Sarley: What makes a good bait and tackle shop

I used to dream I could quit my job and open a bait and tackle shop instead. Looking back, I am glad I never did it. Owning a tackle shop is darned hard work.

Tackle shops are open at the crack of dawn, and it is usually the owner who is opening the door and turning the lights on. The owner is normally tending the cash register and other tasks the entire eight, 10 or 12 hours that the shop is open. By the way, bait and tackle shops are open seven days a week and on all holidays. Tackle shop owners don’t go fishing anymore because the store takes up all of their time. It is not the dream job I had once envisioned it to be.

There aren’t a whole lot of bait and tackle shops around. Most last a long time when they go into business. The big-box stores are a threat to the small retailer, but there will always be a place for the local tackle shop. I have been in a lot of local tackle shops in my time and I like the fact that every shop seems to have its own flavor and style. Every shop is different and no two shops are alike.

I can’t say that I’ve been in every shop in the Chicago area in my time, but I have been in a lot of them. Every shop has left me with a different memory for its own reasons. I can recall some of the shops that have left us and it brings a smile to my face.

The first bait and tackle shop I remember was a place called “Pepper’s” on North Avenue in the Western suburbs. It was my go-to place when I really started getting into fishing. The owner’s name was John and he was a great guy. If you bought minnows, he’d make sure that you knew how to position them on a hook the right way.

I was astounded to find a tank at Papper’s that contained mud puppies. These are salamanders that are often used as bait. The ugly little things are a bait that I have never seen before and have never seen for sale again at a bait store.

I spent a lot of my income at Swanson’s Bait and Tackle in Elk Grove Village. Not only did I live in Elk Grove, but I also worked there. It was so darned easy for me to cruise by and drop a 20 or two at this shop that carried everything.

The proprietor’s name was Al, and you had to put up with his tales about his adventures on the Bass Pro trail, which he claimed to have participated in. It was a stiff price to pay to buy a dozen nightcrawlers.

The store has been out of business for years, but I ran into Swanson’s old counter guy the other day. Arden Katz loved to help customers and trade stories with them. Arden always loved to tell folks how and where to fish. He was always a big help to everyone who walked into the store.

Henry’s Bait and Tackle just south of Chicago’s Loop was an institution. It was run by Bridgeport’s Palmisano family. After the father, Hank, passed, it was taken over by the brothers, Steve, Tom and Henry.

The family’s impact on the city of Chicago and its fishing public was rewarded when the city named a local park after the Palmisano family. Of course, the park included a lake for fishing.

As a tackle store, nobody could compete with Henry’s. They had it all and were never out of stock on anything. Canadian nightcrawlers are very hard to obtain in the spring because the Canadian soil is too frozen for digging. To get around that, Henry’s used to lay in a huge supply of crawlers in the fall and keep them heated and fed until the spring rolled around.

Do you have any reminiscences about a favorite tackle shop in your past? I’ll bet you do. Tell me about them and I will share them in the near future.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.