the company first began operations in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in June of 1937, when 16-year old Berkley Bedell took fifty dollars from his paper route earnings to start a business selling his hand-tied flies to fishing tackle shops and vacationing anglers. In his upstairs bedroom, with hair clipped from the family dog, Stubby, and feathers from the backyard chickens, young Berkley crafted flies to entice local bluegill and bass from their underwater cover. The Berkley Fly Co.
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In 1959, Berkley introduced Trilene at about the same time DuPont introduced Stren. To help introduce the new line, Berk sent out thousands of sample spools of line and asked store owners to have their best fisherman try it on a spinning reel. Fishermen loved the line and it began the successful launch of Berkley Trilene which was great.
next four decades were a time of great growth for the company. In the 1960's Berkley entered into the rod business, which lead to international expansion in the ninethen seventhys Soft plastic baits made an appearance in the 1980s. The 1990s through today have seen significant technology improvements in all of the Berkley products. From the beginning, Berkley has committed significant resources to research and development - a continuing strategy that has resulted in countless product innovations, including Berkley Trilene, the Lightning Rod and PowerBait.