Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

It says a lot about the growth of fishing and the fishing tackle industry that the first national fishing tackle show was held in the ballroom of Chicago's Sherman House Hotel in 1958. And it wasn't a very big ballroom. In fact, a few of the exhibitors simply rented nearby suites and showed their wares there. About 20 of the 30-some-odd companies that exhibited in that first show - then called the American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association Fishing Tackle Trade Show - still exist, and their names resonate in the fishing world: Zebco, Bagley, Frabill, Plano, Berkley, PRADCO, South Bend, Wright & McGill and Yakima Bait Company among them.