Visit to Outdoor Pro Shop and Monster Tackle.com

Interview & Event Article:

Talking Monster Tackle with Outdoor Pro Shop (continued)

Zander: OPS has a successful line of retail shops, and after seeing this store firsthand it is nor surprise that anglers would come here to get outfitted for Northern California fishing, but what are your goals with the new Monster e-tail store?

Pat: "MonsterFishingTackle.com was built to allow us to market to anglers all over North America. Based in Northern California, which is often the leading edge in fishing technology, we have the ability to market cutting edge equipment to anglers everywhere. We also like to think that MonsterFishingTackle.com is beginning to become an online meeting place for anglers to get together and share their fishing knowledge and stories."

Lots of rod choices in the bass rod department

"On top of that, we have begun our efforts of making MonsterFishingTackle.com an online magazine and instructional website as well. We’ve already got a couple articles and videos up that can teach beginners and novice anglers a little something to make them more successful on the water. We plan to continue to increase this information as the site grows in popularity. The feedback on our first “intro to frog fishing” video was great and we enjoy that, knowing that we help anglers put fish in the boat, or at least gain confidence in a technique is pretty exciting for us at OPS/MFT."

Pat shows us the topwater baits and holds up the "Tweety" yellow headed frog which OPS had before many other retailers

Zander: How do you decide what products to carry both in the retail store and on Monster with so many manufacturers to pick from?

Pat: "A basic guideline to new product selection is; would we personally fish with this item ourselves? If we don’t believe in a new product 100% then why would we sell it to our customers? Every day we are asked about a one item or the next. Well if I can’t say with certainty it is a first class lure that will catch fish our reputation with the customers takes a hit one bad lure at a time. We could sell a low quality reel today, but the customer may never come back. Our reputation is on the line on a daily basis. New products are only as good as the happiness of our customers. What everyone wants is to get the most bang for their buck. Our buying decisions must take into account the value of each product."

Plenty of crankbaits to pick from

"That’s the science of running a tackle shop. Essentially the fish tell the anglers and the anglers tell us what they want. We’ve got a huge network of anglers from the west coast to Florida and up to New York and even Maine. These guys give us feedback and a heads-up when a bait gets hot in their area and we do what we can to bring that product into stock. Then we take it a step further and do what we can to provide the anglers some information to be successful with these baits. One great example is the new BBS Bulldog bait by Lucky Craft. One of the big name Lucky Craft guys saw this bait and knew it was going to be huge. He let us know about it and we literally bought every one of them in the U.S. so we can get them to our customers."

Pat shows Zander the new Skeet Reese and Gary Dobyns special new Lucky Craft patterns

"Another great advantage that we have are the close ties with several dozen of the BASS and FLW pros. That’s important because they set the trends on tackle in our market. When a BASS pro wins a tournament it creates a demand for that bait, we’ll have that information even before the press gets it out there. We’ll get that bait ready and in stock deep enough to cover the demand, so when a customer wants it, we’ve got it! We are just getting to the point where this is starting to show, but in the future, this will be a huge asset to both OPS and Monster."

The Lucky Craft selection

Zander: So let's get down to what makes OPS and Monster tackle unique for consumers?

Pat: "A main part of what puts Outdoor Pro Shop on the map is our relationships with the entire fishing industry. Ken has spent a large part of his time making solid relationships with top manufactures, Shimano, G. Loomis, Lamiglas, Accurate, and hundreds more. Outdoor Pro Shop is one of the few shops in the country to buy direct from all the top vendors in the industry. It is our relationships that come into play when a new reel hits the market, Shimano Curado for example. We were one of the first in the country to get our shipment. There are countless examples where these relationships/friendships have given OPS the edge on the competition with either selection or often times with a special price."

OPS stocks a serious amount of swimbaits with over a complete aisle dedicated to the big baits

"A close second unique feature of our company is our commitment to customer service. We really want our customers to be happy with their purchase. We want to do more than just give them a bait and say “good luck”. For some guys that’s all they want, and with our site, they can have that. However, there are many other anglers out there looking for more than just “here’s your bait. See you in a month.” They want a full service shop but, without having to drive across town or even hours in some cases. That is why we are really going to emphasize the articles, videos, interviews with the pros and more. We want this stuff to improve the customers fishing skills and help them be successful on the water."

OPS specializes in stocking hard to find and exclusive baits like the special patterns of the JSJ Snack Sized Trout for example

"Another goal of MonsterFishingTackle.com is making our online shop feel like a local shop, in that you can stop by and chat, get to know the other guys and share stories, thoughts and more all without leaving your couch or while you are supposed to be working. We do this with our forums, photo albums, live chat and our state of the art audio fishing reports for some areas. The forums have been the main focus on this front so far, and customers are already having some pretty good conversations about baits, lakes, big fish and even fantasy football. We are pleased so far with the way the forums have really started to catch on and it’s a great bunch of guys and gals just having a good time and talking fishing."

Terminal tackle... lots of it.

"We’ve got a few more tricks up our sleeves for the site that we haven’t launched quite yet. It’s pretty advanced technology so it’s taking some time to get dialed in but, when we launch it it’ll be something nobody else is doing and it’ll be a great resource for anglers all over North America."

Pat shows us the saltwater and long range rooms, each section is broken out like a application specific boutique

Next Section: Steelhead and Fly too