Berkley Bedell, a pioneer in the fishing tackle industry and founder of Berkley and Company — now known as Pure Fishing — died December 7, 2019, at age 98. Bedell died in Naples, Fla., a few days after suffering a stroke, according to his son, Tom Bedell.

“Berk” Bedell was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa, on March 5, 1921. As a high school student, Bedell earned money during the height of the Depression by selling flies he tied with hair from the family dog and feathers from backyard chickens. His Berkley Fly Co. employed several students in tying flies and manufacturing leaders.

After attending Iowa State University, Bedell served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 through 1945, when World War II ended. He returned home to Spirit Lake to start Berkley and Company, which mainly produced cable wire leaders. He created Steelon nylon-coated wire leaders, and that led to experimentation in extruding nylon monofilament fishing line. Berkley introduced Trilene fishing line in 1959.

His company began manufacturing fishing rods in the 1960s and soon expanded into international markets in the 1970s.

Bedell, a Democrat, was elected as a U.S. Representative from Iowa in 1974 and served five terms in Congress. He decided not to seek a sixth term after contracting Lyme Disease from a tick bite.

After Bedell went to Washington, his son, Tom, took over the company and led a major expansion into other areas of fishing tackle manufacturing, notably including Power Baits soft plastics and FireLine braided superline. The company became Outdoor Technologies Group in 1988 and changed its name to Pure Fishing in 2000.

Bedell was preceded in death by his wife, Elinor, who died in 2017. The couple had been married 73 years and had three children, Tom, Jack and Jo.

A staunch proponent of alternative medicine, remained active in politics through the end of his life.

“He embraced responsibility for the challenges to humanity from nuclear annihilation to climate change to disparity in affluence to the economic greed in medicine over the natural pathic solutions to human health," Tom Bedell wrote in a social media post announcing his father’s death.

Berkley Bedell was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2018 in ceremonies at the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and National Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri.