How to Effectively Visit a New Tackle Store

For a 50 year-old fishing-addicted man, there are few greater joys in life than visiting a well-stocked tackle shop for the first time. When you head toward Lake Fork or pull into a town like Zapata or Clewiston or Guntersville, they’re a must-stop on your journey. In those cases, you’re likely looking for local and current knowledge and trends. So in the case of Okeechobee, see which pegs on the wall of Gambler Soft Plastics are running low. At the Big G in February or March, it could mean stocking up on Demon-colored Rapala DT crankbaits or red Evergreen Jack Hammers.

But what about shop visits when angling isn’t in the short-term plans?

Maybe you’re in Tokyo or California or Minnesota for business? Or in Lincoln, Nebraska for a wedding (a scenario which led to some really good tackle finds for me in 1997)? In that case, the agenda may be different. This may be the one time in your life that you visit this particular shop and you’ll want to make the most of it. There may be demands on your time in the form of family or work that force you to be quick and hyper-efficient. Here are some strategies that’ll help you live without regret and may lead to some of your most treasured and productive acquisitions.

Be Quick, But Don’t Hurry

If you’re in a decent-sized store with lots of offerings, it’s easy to ping-pong around to the different aisles trying to take it all in. While you’re checking out the swimbaits behind the counter, the crankbaits on aisle three may beckon seductively. For those of us with “shiny object syndrome,” this can be a problem. My solution is to do a quick drive-by of the entire store, and then settle into a methodical aisle-by-aisle review. During that latter part, take your time, go through shelves and pegs and bins carefully. However, if your time is limited, be sure to stay on pace to avoid getting mired down in the tungsten section and thereby missing out on other parts of the store. I have a friend who I can’t shop for tackle with because he’s an excitable, Stage Five clinger, constantly trying to pull me from one end of the store to the other. If you’re forced to travel with people like this, ask for your space.

Ask for Regional Specialties

Part of the point of going to local stores while far from home is precisely to get those things that you can’t get at home, or can’t find easily on the internet. It might be super-soft hand-poured plastics or specialty spinnerbaits or some other oddball product. If you don’t see things that fit that description, ASK. They may not immediately be obvious, but if they’re there that should be an area of focus.

Ask if Everything is On Display

Some shops keep the rarest or most expensive items behind the counter or under glass, where they’re least likely to be shoplifted. There may also be items they’ve yet to put out, or tackle that they keep behind close doors for various other reasons. For example, Simmons Sporting Goods in Bessemer, Alabama historically had one of the best selections of hand-carved Zoom (AKA, WEC) crankbaits in the world. They had a small display of them behind the counter, but if you asked for permission (and the right person was in the house), they could take you to a separate room that contained more rare balsa than even the most avid squarebill addict could imagine.

Keep a List in Your Wallet or on Your Phone

For years, I’ve kept a weathered and constantly-updated list of “holy grail” lures in my wallet, in the same place many teenage boys store a single condom – and I’ve scored with slightly greater success on lures than I did on girls back in the day. If you’re looking for a discontinued crankbait or a special-run Zoom color or a sold-out creature bait, or all of the above, it’s easy to forget about it in the heat of the moment. If you no longer use paper, you can store the list on your phone; just don’t depend on your brain to remember it all.

Look for Non-Regional Specialties

This may run slightly counter to what I wrote above, but hear me out. If you’re in smallmouth country, and your “want list” has some discontinued or otherwise hard-to-find largemouth items on it, look for those, too. The store may have offered a bunch of them years ago and they never sold because the locals had no use for them – in which case they may go for prices far lower than eBay commands.

Check Out the Bargain Bin

Never ignore the bargain bin or the sale rack. They’ll hold some crazy stuff that wouldn’t tempt the most desperate bass, but you’ll be surprised at how often they produce a hidden and underpriced gem or three.

Buy Something

If we want to keep independent and well-stocked tackle shops alive, we need to patronize them, rather than waiting until we get home to order online. Buy SOMETHING, especially if they spend time with you talking fishing and tackle.

When in Doubt, Buy It

I’m not talking about $500 swimbaits here, although if that’s your jam, by all means keep the local economy going. What I’m saying is that if there’s something you think you may need, and you think you won’t be able to easily or affordably get it in the future, buy them now. I’m not encouraging crazy spending (well, perhaps a little) but don’t deprive yourself and then kick yourself later.

Buy Two (and save the packaging)

If it’s hard to find and reasonably priced, buy as many as you think you’ll need. If it’s hard to find and reasonably priced but you’re not sure if you’ll need it, don’t just buy one. That’s a virtual guarantee that the fish will bite it like crazy up and until you lose it in a brush pile. For some reason the best lures are most easily lost. Buy two, and save the packaging, especially if it has a product description, odd color name and/or website listed on it. That’ll make it easier to reorder when you need another.