History

Over the past 15 years, Melton International Tackle has grown from a school project to one of the world’s most well respected retailers/catalogers in the high profile world of big game fishing tackle.

While attending the USC School of Business Tracy Melton participated in the Entrepreneurship program. As part of the program he was given the assignment to "start" a fictitious business. Combining his love for big game fishing with his interest in business, Tracy developed a range of jet head style trolling lures (that would eventually become know as Melton Jets) to build his project around. Eventually earning an "A" on the project, Tracy realized that there was an opportunity to pursue his dream of actually establishing a high-end big game fishing tackle business. With the input and guidance of Christopher Hall, one of the former managing partners of Harbord Tackle Supply in Sydney, Australia, Tracy put together a 12 page catalog featuring a limited variety of hard to find, custom trolling lures along with a small selection of high end tackle from manufactures such as Shimano, Penn and Fin-Nor. This small publication was distributed to 10,000 anglers throughout the US with the initial orders, being filled by Tracy and shipped out of his parent’s garage.

From these humble beginnings Melton International Tackle increased its volume of busy to a point where a 1994 move to a commercial warehouse in Los Alamitos, California was necessary. Keeping a personal touch, every member of the staff took orders and handled customer service inquires. In addition we were consumed with producing catalogs in 1994 (52 pgs.) and 1996 (88 pgs.) and increasing circulation to 100,000 internationally. The 1997 edition of the Melton International Tackle master catalog was 102 pages in length and was mailed to over 150,000 of the world’s most serious big game anglers!

It was at this juncture that we began to expand our offerings and our horizons. The Melton Rods rod shop was opened in Feb. 1997, where we continue to build some of the very best fishing rods for a variety of angling situations. Featuring a range of rods from inshore light tackle to heavy tackle stand-up and tournament angling Melton Rods quickly became one of our staple products and today can be found onboard many of the world’s top sportfishing boats. We also began our search for a proper headquarters. We had found that as our reputation grew, more and more customers would find us in our commercial warehouse and come knocking to get a look at our world-class product range. This was flattering, however this made it difficult to service our walk-in customers properly and continue building our mail-order business. In November of 1997, Melton International Tackle moved from our little warehouse to our current headquarters in Anaheim, Ca. The location features a 2,500 sq.ft. retail showroom, enabling us to adequately showcase the world's finest big game fishing tackle. 

1998 saw the production of yet another master catalog. Although the page count only increased 8 pages, our product offering was refined and our distribution was raised to 200,000 copies. Our new headquarters and showroom was opened to the public on June 1, 1998 and reset the standards by which all "tackle shops" will be/have been measured. Melton International Tackle quickly became a major destination shop for anglers in the Southern California area and from around the world.

The next two years witness unmatched growth on many fronts: Our 1999 and 2000 master catalogs continued to increase in length and distribution, with the 2000 edition having a page count of 128 and a distribution of over 300,000 copies. 2000 also saw the production and release of the 1st annual Melton International Tackle Holiday Catalog. 250,000 copies of this holiday supplement were mailed to anglers throughout the US. In early 1999, www.meltontackle.com was originally launched and has now been revamped to offer anglers around the world the ultimate on-line big game tackle information and shopping. We have continued to increase our involvements in big game tournaments around the globe and have remained involved in billfish conservation efforts. But most importantly we have continued to offer our customers the very best in customer service and product selection, allowing us to become one of the world’s most well respected and fastest growing big game fishing tackle catalog/retailers.