I love going to BPS, but the closest one is 1.5 hrs away. We have a Cabela's about 45 minutes away, but it sucks compared to BPS. A lot of my tackle comes from Walmart as it is only 15 minutes away and surprisingly they have a good selection of lures and soft plastics.

i promised myself i was going to take a night off.  just left for lunch and came back with my canoe tied on top of my car and four rods packed up.

 

i guess im hooked

I love that felling

I like to raid the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. You can't beat Hula Poppers, Jitterbugs, and Zara Spooks for $1.50 a piece.  That being said, their selection is pretty limited, otherwise.  Our local Meijers actually has a better assortment of soft plastics.  We just had a Gander Mountain open up near us.  They have a pretty good fishing section, but they don't carry hardly anything for finess rigging.  The other thing I hate about Gander Mtn is that they do screwy stuff with the prices.  I was in there the other day and they had Zoom stuff marked up to full retail price and had a "buy three, get one free" sign on it,  so you thought you were getting a deal. 

 

In other words, my local bait shops mostly suck, so I think the defining moment for me was when I started looking for a bass fishing forum, so I could get some advice on gear and rigging from other enthusiasts.