AFTCO stands for the American Fishing Tackle Company. We are a family-owned fishing tackle and apparel business with a 60+ year history. Many of our tackle products are still proudly made in the USA and hand-assembled in our machine shop located in Santa Ana, California.

We source and manufacture products from all over the world to maximize quality and value for our customers. We take many factors into consideration with each production decision including how our products impact the health of our fisheries, but the goal is always the same — to create innovative products that stand the test of time. We want to keep you fishing more comfortably in your pursuit of Any Fish, Any Water®.

If you are interested in seeing our machine shop or learning more about AFTCO, you can do so here. Check out a detailed breakdown on how and where AFTCO tackle and clothing products are manufactured.

We are one of the few fishing rod component that still manufactures many of our products in the U.S. Look for the American flag on product images to identify the specific tackle products made in America.

The world's leading saltwater fishermen have long relied on AFTCO tackle components for their consistently dependable, flawless performance. Beginning with carefully selected materials, we utilize highly specialized machining, finishing, and testing processes to ensure that extra margin of excellence. This process is kept under tight wraps through exhaustive testing at sea, with the direct hands-on involvement of dedicated AFTCO personnel — experts whose concerns and judgments reflect lifetimes of active big game fishing.

In many cases, we believe the best way to accomplish the precision mentioned above is directly in our U.S.-based machine shop. However, this is not always true. Factories differ in their specialization from country to country. We believe Japan makes the world’s best Fluorocarbon fishing line. For that reason, we produce and package all our premium SaikoPro Fluorocarbon in Japan. We believe Germany makes the best steel, so our fishing fillet knives are made with 4116 German stainless-steel blades. To ensure we get our knives to you at a fair value, we assemble them in Taiwan. China offers both an expertise and price value in some categories. Regardless of country of origin, you can be sure that AFTCO will stand behind our Fishing Tackle Limited Lifetime Warranty.

We remain committed to building as many products as possible in the United States where we have absolute control over materials, chemical disposal, and manufacturing processes. For over 50 years, our California based facility has incorporated sustainability into its operations. We also recognize there is plenty of room for improvement. Many of our tackle products utilize packaging that does not currently meet our sustainability goals. Additionally, there are coatings and materials in use that have been optimized for quality, but not for the health of our fisheries. We are actively working on implementing the right solutions.

USA, Taiwan, China, Germany, Japan, Indonesia

Worn across the globe, AFTCO's fishing clothing is designed to handle the harshest elements. AFTCO keeps you fishing comfortably, and we do so by field testing our products through a large network of freshwater fishing pro's and saltwater guides alike.

We source our products all over the world to maximize quality and value for our customers. From Peru to Mexico, Central America provides some of the world’s best cotton. For that reason, many of our t-shirts come from that region. More recently, we’ve been finding that other central American countries like El Salvador are offering the newest tech in performance fabrics and is becoming a great partner for performance shirt production.

In today’s world, many processes have been automated, but apparel primarily remains a highly labor intensive job. Each collar placed, button sewn, and hem finished is generally done with old school tech: hands and a sewing machine. For that reason, much of the apparel industry is concentrated in Asian countries with large populations; countries like China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. With the volume of work, they’ve become experts in a number of categories. As a general rule countries have overarching specialties, but more than anything, specific factories hold specialized skills. From there, it’s about finding the right factory to meet our production standards. For those reasons and more, many of our apparel products are made all across Asia.

AFTCO's supply chain partners with sustainable textile mills & manufacturers who strive for high levels of social, economic, environmental and fair-trade policy standards. All of our factory direct vendors have at least one of the below certification, including OEKO TEX, WRAP, ISO9001, ISO14001, or BSCIA certifications. In many cases, we partner with 3rd party fabric suppliers to ensure quality. While we continue to explore American Made clothing products that offer the value and quality that our customer accepts, with the exception of our Made in America t-shirt program, we do not make any of our clothing products in America. We stand behind each apparel item we manufacture with our clothing warranty.

Mexico, China, Taiwan, El Salvador, Peru, India, Vietnam