Fishing Reports and Location-Based Tackle Selection

An explosion of user-generated fishing reports has helped drive a rapid uptick in how Omnia customers select the right products for success on the water.

Our mission has always been to simplify tackle and gear shopping by connecting the products that make the most sense for each angler based on their preferences, conditions, and location. As we expand, that process gets better every day. The platform has grown so quickly that we’re now able to provide personalized and location-based information for nearly every bait in our 25,000 (and growing) unique products.

A Popular Product Family with Lots of Options

As an example of what’s possible now, we’ve built an infographic based on fishing reports submitted by the Omnia community that mentioned the Z-Man Jackhammer.  

The Right Z-Man Jackhammer for You

In tens of thousands of fishing reports, 509 have been submitted this year in 43 states that mention a Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait. This is one of our most popular items in our inventory across the country and highest volume seller.

Not surprisingly, the top color reported in fishing reports was green pumpkin but depending on the lake conditions and characteristics, almost all colors in the lineup were reported. The value to the tackle purchasing angler is that this information will help him or her select the right weight and color that matches their needs.

A Rod and Reel to Match Based on Waterbody

The top species reported was largemouth bass, and top structure was submerged vegetation. The most popular rod, though widely distributed among our inventory was a St Croix Mojo Bass and 63% of anglers reported a 7’2” heavy moderate action glass rod. Top reported reel was a Daiwa Tatula SV TW103 casting reel and top reported retrieve ratio was 7.1:1.

Each time the jackhammer was mentioned in a fishing report it was connected to a specific body of water and included additional product variant level details to help with product selection. Whether an angler is shopping on a lake page, a state page, product detail page, or category page, items mentioned in fishing reports will rise to the top and help anglers select the best product family and variant (color, size, weight, action, retrieve ratio) for the right species, season, and technique. When that customer uses that information to make a purchase, the content creator gets free tackle credit for his or her next Omnia order.

2 Types of Shopping Converge with Data

In the early stages of our business, we maintained 2 unique paths of the shopping experience as traditional ecommerce and shop-by-lake. Through data, machine learning and UGC we’ve been able to merge these paths so that even a traditional ecommerce experience is personalized for every user and contextualized to a lake. Over the last year, we’ve built tools to encourage more UGC post-purchase to improve the experience for our shopping customers and accelerate this process of increased utility.

We’ve accomplished this with a few key strategies:

• Launch a native app to streamline UGC submissions;
• Added incentives like $10 in tackle credits when a fishing report results in a successful conversion;
• Align with key brands and their ambassadors to mention key products that are catching fish in real-time on specific lakes;
• Identify key lakes and local experts to sponsor and train on our UGC tool set;
• Develop better and easier-to-use tools for organic UGC onboarding and submissions;
• Expand the fishing report concept to include shoppable and live shoppable video.

We’re only now beginning to unlock the full value what this content can offer anglers, content creators, vendor partners and the fishing industry.

This is the future of shopping online for technical and outdoor gear.