed my head by 3 foot, I'm happy to stand on any boat while trying to catch fish. Thanx to any and all promoting fishing,,,from Johnny all the way down to the guy pouring jigheads in his garage. If it works....I am your customer....

[Guest]

The is the best non fishing/fishing rant that Ive seen in a while.

[Buzz]

Bass Pro is Bass Pro. So is Wal-Mart, Academy, and many more. I don't go to Bass Pro looking for the best deals, because I know I won't get them there. Thier prices are way too high for what an average angler will want to spend. God forbid you are just starting out. But, I have had a couple of instances where I was impressed with customer service. 1st) I bought a bass pro bass rod ( this was back in the 80's ) and I broke the tip off of it, I don't even remember how, and took it back to the store to see what they would do for me. I didn't expect much. The girl at the service desk told me to go and get another rod to replace it. Problem: They had changed this particular rod and didn't carry it anymore. I talked to an associate and he pointed me to the comparable rod .It was traded out without question.

The latest situation was Feb. this year. My wife wanted some gloves that would allow her to work with her camera equipment and still have some sort of feel. Anyway, we started off in the bass fishing area which had gloves. I didn't see anything that would work, so I asked an associate and he directed me to the fly shop. Guess what? That's where we found what we were looking for.

I guess the moral to the story is: You Can't Always Get What You Want, But If You Try, Sometimes You Get What You Need.

[Brett Groeteke]

Quillback, I'm glad to hear you say you feel that Bass Pro does a better job of keeping things in stock. I'm not afraid to admit that I do work for Bass Pro and I am in charge of ordering and keeping in stock the freshwater lures. We have systems in place to stay in stock and I can tell you that 95% of the time we are out of stock, it is because the vendor is unable to keep up with demand and ship us product.

Mr. Babler, I like and respect what you said- it was a logical and well said statement

[amboyduke]

Mr Babler,

I come to this board as an angler wishing to gather fishing information and this is a wonderful board to do that. I do not come here as a Bass Pro representative trying to influence anyone to shop there. If you re-read my post you will see that I encourage others to shop whereever they want and that I do as well. Certainly no ill will is held to anyone who chooses to shop elsewhere.

Once again, the reason I visit this board is the quality of information you receive on local lakes. I appreciate everyone that shares inforamtion and I pay especially close attention to your posts because of the value of information you share. You go out of your way to explain how to catch fish and I thouroughly enjoy reading them and applying the information. I would say that most everyone on here feels the same and values what you have to say. It is only when you make statements like you did in the Lews post and I qoute "The marketing stradgity did indeed switch to WalMart. BP is still a great place to get the things you need and a wondefulr place to stroal around if the time share people are not bugging you to death. As long as you buy major brands there you are in great shape. Just don't by house brands. That more than includes the Boats. That is for another day." When you tell people don't buy house brands and especially the boats, I get on the defensive because I have had great success with house brands and the boats. We are both entitled to our opinions, and usually I just brush off any negative posts about BPS and go on. This one struck a nerve and I felt the need to respond. Perhaps I should have just moved on as I usually do, and now I wish I had done so. Mr. Babler, if you have had bad experience with the products you have every right to share that with others. It just seems to me that sometimes you go overboard and since you are the moderator of this board and highly respected by all including me, I feel at times you should filter your opinions sometimes and keep it to what this board is designed to be, about fishing and all those who love it like we do. But, this is only my opinion.

I think BPS should advertise on here and have suggested this. Like all businesses, our advertising budgets are pretty tight but hopefully this can happen at some point. I did suggest to Oakley that they advertise on here and see that they have, so hopefully that brought in a little revenue.

I vow to only discuss fishing on any future posts and will continue to look forward to your posts on how to catch fish. I won't get defensive in regards to anything you have to say about BPS, boats or equipment as you have every right to express your views. I appreciate this board and the people on it, especially yourself. Now I am getting off here to get ready to go catch a few in this cold weather I hope. Thanks for listening and good fishing.

[Feathers and Fins]

OK, here is a question I have... This is a fishing site! A much better site than most out there because the members are honest about opinions and keep in mind everyone has their own opinion... So If we do not discuss Lures, Boats and even Vendors I think its a disservice to our fellow anglers. The vendors might not like it because it shows shortcomings in their business and to that I say TOUGH MEADOW MUFFINS. I want to know where my business is weak because I want to improve it. Truth hurts but correcting the hurt sure feels good.

If by having these discussion it helps others in buying products that work than this is just as important and ANY fishing report posted. Maybe more so as it save people money in this economy. If vendors are offended you might want to look in your house at clean it.

[bfishn]

... So If we do not discuss Lures, Boats and even Vendors I think its a disservice to our fellow anglers. The vendors might not like it because it shows shortcomings in their business and to that I say TOUGH MEADOW MUFFINS. ...

...If by having these discussion it helps others in buying products that work than this is just as important and ANY fishing report posted.

+1 If we can be critical of MDC/AGFC policies in hopes they might take notice, for-profit enterprises should be fair game too. It seems the members here prefer to give the top-notch businesses an attaboy than to diss a substandard product or service anyway. If an undeserved dissing slips in, our readers are smart enough to see through it.

Technology being what it is today, if you show your a$$, everyone's going to see it shine. :-)

[Feathers and Fins]

if you show your a$$, everyone's going to see it shine. :-)

Mine can light up Taney on a LATE October evening so much it scares the trout off.

ok time to go get some walleye and crappie have fun.

[trytofish]

OK, here is a question I have... This is a fishing site! A much better site than most out there because the members are honest about opinions and keep in mind everyone has their own opinion... So If we do not discuss Lures, Boats and even Vendors I think its a disservice to our fellow anglers. The vendors might not like it because it shows shortcomings in their business and to that I say TOUGH MEADOW MUFFINS. I want to know where my business is weak because I want to improve it. Truth hurts but correcting the hurt sure feels good.

If by having these discussion it helps others in buying products that work than this is just as important and ANY fishing report posted. Maybe more so as it save people money in this economy. If vendors are offended you might want to look in your house at clean it.

x2

[Chief Grey Bear]

Yeah truth hurts. But misinformation projected as truth can hurt even worse. I wonder how they would like it if the shoe was on the other foot?

I have seen a guide on this forum post about his clients in a most unprofessional manner. Sure we all get a laugh out of it. But is that proper business ethics?

Can you imagin if that client saw that? What about other potential clients? What if a client had a bad experience and held a grudge and every so often posted about it? He would probably be banned from here.