Fishing, ice fishing stuff at Mills Fleet Farm

[slipperybob]

Typically Mills Fleet Farm has a great selection of lures and stuff for Ice fishing.  Not sure what's going on but this year, there's barely anything at the Oakdale location.

However I just by chance stopped by the Blaine location and they have lot's of stuff.  It's not as selective as compared to what Oakdale location in previous years had.  However the Blaine location this year had quite a bit of stuff.  As usual, it appears that they only order once, and I can see that popular stuff are empty on the racks with price tags showing no stocks.

If anyone shops at any other location, please give me your feedback, thanks.

[Whopper Stopper]

I was in Blaine FF yesterday, I have always liked their selection of everything better than anything at Oakdale.

You best snap up what you need though, because FF is probably going to let their inventory expire and move onto Spring soon.

             WS

[4x4Dad]

They move on to spring up there and the dog gone stores down here tell me they're not putting out ice fishing gear till after the new year if at all . I have to run to Wheeling WV. Cabela's to get any kind of selection on anything for the ice . Going to have to start making trips North to FishUSA !

[JonPerry]

Hopefully someone that's been to the Carver store recently will chime in. I was impressed with it last yr.

[laer0302]

The St. Cloud/Waite Park store has some decent selection, but it was definitely better in prior years, and it seemed like it took forever for them to start putting stuff out. Scheel's had some gear out at least a month before Fleet Farm had anything, and had everything out on display 2-3 weeks before fleet farm did. I'm also pretty sure that they started carrying Otter fish houses this year, and have those out on display. Last year, I was able to go to Scheel's and look at assembled Otter and Clam fish houses, and Fleet Farm had more Frabill, Eskimo, and even some Shappell's out on display. Now everyone seems to have the same 4-5 models on display which makes it frustrating if you want to look at and compare fish houses from several different brands.



I heard they are under new ownership now, anybody know if that's true? Maybe that's part of the problem.

[bearnoob]

Yes it's true. No longer owned by the family. Some things have improved, some have gone downhill.  I think prices went up slowly since the change, but my local store is net positive after the sale.

[McFishy]

I get most of my ice gear at the Brooklyn Park Fleet Farm. I am usually quite impressed with what the selection, but can't say I have checked out other stores much to compare. Was just there Friday 1/4/19 and they had quite a wall of lures/jigs/etc still up. One thing they were a bit short on was the rattling raps. A bit picked over even in the open water section.

[hawg]

 The icefishing merchandise at the Brainerd fleet farm is completely depleted again. Not only ice fishing but every department has Empty pegs everywhere. Yesterday I went out for three different things, everyone was out. This is become a pattern since the new company bought them, they’ve made more people in Brainerd into Menards shoppers then ever before. As for the sporting goods, nobody badmouths Gander Mountain anymore, I wish they were back.

[bearnoob]

The icefishing merchandise at the Brainerd fleet farm is completely depleted again. Not only ice fishing but every department has Empty pegs everywhere. Yesterday I went out for three different things, everyone was out. This is become a pattern since the new company bought them, they’ve made more people in Brainerd into Menards shoppers then ever before. As for the sporting goods, nobody badmouths Gander Mountain anymore, I wish they were back.

I've been to Breinerd's while driving through for work. It is awful. Except the guys in the tire department did me a solid.