Tom Sandstrom loved daytiming for swordfish and he would go out often and anytime that he could. However, the equipment that he used would constantly break or fail to perform like he wanted. He knew there had to be a better way, so he purchased an old school conventional lathe and mill and started to design, engineer and develop his own electric reel. For several months, Tom spent all of his free time working on the first prototype in a small shed with no air conditioning. From there, several variant prototypes emerged and he shared his designs with some respected charter captains and fellow anglers and utilized their feedback to help develop the best prototype that he could. After a bit of testing, Tom decided that he wanted to make a handful of electric reels for his friends and that’s just what he did. He reached out to a large local machine shop with a strong reputation for quality to help him streamline the parts manufacturing process. After the interest those handful of reels sparked, a patent was obtained and Hooker Electric was born.
For about a year, Tom and his partner, CEO Trista Evans worked most nights until midnight assembling reels in their garage and they knew they needed some help. Trista recruited her parents to move to South Florida to help out with assembly and production. Shortly thereafter, Mike Schmitt came on board as Director of Operations and Marketing.
Fast forward six years and Hooker Electric is setting the pace in the electric reel market with numerous models to fit Penn, Shimano and Accurate reels. They offer electric reels for everything from kite fishing to deep dropping and even have models specifically designed for pulling teasers and dredges. Hooker Electric also offers a bandit reel for green stick and commercial fishing. Tom is always trying to stay ahead of the curve by thinking of new ideas that will benefit the fishing industry. This has resulted in several high flow bait pump models, collapsible dredges, harpoons and even an underwater housing designed for GoPro cameras that can be sent to the bottom to record the bite. Just a few weeks ago at the ICAST show in Orlando, Hooker Electric launched two new electric reels for the Penn 80VI VSW and 130VI VSW models and a new 7500 GPH bait pump. They also released new electric reels for the Accurate 80 and 130 models. Currently, they have over fifty dealers across the country including the five Bass Pro Shops in South Florida.
At Hooker Electric, their mission is clear and they strive to provide the most innovative products on the market to both recreational and professional fishermen. They welcome the opportunity to field your questions and listen to your feedback. Stop by and say hello and make sure you tell them that Coastal Angler sent you.
HOOKER ELECTRIC
4793 NE 11th Avenue
Oakland Park, FL 33334
954-530-6908
www.hookerelectric.com