TULALIP — When the new Cabela’s store at Quil Ceda Village in Tulalip welcomes customers for the first time on Thursday, April 19, its familiar log and stone exterior will open up to reveal decorations, products and services to meet the needs and tastes of local hunters and outdoorsmen.

The 110,000-square-foot Tulalip store will include two 8,000-gallon aquariums filled with native fish and a veritable zoo of taxidermy trophies, as regular Cabela’s customers would expect to see at any of the store’s locations, but Joe Arterburn, corporate communications manager for Cabela’s, explained that the Tulalip Cabela’s gear and employees were chosen with this region in mind.

“We like to get local experts as employees,” said Arterburn, who noted that roughly 250 new Cabela’s employees were hired to work at the Tulalip store. “They help us stock merchandise by getting to know the area. We have salt water-specific fishing lures and crab pots, which I can tell you we don’t stock at the Cabela’s in my native Nebraska,” he laughed.

Arterburn added that not only is the hunting gear tailored to game like mountain deer, which is more fitting to the surrounding terrain, but the Tulalip Cabela’s also strives to buy from Washington state suppliers.

Michael Bishop, an outfitter in the fishing department, was practically raised on the banks of the Stillaguamish River. His new job comes in the wake of having worked for Northwest Hardwoods in Arlington for 32 years, until the plant closed in January of this year.

“The Cabela’s store at Tulalip will have many benefits to all of the surrounding communities, with local knowledge of the fishing spots, its back country trails and the Puget Sound region,” Bishop said.

Marysville native Bob Banks, an avid fly fisherman with the Evergreen Fly Fishing Club who had long since retired from the workaday world, was looking for a change when his daughter informed him that the Tulalip Cabela’s was hiring.

“I’m a little on the gray-haired side of life, so I wondered whether they’d even consider me, but fishing is a field I’ve always been interested in,” said Banks, who will also greet customers in the fishing aisles. “There’s a lot of older folks working here, though, blending with the younger generation.”

Although Banks has never worked retail, he sees his job more as someone who’s well-versed in a subject than as a salesman.

“There’s three kinds of people I expect to deal with; those who are new to fishing, those who are growing in it, and those who know more about it than I do,” Banks laughed. “For those just starting out, we can figure out what type of fishing equipment they might need. For those looking to move up in skill level, I can help them determine how far they should go with their gear. For those who are at the top of their game, I’ll just point them toward the products they need. This is all quality stuff we’re selling here.”