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Gear up for outdoor adventures at Bass Pro
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By JASON CAMPBELL

You’re going camping for the first time this year.

So you reach up into the rafters and much to your surprise, a family of rats has turned what was your mummy bag into a makeshift nest full of insulate and polyester shards.

So much for that plan.

This feeling of rage only intensifies when you notice that your hiking boot must have been part of this rat plan as well because all of the laces have been chewed out – as has half of the tongue – and it looks like whatever varmint decided to set-up in your garage found the perfect place to have babies.

So much for hiking in those again.

Fortunately, a store that deals almost exclusively with people looking to appreciate the outdoors dominates the skyline along the Highway 120 Bypass, and it’s as easy drive over to see what they have to replace what you’ve lost.

Yes, the Outdoor World on the front of the Bass Pro Shops at the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley in Manteca does signify something specific – like being the place you can get everything you need if you’re hitting the mountains and want to stay comfortable, warm and laced up.

A new sleeping bag for that “rugged” camping your brother-in-law has been pestering you to indulge in – they’ve got those. They also have the air-pocketed mats that make sleeping on the ground a bearable experience. And when it packs so tightly with all of the rest of your gear on that new backpack you picked up just for that one trip, you’ll be glad that you didn’t have to go to a specialty store – the kind that prides itself on being owned by its employees – and pay twice as much for arguably the exact same thing.

But any good backpacking trip into the wilderness requires the knowhow to catch enough food to supplement what’s brought in the pack. And at Bass Pro, outfitting anglers is what they do.
Like to bass fish on small farm ponds stocked with hungry and ornery fish looking to take a bite out of your swimbait? You can get that setup here from a knowledgeable staff that’ll even let you test it out on the lake across the street.

Fish have been caught there.

But if getting out into the true wilderness – an untouched alpine lake or a stream with more wildlife around it than people – is your thing, maybe a wilderness experience like fly-fishing is what you’re looking for. Once you get the basics down you begin to realize that there are places where fish won’t eat the worms and PowerBait being thrown at them. They’ll only eat flies, and if somebody in the White River Fly Shop can set you up with a few basics and you can figure out which one to throw on at the right time – learning the hatch and what’s flying at that particular moment is what it’s all about – then you could find yourself holding a nice, beautiful native fish in your hands that you caught like a true angler. And nothing tastes better than a natural fish or a plant holdover that survived the winter and now sports bright pink meat. None of that mushy yellow hatchery stuff.

Sometimes you need a boat to get to where you’re going – maybe a small inflatable with a trolling motor, or even a kayak or float tube to help you get into deeper water and cast out where you know they’re going to be.

Maybe it’s a bass boat you need – something that’ll tell you the depth of the schools you’re passing over while flying around Clear Lake on a tournament weekend. Whatever the choice, you’ll find them at Bass Pro Shops in the marine unit or inside of the Fly Shop.

Bass Pro Shops is located at 1356 Bass Pro Dr. in the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley. The store is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information visit

www.basspro.com

or call 209.825.8400.