Bait & Switch? Don’t Allow This To Happen

Okay, let’s face it…the Minnesota Fishing Opener is still about a month away but with the recent warm weather thoughts are already turning to this rite of spring for most upper Midwest sportsmen.   Certainly, I am no exception as I have caught the spring fever bug, too.

But today in Chris Niskanen’s column, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, he chronicled an important outdoor issue that many of us need to consider closer.   The fact is, the mom and pop bait shop is about to become a thing of the past in many locales.   The economies of owning such a business along with the changing world and our buying habits just do not make the local bait store such an invaluable place…at least not like it once was for all fishermen.

Twenty years ago we would not have considered buying bait at a department store or a big chain outdoors store (such as Cabela’s, Gander or the like).   Truth is, many of these stores did not exist in our neighborhoods like they do now.   Furthermore, the advice on where the fish were biting as well as drooling over the braggin’ board were tasks you just couldn’t achieve by going anywhere else except the local bait shop where the man behind the counter was “the expert.”

Times have certainly changed.   Today, the Internet gives us message boards and forums to overload on information about nearly any body of water, if that is what you want to do.   You can get information directly from other fishermen without the bait shop owner being the middleman, of sorts.   Essentially, the local discount chain (whether it be Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) has the ability to sell you the lures and equipment you need…as well as the bait.   The punk kid behind the counter who rings up the purchase likely doesn’t know the difference between a fathead minnow or a shiner, but does it really matter?   Convenience and favorable price of buying at the newer stores seems to drive the purchase for many of today’s fishermen.

What a shame.   A good friend of mine, Mark, owns an awesome bait shop in northern Minnesota and even though he is in the heart of fishing country it is a struggle even for him.   When the new Gander Mountain moved into town the new competition gave customers options they didn’t have before.   You won’t often hear Mark complain, but I’m sure given his druthers he would rather have seen his prospective customers with fewer “options.”   Especially when those choices are the big-name, mega-stores.

The truth is there is something a bit nostalgic about the small bait shop.   Sure, their prices probably don’t compare with those you can find elsewhere…but should that really matter?   If a business owner has devoted his livelihood to purveying leeches, minnows and crawlers why should we as sportsmen abandon such noble efforts?   Is convenience and low price really that important all the time?   Shouldn’t the experience of walking into a closely confined shop reeking of fish odors also have some merit for preserving into our future?

I know as a kid some of my fondest memories spent with my dad fishing were the few minutes we stopped at the local bait shop before the outing.   Inside that simple building was a sense of hope you could feel as well as a character that is just too sanitized in the big mega-stores.   Nope, in reading Chris’ article today it reinforced in my mind the importance of patronizing the local bait shop on your way to the lake this year.   The price of failing to do so just might cause you to lose that option in the years to come.

© 2005 Jim Braaten.  All Rights Reserved.   No Reproduction without Prior Permission.