Swains for sure but you really brought back memories mentioning the White Elephant. Wasn't that on North Division? Anyway, was attending WSU 1965-70 and spending a lot of my Fall days hunting (dead critters went into the Entomology freezer thanks to Howie Mizuta). Bought some good stuff to support that hunting habit at the White Elephant while in Spokane with my roommate attending hockey games. Also bought a lot of ammo in Lewiston. Yes, I did graduate and it helped running into professors down on the breaks with a shotgun in their hands.

Locally, there was Thompson's Sporting Goods in Tacoma which is gone. Sportco is more than just a tackle shop but still has some of the atmosphere. There was Ed's Surplus in Lynnwood now closed and Ted's in north Lynnwood which I have heard is closed or closing (hard to buy anything in there because he had it so full of good stuff).

Moving on up to Everett can't forget John's Sporting Goods - good selection and folks know their stuff. They also do repairs on downriggers and other equipment (but not old Penns sad to say). Hope that they can hang on until things turn around.

I did wander into a couple of great sport shops in Prince Rupert but that is a bit of a trip.

Larry,
Where was Thompson’s located?
There used to be a small tackle shop near the corner of 6th and Proctor.
I remember buying flies tied with polar bear there that we used to catch big coho off of Campbell River.
SF

Remember going to a place in downtown Seattle called bargain bobs as a kid in the early 90s, they would have spools of maxima in an odd “pearlescent” yellow-green color for $2 each.

I like Verle’s outside Shelton, just don’t make it in there much since we got kicked off the skokomish several years back.

Losing sunbird in Yelm really hurt, they didn’t have the most huge selection of gear but they usually had what you needed in a pinch, not just fishing or hunting but stuff around the house. Kind of like an inland Dennis company. Big J’s in Orting is kind of the same way.

Having lived around Lacey/Olympia/Rainier most of my life I can remember Fred Meyer and Kmart having a pretty good selection of fishing gear until the Walmart and later cabelas/sportsman’s coming to town and more or less putting them out of the sporting goods business. Now sportsman’s is gone and cabelas has been going downhill fast.

Been in a few north 40 stores on the east side, would be sure nice to have one come to the south sound. Just don’t know if our crappy fishing can support any more local tackle shops. Maybe a bi-mart could stay in business here.

Always amazed by the amount of little mom n pop tackle stops when I go down to Oregon, their fisheries can still keep them in existence. They’ve all but gone extinct in western Washington.

Jim Thompson had what was a fairly big shop catering heavily to the Cowlitz River crowd. it was located on the east side of South Tacoma Way at the intersection of 100th St. S.W. and was easily accessible to the I-5/512 intersection. That was a period when there was a very large and active Tacoma Chapter of NW Steelheaders before any linkage with TU. Jim had served as President of that group. He passed away a few years back.

Polar bear hair bucktails. Fun at Neah Bay trolling fast along the rips for the big ocean Coho; PNW version of trolling for billfish.

1: Teds
2: Ed’s surplus.
3: Johns in Everett.
4: Jerrys surplus.
5: Kaufman’s.
6: Anglers workshop.
7: Pritchard’s.
8. Greg’s Lake Stevens.
9. Grease line fly shop.
10. Silver Bow fly shop.
11. The old Orvis fly shop on hwy 95.
12. Confluence fly shop Bellingham.
13. Fly shop Ennis Montana.
14. Black sheep sporting goods.
15: Dennis company.

I really liked Mahaffeys

I was trying to recall Warshall's. Interesting place, you could get your hooks and photo paper in the same store.

I miss Kaufmann's. But now it's Sports Emporium, or Puget Sound Fly company.

Waters West in PA was always a great place to visit passing through.

1/01/2021

Bob's Longview/Kelso area...............Just an experience to go there, even if you think you don't need anything.

I'm pissed that they don't have a ACTIVE web site. Oh, they have a web site but its non-functional..... grrrrrrrr

Pritchard's on the Kalama was THE classic shop.

They have EVERY color and size drift bobber.

Agreed 100% on comment about inventory. It’s more than a coincidence it’s the model at both Sportco and Ourdoor Emporium. Ridiculous if they weren’t right next door to where I work I’d not do business there anymore. Very frustrating not being able to get what you need inseason. Bobs in Longview is an absolute dream always well stocked. Never go to Bob’s hungry.

Going way back, Stoners in downtown Puyallup. Long before the dope smoking years. They displayed many a 20#er in their front window on ice. The Puy used to be #1 in the state for winter fish. It changed to RB's...Ron n Barb's. If you hung around any length of time in there it was like you smoked a pack of cigarettes. Pay n Save and Ernst both had a minor selection next door to each other. Long gone now along w/ the Puy.

Get Bent. From a business perspective & from a tackle user I don't get it. Sportco should be wanting me to spend $200 instead of the $100 I planned to spend. A store like that should have the inventory & selection where I walk out with items I never planned to buy but said "this is cool. I can use this".

Thinking about it every time I've been frustrated I came up with 2 conclusions.

1) They may have cash flow/credit problems.

2) The owners or Bean Counters don't have a clue as to what they are doing.

I walk through the Tackle Section of Forks Outfitters and 8 out of 10 times I buy something I didn't plan on buying. Why? Because they have it and because of the "this is cool" factor. It may be new color Worms or new color Spinner etc. But I always laugh and say to who I'm with. "They got me again"!

I've never said that at Sportco. So I have not been there in over 10 months. No reason to drive there.

Fruitridge Bait and Tackle on Fruitridge Road in south Sacramento. Little wooden building. Run by Japanese fellow. Mostly, as a kid (10 or so) I just rode my bike there to look. He had all sorts of pictures on the walls of folks with (mostly) Sacramento River stripers. I bought minnows there to feed my turtle. I know I bought other things like small lures. What I remember most is the smell and just ambiance.

Like a lot of folks here, I buy stuff on the "cool" factor. That fly might work here, that plug there, and so on. "Shopping" was fun.

A few not yet mentioned:

Buffalo Bill’s in Issaquah
Chubby and Tubby on Rainier Ave in Seattle

GI Joes and their blue fox spinners for $1.79

There used to be a place in Bellevue called The Fisherman

Big 5 used to be called Sportswest and I remember trays full of oakies on their shelf in Bellevue. I was a kid back then and thought they looked like fake blackberry clusters. I think I still have a soft plastic crawdad lure I got from there

I should have added to my earlier post that my first real job after university was with Seattle Sporting Goods at their Roosevelt Way location in the University District. Another place with folks who knew fishing and hunting plus that location had a gun smith upstairs. That local "chain" was subsequently bought out by Big 5 which I believe is a chain that grew out of California.

There was a place I used to go to once in awhile in Redmond.
I believe it was called Sporties or something like that.

All the little mom and pop stores near rivers always seemed to have a small tackle section as well.
They were great for last minute stuff you needed allow with grub and beer for a day on the water.
SF

As I keep reading I think of more places.

-A guy had a small shop in Sultan on the left just before the bridge on HWY 2 back around the late 80's/90's.

-Then there was a young guy that had a shop in Bellevue (on Northrup) in the late 80's-90's Nice guy. He carried Pen-Tac parts before Pen-Tac was sold. He was the 1st person I saw catch a Steelhead at Reiter with a Float & I think a worm. Up until that point it had always been drift fishing or spoon/spinner.

There was Jacks snack and tackle on the Sandy River in Oregon. I believe it was where RB lures started. I bought quite a few spinners for coho from him. Another shop that just came to mind was Rainbow's End in I think Vancouver. The guy tied jigs . Big fella.

There is a guy down here in Monterey that has a little tackle store called Gone Fishin above his auto repair place. He has a surprising amount of inventory. I don't go in there too often because I just don't need tackle these days. But it's good to know it's there.

I also really like going to the commercial fishing places in various ports. You can sometimes find some cool stuff.

Growing up in Aberdeen in the 60s and 70s, we had Walt Failor's and Reiners, both sporting goods + stores. Even Swanson's supermarkets had a great tackle selection with gear tailored to fishing the Grays Harbor area. When I moved to Seattle in 1975 to go to school, Outdoor Emporium (when they were on Pontius and Republican), was incredible for prices and selection.