Anglers International Resources in Palatine Illinois

Few people think of the suburbs north of Chicago as a hotbed of bass fishing culture. It’s near the Fox Chain made nationally famous by former Elite Series pro Chris Groh, and within a short drive of some world class Wisconsin waters, but the immediate area is densely-populated and lacks big fisheries (other than, of course, Lake Michigan, which has bass boat access problems in the vicinity).

This presents problems for me, because while I understand my wife’s need to occasionally return to her homeland, there’s not much in my wheelhouse to do there. Nevertheless, in past trips to the Windy City I’ve been fortunate to visit Lee’s Global Tackle in Elk Grove Village – one of my favorite dealers of JDM gear – on several occasions. When we visited over Thanksgiving, my friend Tyler Uteg took me there to stock up on some hard-to-find items. He also took me to Portillo’s for the first time, where I had the a sandwich that included Italian Beef, an Italian Sausage and hot peppers, adding to my Bill Swerski bona fides.

Combo Italian Beef Sandwich at Portillo's

Just prior to that trip I learned that there is a second quality bass shop in the ‘burbs, Angler’s International Resources in Palatine. With a few hours to spare between Friday’s high school hockey games and a need to get out of the house, my brother-in-law took me there. It’s nestled in a strip mall, near multiple ethnic eateries but with no other signs of fishing culture nearby. Accordingly, I had low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a shop that would fit in well in Guntersville, Clewiston or Minnetonka.

Well, strike that, because while the store’s front window offers you an oversized mural of Seth Feider, the first things you notice are a plethora of ice fishing accessories and gear. My brother-in-law, who does not fish, was quite smitten by the extensive rack of ice fishing gloves and hats, and sorted through them all to find something suitable for walking the dog during the time of year after Santa arrives, but before the Chicago River gets dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day. There were tons of ice jigs (the only one I typically see in stores is the Rapala Jigging Rap), microscopic tungsten flies/jigs, and all sorts of short little rods made for extracting multiple species from under hard water.

There are, of course, also sections devoted to distinctly non-bubba tackle like planer boards.

Best planer boards for walleyes on Lake Michigan

Fortunately, it’s an expansive space, because that still left plenty of room for hard core bass gear, which commands most of the pegboards and end caps. On top of that, despite the fact that many other retailers are suffering due to supply chain issues, Angler’s International was generally very well-stocked, even with hard-to-find items – so while they might not have had any local niche bass items like hand-poured swimbaits, they were very much able to provide just about anything a serious bass angler might want. That included some high-end brands that you won’t see in big box stores, like Dirty Jigs.

Selection of Dirty Jigs -- swim jigs and flipping jigs

The main attraction for me started with a hefty selection of Megabass. Unlike some stores where the JDM (and U.S. stock of Japanese brands) is all clustered together, here they were spread out according to lure or product class. In other words, the Megabass jerkbaits were with the other jerkbaits, the Megabass terminal tackle was with the other terminal tackle, and so on. I was very pleased to see a hefty selection of the Okashira and Body Balance jig heads and ended up buying quite a few. They must have experienced some theft problems in the past, because those jig heads and certain other items required a key to get off the peg. Fortunately, the staff was very attentive and helpful in making that happen.

It was also the first time I’d seen the new “Big Blade” Chatterbaits, and I bought one in Fire Craw for spring on the Potomac and one in a shad pattern for more widespread use.

Finally, I was surprised by their selection of Alabama Rig options. I guess I should not have been, since numerous friends have told me about using three-hook rigs for smallmouths in Wisconsin. I added a few Yumbrella Flash Mob Juniors to my basket, as they were priced well and can sometimes be hard to find (and they’re fairly easy to lose).

All in all, not a huge purchase. When they rang it up, they then deducted a not-insubstantial percentage, which I assume was for Black Friday. Had I known that was coming I might have bought more, but at this point in my life I have more tackle than I’m likely to ever lose. When I go into a store I’m looking for those “oddball” items I’ve never seen before. Angler’s International is a remarkable store, and the type that I wish we had close to home (here in the DC ‘burbs we now have exactly ZERO independent tackle shops). It’s the type of place where if suddenly on the Friday night before a tournament you realize that you’re low on green pumpkin Senkos or need Evergreen Grass Ripper Swim Jigs, or get a hunch that they’ll bite a particular color of Vision 110, you can head over and be pretty sure they’ll have them. It’s the type of place that every region needs, whether they’re on the shores of a famous tournament lake or not. I will be back.