How Everglades Tackle Company got started:
One day my friend, Richie Littlejohn and I were sitting around telling fishing stories. We had two things in common – we are both general contractors and avid fishermen. Little did Richie know that I am a licensed captain and also owned a charter company called Straight Up Fishing. The two things we agreed on most was the high cost of fishing recreationally and finding quality tackle at a reasonable price. I’ve had a very successful tournament background and one of my biggest complaints was to stay competitive, I had to have sponsors. The sponsors, in many cases, proved to have inferior products. Richie’s problem, on the other hand, was finding tackle that could stand up to his abuse. After all the years of tournament fishing, I knew what he wanted as a professional angler, in the way of rods, from offshore to light inshore casting and spinning to flyrods.
I started building rods because I could build a better rod that reacted and gave me the action over any production rod in today’s market. After building several rods for family, friends and business clients, and proving that Richie could not destroy them, we decided to collaborate and opened Everglades Tackle Company.
About Everglades Tackle Company:
Everglades Tackle Company specializes in custom built, light spinning, casting and flyrods, tailor made for the individual. There’s a world of difference between a custom built rod and a production rod. 97% of all fishing tackle, rods, reels, even right down to fish hooks, are manufactured overseas. There is a rod manufacturer in today’s market that claims it has the lightest rod available. That rod costs $7.00 complete and is made in mainland China and sells for anywhere between $99.00 and $149.00 in all major sporting goods retailers. Many rod manufacturers get professionals to endorse their products even though, based on my personal experience, any professional tournament fisherman fishes with custom built rods, built by local rod builders.
We’re not trying to compete against the “big box stores”. We can’t. First of all, we refuse to lower our standards and we don’t offer the largest selection. However, we offer tested and proven tackle – in some cases, by some companies you’ve never even heard of. And we stand behind our tackle 100%. In over 35 years of fishing, professionally, I have never seen a fish caught just because the fisherman used a high end name brand of tackle. We can show you products that are made in the same factories by the major name brands under a private label at one tenth the cost. We only sell products that we use ourselves. For example, our jig heads and lures are made by companies right here in the USA. All of our rods, from our basic custom built rods, to our specially individualized custom made rods are made by me. They all come with a limited lifetime warranty. They are the lightest and most durable rods you’ll ever fish with. We tailor build any type of rod from a musky bait-caster to our redfish series spinning rods to our bonefish flyrods. The advantages of having a custom built rod, first of all, is it’s made for your particular type of fishing. And you get to choose the options from the guides to the components to the colors. Each rod is personalized for the individual, with their name inlaid in it.
Everglades Tackle is a proud sponsor of the Wounded Warriors Program.
Please take the time to review our photo gallery and our online order sheet and know that whatever type of rod you order, that we will stand behind that rod and it is designed and built with over 35 years of fishing experience behind it. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions.