Meet Yong Yan, the Jersey guy behind a global Jigging World brand.

Lost in the rancor and politics of the day is our fundamental belief in the American Dream; the ideal that these United States are the land of opportunity, allowing its people a path towards freedom, equality and financial success, through hard work and determination.

The American Dream does exist, and you can see it with your own eyes along a busy stretch of Route 17 in Paramus, NJ on Saturday, March 21 when Tackle World reopens in its new 16,900-square-foot facility billed as a first-class tackle buyer’s destination in the heart of the North Jersey suburbs.

For 53-year-old Yong Yan – a Korean-born American citizen from China who came to the U.S. at the age of 19 – building the respected Jigging World brand, alongside a burgeoning retail superstore like Tackle World, while also acquiring a marina along the Barnegat Bay for future growth in the boat building and servicing arena, the dream is indeed very real.

A Brand Is Born

Jigging World started in 2012 soon after Yong traveled to Beijing for the annual China Fish Show, a dealer event much like the American ICAST show.  “I had no idea how to start, but I wanted a fishing tackle business,” he told me as we sat down together in his new location, the sound of construction whirring around us as inventory was being hand-trucked through the back door from their original Route 17 location just up the road in Rochelle Park.

The retail shop was first called Jigging World, opening 14 years ago in the very same location as his computer store.  “In the beginning my Rochelle Park store was my PC Warehouse,” he said.  “But the computer is very boring, I’m not happy, because basically you fight with your customers all the time,” he said, explaining how customers would call for help, stressed because their computer or server was on the fritz.  “It’s all stress for me, when I go home I’m not happy, my face always like this,” said Yong wearing an exaggerated frown, which soon turned into an ear-to-ear smile as he continued, “But when I go fishing, I smile like this. That’s why I wanted to start a fishing business.”

In between computer service calls and technology sales, Yong bought a ticket and walked the floor of the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing where he placed his very first fishing tackle order. “I started with jigs,” he recalled, noting how many of the jigs overseas at that time, particularly out of Japan, were quite expensive.  “I love jigging,” Yong said of his first foray into tackle buying, though as he explained of the initial difficulty of going the wholesale route, “It didn’t work out well.”

“We went to the Reel Seat, Fisherman’s Depot, Trophy Fishing, and at that time it was the jig only,” he said of Northeast retail visits.  Undeterred by a slow initial start, Yong sold out that first line at discount, soon refocusing on his own line-up under the Jigging World name.  “All the jigs we sell are our own design, like our blackfish jigs,” he said, proudly explaining the ‘stand-up’ bait design of his own tautog jigs.

In a few short years, the Jigging World lineup expanded to include rigs, rods and reels, all proven gear that many shops throughout the region began to carry to sell to their own customers.  “Jigging World started as our retail store, and then later on we converted Jigging World to our brand,” he said of those early days before developing Tackle World as the retail business out of respect to other tackle shops.

“We have to get our dealers’ trust, because in their eyes I was their competitor; he owns a tackle store, I have to respect that,” he said, “Now, most of our dealers trust us.”  With the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats, Yong Yan and his team separated the retail operation out as Tackle World, with the Jigging World lineup growing through strong relationships with other dealers and the tackle buying public.

Piece By Piece

In those early years in Rochelle Park, tackle inventory started taking up more of the space in his 4,000-square foot facility than the computers, until an encounter with Nick Cicero from the Folsom Corporation, one of the world’s largest wholesale distributors of fishing equipment that’s also based in New Jersey and services much of the wholesale product distribution for tackle shops across the country.  “If Nick didn’t give me the advice in the beginning, Jigging World never would’ve grown like this,” Yong recalled.

About a year later, Cicero introduced Yong to another young buck in the tackle world named Michael Kim, now director of operations and very much the “influencer” face of the Jigging World brand.  E-commerce pro Hansol Choi joined the team in 2015, with other new recruits joining along the way including Fred Haas formerly with Tackle Direct who is now director of sales at Tackle World, as well as The Fisherman’s former media coordinator and Open Boat maven Jenni Ackerman.  That’s on top of other notable retail professionals who joined the Tackle World family over the years, including 30-year Meltzer’s Outdoors veteran Mark Fuduli, and Alex Bari who left the biotech world for the fishing industry.

Prior to his own company’s rapid expansion – and long before his technology background, gleaned from hands-on experience and degrees from Bergen County Community College and Montclair State University – Yong Yan was coming up through the occupational ranks like any American teenager. “When I came here I did so much different work,” he said with a laugh, thinking back to his time as a warehouse clerk, then behind the counter at a Fort Lee liquor store, before delivering pizza for $5 an hour until getting his own car when he could up his food delivery rate to $13 an hour.

“Here’s the thing, I was the pizza delivery guy, so my job is delivering pizza, I don’t need to make the pizza right?  But I want to learn how to make pizza, and they won’t let me do it,” he said. What Yong ended up doing is buying pizza, bringing it home, and deconstructing it, just to learn how it’s made.  He would do the same later after delivering sushi, to the point that he now knows his way around the kitchen as much as he does with computer networks and the fishing industry.

“That’s how I learn, I’m not afraid of making mistakes,” Yong said.

The Future Is Now

Yong spent much of his free time fishing, here in the United States and around the world, and was able to deconstruct the fishing industry from the ground up by starting first as a hardcore angler who loves jig fishing.  And while fishing remains his passion, like many who find themselves investing their fishing passion into the recreational fishing industry, he finds there’s less time for fishing now.

But he does have a new spot to keep and service the eight boats he’s personally collected over the past several years!  In 2025, Yong acquired Up the Creek Marina in Bayville off the Barnegat Bay, which he’s actively turning into service destination at the Jersey Shore.  While still known as Up the Creek Marina, the new facility is under Yong’s corporate First Marina, LLC.  “You know why I called it the ‘first’ one,” he asked with a smile.  A softball question for sure.  “So you can get a second one,” I responded.

“Exactly, my second one is coming,” Yong teased, noting how the new Ocean County location – and perhaps soon another – will give boaters and anglers in the southern part of the state a place to have electronics installed and serviced.  CWR wholesale electronics out of Berkeley Township, not far from the new marina, can provide a superior network to providing top brand electronics like Minn Kota, Humminbird, Garmin, Raymarine, Lowrance, Raymarine and others.

“They’re 5 minutes away from my marina, whoever places an order I can go pick it up, or they can it off, or they can drop-ship.  It’s going to be huge,” Yong said of CWR while adding “We’re not stopping there, we’re also going to be come their service center, same as with Shimano or Daiwa on the tackle side, so if your Minn Kota needs to be fixed, you don’t need to ship or call, you come in, and we fix it.”  He’s also working with other distributors like MESCO out of South Jersey and Long Island, while continuing to look over the Japanese domestic market, referred to as JDM, for the latest cutting-edge tackle from overseas.

When the new headquarters and retail outlet reopens again on March 21, Yong and his team will begin unveiling more surprises.  “Under one roof we’re going to have Tackle World, Jigging World and JT Marine,” said Yong, adding “JT Marine is a new company that is going to grow very big, even though inside our new location is very small.”  Inside the new Paramus superstore his team is strategically arranging a floorplan which is set to include an array of electronics in the JT Marine section, from fishfinders to trolling motors.

Ultimately, customers will be able to buy and service electronics in either the Paramus or Bayville location, though the marina location is one to keep an eye on in the coming months.  Yong also has his own eye on another warehouse facility to maintain the Jigging World inventory, as he hopes to create two levels of retail space in the Tackle World location in North Jersey.  He’s also considering a new destination location in Rhode Island that would also serve as a fishing lodge.

Honestly, I don’t know where to begin describing the rest of our conversation; Yong Yan is constantly devising, planning and conceptualizing bold new ideas in the world of fishing and boating.  The brainstorms seem to come frequently, and without warning.  And as we sat across the table from one another in the soon-to-be new location of Tackle World at 461 Route 17 in Paramus, two words I found frequently popping up in discussion were innovation and trust.

“You’re a great example of the American Dream,” I said to him while tucking my pencil back into my jacket.

“I’m still working on the American Dream, I’m not there yet,” Yong said with a broad smile, soon pivoting to future growth potential in Florida and California down the road. “I’m still building.”