EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – The Greater Atlantic City Chamber will hold a Business to Business Networking Lunch 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23 at Harbor Pines Golf Club, 500 St. Andrews Drive, Egg Harbor Township.

The lunch will feature a presentation by Denise Hurlburt, New Jersey Clean Energy Program consultant for South Jersey Energy Solutions.

Registration is $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.acchamber.com. For information call (609) 345-4524, ext. 12.

Patrick Gill, third-generation fisherman, overlooks the 8,000-square-foot Tackle Direct retail store, new in Egg Harbor Township. An additional 16,000 square feet hold a warehouse, call center and offices.
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – In 1997, at the dawn of the Internet era, father and son business partners Tom and Patrick Gill registered the domain name of their Ocean City store, “TackleDirect,” dubbing it the “world’s premier fishing outfitter.”

In 2011, that name seems prophetic.

On a recent morning at the company’s new Tilton Road location, Patrick Gill checked on packages destined for Singapore, Hungary, the U.K., Norway, a U.S. military base, and Australia.

TackleDirect, No. 566 on the list of Top 1,000 Internet retailers, ships to 200 countries, and is “one of the fastest growing accounts for UPS in South Jersey,” Gill said.

Not bad for a onetime bait-and-tackle shop.