Journal of a Minnesota Angler

With Thanksgiving behind us, you are now allowed to start thinking about Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, so the Christmas shopping season is in full force. Therefore, I thought I would give you a few gift ideas for the avid angler in your life. In no particular order:

1. Magnabait (magnabait.com)
2. Cinchtie (http://www.cinchtie.com/)
3. Finnegan’s Fly Tool (http://www.indetools.com/)
4. Turboset (http://afdturboset.com/)
5. Magnetic Hook Keeper (http://www.mudhole.com/Shop-Our-Catalog/Hook-Keepers/The-Catch-Magnetic-Safety-Hook-Keepers)

Those are some cool gadgets that any angler would love.

Now, if you’re still reading this, ignore everything I just said. Those “gadgets” are really gimmicks that no angler needs or wants. I posted them because some lazy gift giver is inevitably going to do a search for “gift ideas for fisherman,” find my post, see a list of 5 items, and only read those 5 items. Some poor angler is going to get one or more of these 5 items and wonder what their loved one was thinking. I apologize to my fellow angler, but blame your lazy loved one, not me.

There is only one perfect gift for an avid angler. Many gift-givers, especially you ladies, won’t like this idea. So before I tell you, I want you to promise not to roll your eyes when you read it. And I also want you to promise to read through my reasoning in its entirety before casting it aside as something you would never give.

Did you promise? Ok. Now we can move on.

The perfect gift for an avid angler is… (drum roll, please) a gift card. Any store your angler can buy fishing gear will do, but the best stores are BassProShops, Cabela’s, or a local sporting goods/fishing store. Even Amazon.com is a good option.

Here’s the reason why: avid anglers (as defined by those that fish more than 10 days a year) are very picky about their gear. They will only use the brands they trust and only trust the brands they have used. They will only try a new product if their trusted fishing buddy has told them about it. And even then, they will have to see it work, and probably borrow it to try it themselves, before they will go out and buy their own.

So if you were to try to buy something fishing related for them and think you have a great idea, I’m sorry to say it, but I would put it at better than 98% probability that you are wrong. It doesn’t matter what the salesperson told you. It doesn’t matter that you snuck into their tackle box and think you remember what’s in it. It doesn’t even matter that you talked to their fishing buddy. It’s not what they really wanted.

This is not just true of gear like rods and reels, but especially true of artificial lures. If your angler is an artificial bait fisherman, please, please, don’t buy them a lure you think they will like. My relatives, bless their hearts, have bought me plenty of artificial lures over the years. They even thought they bought some of my magic lure plastics. But they bought the wrong brand and I haven’t touched the packages since I put them in my extra storage bin.

Now don’t get me wrong. Your angler will appreciate that you tried. They’ll probably even tell you that it’s a great gift. But if you intended to get something they’ll use out on the water, you didn’t. There are only two or three people I would trust to buy me gear or a lure I would use. Chance are, your angler probably has just the same number, or less. If one of them didn’t buy it, they probably won’t use it. It will probably sit in their tackle box for the rest of eternity unless they feel compelled to go and exchange it. And if it’s an artificial lure, the $5 exchange probably isn’t worth the trip.

If you’re shopping for a hunter or general outdoors(wo)man, I would guess they are just as picky about their gear. Maybe some hunters can confirm or refute the theory in the comments.

So please do your angler/hunter/outdoorsman, and yourself, a favor. If you really want to get them something they will like, get them a gift card. They’ll not only come home with something they’ll truly love, but they’ll love the hours they got to spend in their favorite store. How can you go wrong with a gift that gives twice?