Buying Christmas gifts for a fishing/hunting buff should be relatively easy. Outdoor activities can require more than their fair share of absolutely must-have equipment, with new and better stuff turning up every year, offering a huge choice to the gift giver.
The caveat, however, is that the correct gear must be matched to the correct activity. If you’re planning to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a new fishing reel for your piscatorial nut, you’d best be sure which make, model, finish, line capacity, size and weight will ring his/her bell.
So ask. Sure, it may spoil the surprise, but at least you can be sure that the morning of Dec. 26 will not require a run to the refund counter. That said, here are a few suggestions from area sport/tackle shops for new, popular, or unusual gift ideas for Christmas, 2007:
1. The new SPOT Satellite Messenger should be in the pocket or backpack of anyone who ventures regularly into the tall and uncut. Hunters, boaters, fishermen, backpackers, cross-country skiers — anyone who spends time in areas with no cell phone service might well save their own lives some time with this seven-ounce device which combines GPS technology with the Globalstar satellite communications system. SPOT, at the press of a button, will notify friends, family, or emergency services such as 911 that you have a problem and where, exactly, you are, even if where you are is completely out of cell phone range. You can check in with whoever you wish at a designated Web site via e-mail, or through a text message to a cell phone.
The device is available at REI — the store or online at www.rei.com — for about $150, or for more information go to www.findmespot.com.
2. Relatively new, Spectra downrigger line is rapidly replacing metallic cable among area salmon fishermen. Like the Spectra fishing line which has been around for a while and has become so popular with certain fishermen, particularly those going deep for lings or halibut, the new “cable” offers less drag, no kinks, no rust, eliminates electrolysis, requires no sleeves, and will not automatically cut off a cable-fouled fish.
Scotty makes it, as does Power Pro, in lengths of 150, 200, 300, 400 feet etc. The popular 200-foot spool retails for about $37 (about $15 more then metallic cable) at Holiday Market Sports in Burlington (360-757-4361). Holiday Market Sports’ Bob Ferber said you can drop the price to about $30 by buying a 400-foot spool and cutting it in half.
3. Gift cards at the new Sportsmen’s Warehouse in Burlington (360-755-0500); or Cabela’s in Lacey, www.cabelas.com. Gives your fisher/hunter an excuse to visit one or both of these great new stores.
4. Sock stuffer for the salmon fisherman? Certain Tomic plugs become very hard to find during good salmon openings. Give 4- or 5-inch Tomics 602, 603 or 632, said Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center, Lynnwood (425-743-9505).
5. Chamberlain also suggested the new Scientific Anglers Sharkskin fly line, a “texture finished” line with almost a “scaled” feel, which eliminates virtually all friction between line and guide. Soft and supple; lays out extremely well; very easy to cast; virtually no memory, even in cold weather. Floating line only, currently, weights 3 to 8, two colors, and not cheap at about $100.
6. A clever little art piece for the angler who has everything, the Tech Tackle Micro Rod &Reel is a fully working model, maybe 14 inches in length, of the full-size Quantum tackle. Very popular said Darrell Kron at Hook, Line &Sinker in Smokey Point (360-435-5052). Pretty much exact, miniature replicas of several of Quantum’s rods and reels, down to colors and finishes. At $11, you can sit it on your desk and dream of a trip to Belize.
7. Cannon downriggers are well worth a second look, said Fabian Lomas at Jerry’s Surplus in Everett (425-252-1176). Since being bought by a new owner, re-engineered, and priced much more competitively. The electric Mag 5 is the basic model, Lomas said, and it will retrieve 250 feet of cable in one minute, and handle up to a 20-pound ball, at a price of about $350.
8. Another suggestion from Jerry’s Surplus is the line of old Fenwick glass rods, reintroduced by Lamiglas. Original specs, and Lamiglas is even using the original numbering system. Older guys who grew up with Fenwick, or younger guys who want a good quality fiberglass rod at a good price, should give these sticks a look. Steelhead drift rods, downrigger rods, mooching rods, and certain other models, starting at about $80.
9. Hook, Line &Sinker carries a full range of Polar Fleece gloves, including full finger, fingerless, mittens, etc., for $12 to $20.
10. Kron at Hook, Line &Sinker also has an interesting item for steelhead and salmon fly fishermen. “I have a limited number of Cortland Spey rods in stock, which I will part with for a very attractive price,” he said. The 13-foot rods are 8-9 weight, and Kron will let you have one for about $120.
11 and 12. Two items for the waterfowl hunter from Holiday Market Sports in Burlington. The first is a selection of G&H Decoys, American-made, old-line, high quality deeks, for years sort of the standard of the industry and becoming harder to find every day. The shop has a variety of mallards and pintails, different sizes, from $65 up to $110 per dozen.
The second is a motion decoy by Wing Magic, which requires no wind to make it splash and carry on. It’s probably the best design of all the “jerk string” devices, Ferber said. The mallard drake sells for about $70.
13. Fishing with a Buzz Ramsey-designed rod is like plying your driver on an Arnold Palmer-designed course, and the Buzz has worked up a new series of light-line trout rods — the “Technique” series — under the Pure Fishing label, a Berkeley Company. Chamberlain at Ted’s in Lynnwood said the rods run 5 ½ to 7 ½ feet in length and have extremely sensitive tips for those barely discernible bait pickups. They sell for $39 to $49.
14. Lomas at Jerry’s Surplus in Everett said his line of Rivers West outdoor clothing is completely water and wind proof, and it won’t rip, tear or puncture. “You can’t even poke a nail through the stuff,” he said. Very thin and lightweight, but because nothing gets through it, very warm. Jackets, hats, pants, vests and more, with the average jacket going for about $110.
15. Field &Stream tackle bags and backpacks go out the door almost as fast as they come in, said Kron at Hook, Line &Sinker in Smokey Point. The bags are the new tackle boxes, he said, and the backpacks have a detachable bag fastened to the underside, for anglers walking or wading. The bags run from about 10x10x12, up to “very large,” and the whole works sells for between $44 and $70.
16. A new recipe book for smoke-and grill-oriented cooks, titled “Grill It! Plank It! Wrap It! Smoke It!” by Tiffany Haugen is available through Frank Amato Publications, the Oregon-based fishing/hunting/outdoor book entrepreneur, for about $20. A few throwaways, as is usually the case, but not a bad collection of eminently usable smoke-oriented recipes. For information on the 156-page publication, go to www.amatobooks.com.
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