Joe's Sporting Goods has an enormous selecting of fishing stuff - nothing much for fly fishing but…read morepretty much everything else. Their staff is knowledgeable, helpful and friendly which isn't always the case at other large stores. I didn't look past their fishing department but the store is huge and well stocked probably the most well stocked outdoor store in the Twin Cities. In fact you may be overwhelmed. Lots of parking and close to a freeway so access isn't a problem.

Family business, Superb customer service,…read moreKnowledgeable staff, Good sales, This place is unmatched. Truly. Five stars!

This is our second trip with Captain Brian. Again, never fails to amaze how many fish we can catch…read more the number wasn't as big as last time, but the fish were a lot bigger. I highly recommend Captain Brian, he absolutely knows what he's doing. Looking forward to fishing again with him in October.

Had an amazing time with Brian this 5th of July, it was four of us out-of-towners (CA, FL) out for…read morea morning of fishing on an immaculate Twin Cities lake. We had a totally relaxing experience, hanging out in his perfectly outfitted boat and landing 128 fish during those 4 hours, Largemouth Bass, Crappie, Bluegills, Yellow Perch (kept 35 crappies for the freezer). Brian is a super thoughtful guide, our whole trip was planned and executed flawlessly. Look forward to going out ice fishing next time we're in town. Thanks again!

Awesome shop. Has just about everything you need! A stop you must make before hitting the lakes!read more

Great place to stop by for some bait, great tackle and some Awesome Rod selections. Staff are…read morealways helpful, was thinking about buying a bait caster, the feller working walked me through everything. From casting, line choice, techniques, literally everything minus cast into the water for me. Great group of guys, will continue to go back as they have a stockpile for ice fishing also. They are heavy handed when it comes to minnow scoops also, never disappointed.

Really helpful and knowledgeable staff. Every time I go they are incredible…read more Website definitely needs to be worked on, very confusing and navigating was difficult. If they modernize their store website would most likely shop there instead of Amazon. A lot of missing opportunities because their site is incredible informative, but navigating is archaic. Recommend looking at evo.com; their site is literally the SME for skiing. Scuba center.com can be the SME for scuba/snorkeling

When you're on a holiday, you can't find the words to say…read moreall the things that come to you, and I want to feel it too. On an island in the sun, we'll be playing and having fun, and it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain Well hello there. Ben P. here, back from my first real vacation since shortly after Bush II stole his second presidential election. Yes, no matter what you or my boss my think, I -DO- get to take vacations from time to time. When you're on a golden sea, you don't need no memory, just a place to call your own as we drift into the zone. On an island in the sun, we'll be playing and having fun, and it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain. And, frankly, what good is it to sleep your nights away in a bungalow built out over the Pacific if you don't spend your days snorkeling in the calm azure waters of a south seas lagoon? Particularly when you have your own private deck and dock from which to launch your nautical adventures. Problem is, for those of us with less-than-perfect vision, snorkeling and diving can be less rewarding than it is for our better-sighted friends (or wives). Enter Scuba Center (several years ago, admittedly). On an island in the sun, we'll be playing and having fun, and it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain. We'll run away together. We'll spend some time---forever. We'll never feel bad anymore. Prior to my last trip to an island in the sun, Scuba Center hooked me up with a mask with quasi-prescription lenses in it. By which I mean, they're good enough for me to read while wearing, but maybe not good enough for me to needlepoint with. Which is not a problem, since I don't envision needlepointing underwater. Or, frankly, out of the water, either. So now, I'm the same eagle-eyed dude IN the water that I am OUT of the water. Which proved particularly useful when we went diving with humpbacked whales, and I got to watch them underwater and hear them sing. Not too bad for a guy from Wyoming. P.S.: I'd Yelp more of my vacation, but there is no Yelp for this particularly country. In fact, this particular country's internet service blocks access to Yelp. Leading, apparently, some people to speculate about what I've done with myself and (I assume) begin premature celebrations vis a vie my presumed demise. Thus, for the 32 people out there celebrating, the 3 people who felt kinda vaguely sad, and the 6,999,999,965 people who don't give a crap one way or the other, let me paraphrase Little Bill, who said, for awhile, I thought I was dead too, turns out I was just on vacation. Or something like that.

I have made several different purchases from this company and give them my highest recommendation!…read more They have a great selection of everything, very fair prices, outstanding customer service, super, knowledgeable staff. They have made me a lifelong and loyal customer. Give them a try, you'll be impressed also. Mike V., Fort Wayne, IN

Great place to buy bait and fishing gear. The prices are reasonable especially for this side of…read moretown. I'll definitely go back here for my fishing needs.

Terrible customer service. I have an unfulfilled order from June 2024 that was charged on my card…read more No one returns message, texts or calls.

Great shop and customer service! My boyfriend and I are new to diving and we don't know much about…read morescuba gear. The workers were a wonderful help, a women spent 2 hours helping up decide which snorkel, mask, fins and boots would be the best fit for us. They knew their stuff and chatted to us about possible trips they recommend! Couldn't have had a more enjoyable time. Highly recommend shopping for gear weeks/month before your dive training in case you need to order gear in different size/color.

I started the basic Open Water diving class through Aquaventure this year after deciding to learn…read morescuba diving largely on a whim; It seemed like it would be a pretty fun skill to pick up for tropical/beach vacations. I did not have a very strong aquatic background going into the class, but after a little initial inertia I think I was able to do alright picking up all the basic skills in the class, and I really did feel like a lot of it started to sink in pretty quickly. The instructor I had as well as the assistant instructors were all friendly/knowledgeable/helpful. I got the sense that they all took my learning as well as the other students learning very seriously, and just in general felt like I was in pretty good hands the whole time. When I made mistakes (I made a lot of mine towards the beginning), they helped a lot with correcting them quickly. Prior to that, the person I had in the gear shop to select my mask/fins/snorkel was also helpful getting me to try out and find the right fit for everything. I guess my biggest critique would be that for Part 1 it feels a bit like the 'fire hose' method of learning in that you cram learning and demonstrating many skills into less than a 24 hour period, which doesn't give you much time to let 'feeling it out' sink in. It's also pretty tiring. Of course, it's also pretty convenient in terms of schedule to get all of that done in a single weekend, and stretching the course out would just add cost to the end-user I'm sure, so it's probably a conscious tradeoff. My second biggest critique is the only option for lunch on the Saturday class is Subway (blech), unless you bring your own of course. I have not done my checkout dives (Part 2) yet, will do that in Spring 2020 at Square Lake and may post updates on how that goes. Some advice/suggestions for others who feel ok, but not ultra-confident in the water and may want to take a course like this: -They really will make you swim 200 yards and tread for 10 minutes during part 1 of the class (in the pool), so make sure you can do this first. This makes sense, as it's hard to imagine being very comfortable with diving if you can't swim at least a little. Since I generally don't ever get to swim outside of family vacations and when I was forced to in grades 1-6 of grade school, I bought some temporary passes to a local gym with a pool to practice this a few times in the weeks leading up to the class. A few sessions of practicing treading and basic strokes and I was more or less good to go! -When you get the elearning class, All the actual dive skills you'll do in the pool are at the slides at the very end of each module. I'd suggest reviewing those slides in particular right before the pool class and studying them intently to rehearse how you'll do the skills before you do them. If you're like me you would make fewer mistakes if you do this. The dives 1-5 they do in the pool do stick to the skills outlined in the elearning modules 1-5 pretty closely, so you can know what to expect basically in order by reviewing these. -They really will make you do stuff like 'sip' the air bubbles from a free-flowing regulator underwater to simulate a broken one, so get ready to feel like Sonic the Hedgehog in one of the aquatic levels. I never would've guessed that this would actually work in real life before I took this class XD

I was looking for gloves that would keep my hands warm while being outdoor in cold weather for an…read moreextended time, but still have dexterity. I heard about Sitka as a high-quality hunting brand and thought I would check it out. Very nice store, and the product is all very high quality. The staff were very knowledgeable and helpful, too. They have all kinds of camo outerwear that is either warm, wind, waterproof, or all of the above. They also have coolers, some sleeping bags, etc. Highly recommend.