And if you shop online enough, your mailbox gets bombarded by catalogs each season from every fishing warehouse from here to Anchorage.
While most of these catalogs go straight to the recycle bin, the Cabela’s catalog is one I usually keep around because it has just about everything an outdoors nut could need.
Larger than life
When Dick Cabela first started out in 1961, he was tying patterns with his wife Mary on the kitchen table, selling a dozen flies for a buck to mail-order customers.Today, Cabela has more than 25 mega stores across the country with a handful of additions in the works. Cabela’s giant retail centers come fully equipped with museum-quality dioramas filled with dozens of big-game species, streams, waterfalls and even trout-stocked ponds.
Many of the stores have 15,000- to 20,000-gallon aquariums filled with freshwater fish along with all the fishing, hunting and camping gear and apparel you could ever need. A full-service fly shop and boat showroom appeal to both wader-clad stream fishermen and high-octane bass pros.
The store itself is a spectacle and a majority of the products available in-store are available online at Cabelas.com.
The Cabela’s Bargain Cave, in the store and online, has unbeatable deals you can’t find anywhere else.
Cabela’s has mid-season clearance sales almost every season, and their line of products usually rotate out and stay a season ahead for outdoorsmen looking to gear up for upcoming trips.
Cons
Big-box stores like Cabela’s, the “World’s Foremost Outfitter,” don’t have the small-town feel and local insight that a hometown guide and fly shop can provide.
While the Web site is available 24 hours a day, many of retail stores are located in the Midwest and aren’t available to anglers along the coast. California and Florida, for example, don’t have stores. The closest store for California anglers is in Lacey, Wash., or Reno, Nev. For Florida, the nearest retail store is in Louisiana.
Conclusion
Nevertheless, Cabela’s stores are worth the travel if you’re ever near one.I visited the Cabela’s in Post Falls, Idaho, in 2007, and the best way I could describe the retail super center is that it was like Disneyland for grown-ups who adore the outdoors.
And while the Web site isn’t exactly Disneyworld, you’ll be hard pressed to find better deals on fishing gear and apparel, especially when it comes to Cabela’s own brand.
So if you don’t have the benefit of a nearby fly shop, which is usually the best resource for honing your craft and learning about your local waters, Cabela’s is probably your next best option.
Have a fishing product you want reviewed? Contact us at flyfishing.guide@about.com to get your product on our boat, in our tackle box and on the Web site.
