Larry Schoenborn, 72, a sporting goods giant and host of “Fishing the West,” died last week at his home in Vancouver after an extended battle with cancer. He was buried on Wednesday.
In 1965, Schoenborn and his wife, Ethel, opened Larry’s Sport Center in Oregon City. In 1982, he created “Fishing the West,” to this day one of the most popular and prolific television fishing shows ever produced.
More than 330 segments aired across the United States and were carried internationally from Britain to Japan.
Schoenborn lost the show and his business in a 1993 Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but he opened a popular angling travel business “Fishing with Larry.”
“Larry Schoenborn has fished more water around the world than anyone I know,” said Buzz Ramsey, himself a Northwest angling icon, marketing director for Yakima Bait Co. and a frequent guest on the show. “That show and his sports center influenced a lot of anglers’ lives.”
Bob Toman, a Carver, Ore., fishing guide who was one of Schoenborn’s first two employees in the new store, credits his former boss for not only popularizing fishing, but also introducing rods and reels, lures, techniques and places to use them.
“He was always trying to get us to try new things,” Toman said. “If it wasn’t for guys like him, we’d all still be using a hook and a worm.”
Ditto, said Dudley Nelson of Milwaukie, another former employee and retired Oregon State Police fish and wildlife lieutenant.
“Larry sold fishing, not just tackle,” Nelson said. “He worked seven days a week, 16 hours a day. He was relentless and always was big in providing information. He brought a lot of good fishing holes and opportunity to a lot of people.”
Brad Staples of West Linn, who guides some of Schoenborn’s international trips, said Schoenborn had a large, loyal following of clients because of his attentiveness and tenacity. They include octogenarians and one woman in her 90s.
One of Schoenborn’s sons, Brad, manages the fishing department at Bob’s Sporting Goods in Longview and produces a wide array of fishing tackle under his own name.
Schoenborn died of multiple myeloma, an incurable terminal cancer of blood plasma cells that lodges in bones.
