A $32-Million Fish Story : Continental and Northwest Link Up

America’s 35 million or so anglers have landed a museum dedicated to their passion. The $32-million International Game Fish Assn. World Fishing Center is scheduled to open next Saturday in Dania Beach, near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Exhibits, housed in a gleaming, geometric building, purport to reveal “everything you’d ever want to know about fishing,” said spokeswoman Sudie Shipman. There’s a theater; a World Fishing Hall of Fame, where mounts of world-record catches float overhead; a Tackle Gallery with antique and contemporary reels, rods, lures and flies; simulators that let you struggle to land a “marlin” and get tips from experts; a history gallery; and a kids game room.

Outside, there’s a wetlands walk and a marina with a 1933 sister ship to Ernest Hemingway’s Pilar, among other fishing craft.

What you won’t find in the museum is living fish, Shipman said. There’s no aquarium.

The museum was funded by the nonprofit International Game Fish Assn., which claims to have 20,000 members in 116 countries, and by state and county governments. The 12-acre site was donated by the owner of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, which has a 150,000-square-foot outlet next door.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on other days. Entrance is $9 adults, $5 for children 12 and under, $7 seniors and students, free for children under 2. Information: telephone (954) 922-4212.