About Us

The Glasgow Angling Centre story begins over 21 years ago in the famous Barrowland Market in Glasgow.

The Managing Director and owner Paul Devlin started with a small market stall in the Barras selling mostly second hand tackle but quickly progressed, due to demand, to a larger market stall.

The first shop opened in the village of Cumbernauld, on the outskirts of Glasgow, which is still open to this day and is as welcoming as when it first opened.

As the shop was quite small every inch of space was taken up with as much choice as possible. It soon became the Mecca for anglers from all over the central belt of Scotland and beyond. The first shop was often described as an Aladdin's cave of fishing tackle.

Realising that there was a huge gap in the market, for a shop that could offer an even bigger choice to the angler, he worked towards expanding the company and opened the first Glasgow Angling Centre in the Gallowgate, in Glasgow, in 1996.

With 6600 sq ft of retail space, and 2500 sq ft of storage, the shop had the biggest choice in the UK. At first it seemed this would be big enough, but as anglers demanded more choice, GAC needed to expand even further. Mail order increasingly became a major part of the business and, again, bigger premises were required.

In 2004 the flagship Glasgow Angling Centre was opened, and with 30,000 sq ft of space, it had the largest range of angling equipment in Europe and still has to this very day.

Glasgow Angling Centre's aim has always been to be a one stop shop for all anglers offering a vast range of tackle, for every aspect of angling, not just specialising in one discipline like many of its competitors. This is reflected in the staff at GAC. In the last 12-months staff have stalked wild trout in highland streams, chased tarpon in Florida, heaved up huge halibut in Norway and battled carp in France. GAC have extremely experienced staff, anglers to give the best advice to anglers. They pride themselves on their vast knowledge of all aspects of angling, and their enviable customer service levels.

They also have 4 members of staff who have proudly represented Scotland internationally in Fly Fishing and Coarse Angling. In addition 3 fully qualified instructors and coaches, therefore, if you need any advice GAC always has someone with the necessary skills and experience to help.

The business now employs over 90 full time staff. In addition to the main Glasgow Angling store, Glasgow Field Sports and PD Fishing Tackle & Guns the group also owns the coarse and carp specialists Chapman's Angling in both Scunthorpe and Hull.