Camping & Fishing Forums/Information

[Jay585]

I've started taking my girlfriend and her kids outdoors and just spent a weekend at a paid campsite with borrowed gear from my father.

The gear is a bit dated (I spent about 45 minutes fixing my dad's 80's-vintage Coleman stove before I could get it to work). and I'm looking for a good site to find gear recommendations and camping sites as well as various tips to make a camping trip better.

All 3 kids are also interested in freshwater fishing, and so am I. I sold all my fishing gear a decade ago but wanting to get back into it and start out with good gear.

I've been browsing outdoorgearlab.com for equipment suggestions but am a little wary.

[okie john]

24hourcampfire.com has a Freshwater Fishing section. People there could probably point you to something more useful if nothing else.


Okie John

[jc000]

I think outdoorgearlab.com has some reasonable info (to clarify my perspective, I've worked in the outdoor industry for a number of years). For fishing, I've gotten some decent info from bassresource.com, but you'd probably have to sift through a lot to get to the nuggets.

What sort of questions do you have? Maybe we could help you here?

[Hambo]

I really like St. Croix rods, but I wouldn't spend the money on them for kids.

[AKDoug]

For car camping I haven't used Coleman white gas stuff for decades. My cook stoves are run off those little green propane bottles, my lighting is done with rechargeable LED lights. Cabelas makes excellent tents for the price.

For fishing in our family, UglyStiks are the rod of choice.

[Wise_A]

What do you want to know about fishing gear?

Ugly Sticks or Cabela's package deals are good for the kids--generally, you'll be able to find something species- and skill-appropriate. For yourself, I'm a huge fan of Kistler rods. Right now I'm using a Helium3 purchased a two or three years ago. I think these days, small manufacturers are competitive with the big names and offer a better product. I also like 13Fishing reels for baitcasters, which are all I use. Mine handles 10# braid and 6-8# fluorocarbon.

I use Tackle Warehouse for terminal tackle and lures. Free shipping over $50, and they do (last I checked) $5 and $10 2- or next-day shipping for trip-saving emergencies. I haven't ordered since April or May of last year, so I don't know if they're still solid, but they've never let me down.

[rd62]

I haven't bought much fishing gear in years and inherited several rods and reels from my dad when he passed. Several different brands and styles. My go to for myself is an Ugly Stik graphite spinning rod with Shimano open face reel. My buddy at the time worked for a sporting goods retailer and we got a deal on them. I've been using it since probably 1999 and have caught innumerable fish.

For most of my fishing with the kids my go to is about half a dozen Zebco 33 combos I have. Easy to use, cheap (thought not as cheap as they were when I was younger), and have caught a lot of all kids of fish.

Most of my camping is car camping. I have several Coleman tents which we've used in temps from 100+ to sub freezing with no issues. They are easy to setup and my boys are capable of setting them up unassisted. They are inexpensive and so I have several sizes to suit needs for the trip at hand. Cooking is either over coleman propane or campfire. Lighting is a mix of battery and propane powered lanterns. Headlamps are very helpful for maneuvering around camp. I like Black Diamond for headlamps.

[Jay585]

As far as camping gear - I'm looking for user recommendations on gear. I'm fairly sure we can use my dad's old equipment for the entirety of this summer, but next summer I'll be wanting an upgrade. Tent for 5 person family, a 2 burner stove, camp cookware, bear-resistant ice chest. We're using wal-mart sleeping bags (I used a blanket as I sleep hot and this summer has been remarkably warm so far) and an inflatable queen and twin air mattresses, and I sleep on the ground on my dad's old therm-a-rest pad.

Also looking for bear spray and a inert training can so the kids can get a feel for what it's like.

I used to trust Backpacking Mag's yearly gear issue but after seeing the discrepancy between gun mag reviews and user reviews and the correlation between the top award winners and the adverts in the mag, I became skeptical of reviews in magazine and web publications.

Fishing gear - I used to fish at reservoirs and mountain streams with a spinning rod and panther martins/bait but it's been so long I don't know what's good in the fishing world. The kids got fishing poles at Wal-Mart (cheap ones, because I was sure they'd accidentally break them sometime this summer). Unfortunately my fishing knowledge isn't as good as my backpacking knowledge and the kids got a bass fishing set up and a little Frozen/Elsa pole that I'm fairly sure is only good for fishing off a dock for crappie. The 10 year old picked out a pole that's got the reel with the "cone" over the line spool.

Also looking for sites to camp at. We went out to Palisades Creek campground and while it was a good place to start the kids (spigot water, toilets, dumpster, firewood for sale and a steel fire ring) it's not my preferred camping - more restrictive, less to do. We're near Idaho Falls and looking to stay in Idaho but would venture out to Wyoming.

[Jay585]

Just made my first upgrade:

Stanley Adventure Base Camp Cook Set - 4x

My dad's old lightweight aluminum pot is full of dents and food really sticks on there.

Also got some equipment that I didn't have but really needed:

Morakniv Classic No. 2 Fixed Blade
Fiskars Splitting Axe, 17-Inch
Corona RazorTOOTH Folding Pruning Saw, 10-Inch

The last 2 being item recommendations from Outdoor Gear Lab. The Morakniv is something I remembered from Cody Lundin's excellent book 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

[rd62]

I like the looks of that Stanley kit and Moras are an excellent value. Seems like some solid upgrades.