In Search of the Great American Tackle Shop

Do you remember tackle shops? Like really good local tackle shops, the ones with minnow tanks and clearance bins and old dudes in the back drinking coffee and sneering at people who didn’t have their local knowledge, years on earth, or high level of frown lines?

I miss those days.

I’ve been to some of the best. The various shops around Rayburn, or the Cal Delta, or the few others that dot the landscape. A few are still thriving, especially if they’re close to or operate a key boat ramp. But for the most part, they’ve dried up. There’s no “destination shop” culture like there was. Of course, a big part of it is the internet. It has taken away the opportunity for many brick-and-mortar businesses to be competitive. 

It’s certainly not like the mid-90s, when our local Virginia shop Delta Tackle, situated in a townhouse in what got bulldozed to become a major league shopping center, got everything before the major retailers, had all of the local goods, and served as a clearinghouse for bragging rights and key information. It also gave anglers a means to mobilize in a manner that social media does not – by bringing us together rather than becoming an online insult factory and pissing contest.

Last week, the New York Times offered a feature about how “High-End Outdoors Magazines and Thriving in Print.” While they did not mention any fishing-specific titles, I immediately thought of Anglers Journal, and the resuscitated Field & Stream. Just because a medium seems to be on the way out doesn’t mean that there aren’t situations where it could still thrive. And that gives me hope for the continuation or even the introduction of new and quirky tackle shops as gathering places. Of course, they’ll have to reinvent the wheel a bit – either by specializing in used tackle (like some Japanese shops I’ve visited) or local gear or specialized drops. Maybe they’ll have to have some other coordinated purpose, like a liquor license, or seminar space. 

I feel like the need still exists. For all of the talk about the next generation not understanding the “unwritten rules” (doesn’t every group say that about their successors) or about fishing becoming just an uber-exclusive club, maybe the solution is something that brings us together more than it sets us apart. I’m not saying it will be easy – nor am I the right person to do it – but whoever is that right person could do well while doing good in a lot of different ways.