Southern California fishing and boating stores?

[skategoat]

Going to be in So. Cal. in 2 weeks on business. I need to buy some boating and fishing gear and I was planning to order from Cabelas or Bass Pro. Is there a better choice, bricks and mortar store that I should be visiting? Obviously, I'm looking for good prices and solid selection.

I'll be in Torrance for a while and then down to Huntington Beach, Newport Beach area.

Thanks,

HK

[Syncerus]

If you want **real** gear, go to www.charkbait.com. They also have a physical location. If you have any questions, call Mark (the owner) and ask him about the gear. FWIW, prices are excellent and the gear is 1st quality; reputation can't be beat either.

I'm not affilliated in any way; just a happy customer.

Syncerus

[helpu2c]

HK,
There are quite a number of places you can get gear around here. For the biggest selection near Newport or Huntington Beach I would drive up the 55 Fwy to the city of Orange and visit a place called The Long Fin. Lots of stuff, lots of advice, and generally quite a number of things on sale. Drive time depends a lot on time of day but probably 15-30 minutes will get you there. As far as boating gear you will be within 5-30 minutes of at least of 3 West Marines, 2 Boat US stores, 2 Boatersworld, and countless dealers of all kinds of stuff. If you order at DB marine (phone order type place on the web) you can even pick the items up in Costa Mesa which is right next door to Newport. Hope this helps. Let me know if I can be of any further help.
Ron

[Bullshipper]

Used to buy everything at BPS and Cabellas, but have found everthing new on ebay about 30% cheaper, and there are other online stores that are even cheaper than ebay when looking for specific larger purchases such as electronics, reels, etc.

[skategoat]

Any favourite eBay sellers/stores?

[Bullshipper]

I use ebays power sellers with 99%+ good histories, buying new in box, and limit my purchases with my credit card to insure that I do not get burned, buying one at a time. No problems so far in 3 years. They usually have the more expensive items I need 30-50% cheaper than Cabelas and Bass Pro, who are usaully 25% cheaper than retail, and 40% cheaper than the shops in the mall, even with shipping.
Lately I have found that West Marine has the best price on electronics, especially when stock is low. Just bought 2 Garmin 240 Blue FF's (one for spare) with one transducer for $350, when the best I could find was about 20% over that, and they wanted me to wait up to 60 days to ship.
On repeat buys, the Factory direct method seems to be the cheapest with GPS's directly from Magellen who I personally like.
I will go to Offshore Angler through BPS to get exactly the style, color and size of the terminal tackle that I need, paying a bit more, but saving on shipping from just one location on these smaller orders that amount to chump change.

[Vermonster]

If you'll be around Orange, there is a Turners Outdoorsman there... Haven't been to that specific one, so i don't know the size of the selection, but the ones in San D. are pretty good......