...now that Joe's is gone.

Dick's Sporting Goods in Puyallup.

I hear they stock their tackle departments like Walmart and Fred Meyer...

really? Sounds like a dept mgr position would pay for itself easy.

Walmart fishing dept is a real loser. Kmart is better. Problem with the big chain stores, is they buy for volume. You cant stock a store in Monroe and Stock the store in overlake the same way. It takes individual merchandising and orders, to make it profitable. Hence, the average tackle store carrys everything.

The "Big K" in The Dalles has a pretty thin fishing department, lots of empty pegs ect. They have a pretty good marine section but they pull it all down and put hunting stuff out in the fall. Freddy's only has about 10 feet or so of shelf space for fishing and mostly trout stuff. Wally World in Hood River is fair, pretty good prices on what they have. I got a nice pair of polarized shades for $5.00 so when I'm down there it's worth stopping in to see what they have. Far and away the best local place (for me) to get tackle is Bi-Mart. Well stocked with salmon/steelhead gear. If I have a need (or burning desire) to go do some major tackle shopping I go to Fisherman's Marine in Portland.

Sweet, couldn't Dicks get a little closer to Cabellas?