If you live in the Fort Worth area, I would suggest Anglers Pro Tackle.
They are locally owned and give you the personal touch as far as service.
They also do Mail Oder and have a nice web site.

http://anglersprotackle.com/

Tackle warehouse is definitely the way to go if you know what your looking for..I was looking for a trolling motor and academy had two hand steer and one 12v foot pedal.. I was surprised by that, heck wal mart had more than that.

Go online and use it.

hell i work there it boils down to this they want to sell whats in stock before they reorder stuff, but they don't understand us fisherman if there biting a watermelon red zoom brush hog and were out they want us to sell you the kvd brand that 2wice the price or some other brand. oh we don't have your rod sell them something else similar! like hey it doesn't work like that you know!! If i'm looking for a duckett i don't want an allstar lol or if i'm looking for a allstar i don't want a duckett.

+ 1 tackle warehouse. I use to always buy fishing tackle from academy, now when I go 99% walk out empty handed.

i agree, our wmart has a better selection

It is amazing how many misconceptions, assumptions, misinformation and misplaced blame is put on Academy, their processes, stocking schedules, and their KKR affiliation.

I can tell you with all confidence that the speculation and "first hand" accounts made in this post are almost all incorrect.

Y'all can continue on and spend your money elsewhere, it won't harm or make a difference to Academy. The products they sell as a "discount" retailer are always going to be introductory first time cheap retail items, extended contract items, or bulk purchase for minimal retail value.

The majority of profit is going to always be in proprietary merchandise and Academy has the best proprietary merchandise in the business.

Sorry if this doesn't fit the rant but it's the truth.

Fishing is not in season right now, all the big retailers seem to be down in stock this time of year. I imagine in the next few weeks that they will be getting more stuff in as spring is coming.

Here the bottom fishing tackle in large retail store. Fishing tackle has on average a 20-30% margin where as shoes and clothing the margin may be as much as 300-400 % so what would you stock. Please support your local independent Texas dealers both online and retailer stores. Remember they live here and spend their money in Texas.

Yes, it's all about money and mark-up. I am not saying your favorite independent dealer is guilty of this. Most of the small shops I have been to have too large a mark-up on their fishing tackle because they don't sell shoes and such to make up for loss of revenue. Where I live in NW Houston, all we have is the bigger retail stores. I would love to have a local mom & pop store prove me wrong. I've been using Tackle Warehouse a bunch this year.

For price alone you are correct. For knowledge and advice mom and pop may be a better deal.

I usually find some good clearance stuff, but I go through there from time to time just to see what's being marked down. It's usually Bass Pro (less than 10 minutes from me) or Cabela's (I live midway between the Ft Worth and Allen stores).

They are like walmart. Not every academy is the same. The one in arlington is better then the one in NRH. Just like wally world. All stores are different.

Which one in Austin you talking about - the one on 183 and 35?

Is Barlow's still open I thought they shut down? Barlow's was great. When I lived in Richardson / Plano that is about the only place I bought tackle. I started shooping there when they first opened on corner at Central service road and Arapahoe. Back then the choices were limited. Kmart or Sears was about it. Then along came the catalogs and mail order.