FREMONT, OHIO Mud Creek Bait and Tackle reaches the end of the line
Smaller bait shops are forced out of business.
FREMONT, Ohio (AP) -- The stretch of state Route 53 that connects Fremont and the Ohio Turnpike with the rich Lake Erie fishery off Port Clinton became lonelier recently when Mud Creek Bait and Tackle turned out the lights for the final time.
This oasis on the fisherman's highway had been in business for more than 100 years, serving fishermen en route to the big lake and those who frequented the Lake Erie backwaters.
They used to come in horse-drawn buggies and leave with baskets full of catfish caught in Mud Creek Bay. Decades later, a steady stream of walleye fishermen stopped by to stock up on bait and supplies on their way to the lake. It's history
But in recent years the traffic has slowed to the point that it pushed Mud Creek Bait and Tackle down the same road that a number of inland bait shops in Ohio have followed -- into the history books.
Shops disappearing
The mom and pop bait shops that often looked like they belonged in a Norman Rockwell painting are disappearing, victims of economics, progress and the times. Going with them are the hum of pumps keeping minnows alive in large metal tanks, the lines of hulking old refrigerators that housed an array of containers of worms and crayfish, the dim lights and the sometimes crusty characters who made selling fish bait their living.
"Its kind of trite to say it, but were really losing a piece of Americana as these old bait shops go out of business," said Fred Snyder, district Sea Grant specialist for the Ohio State University extension at Camp Perry near Port Clinton.
Snyder, who grew up working in his parents' bait shop in West Liberty, said the smaller, neighborhood-type bait shops cannot compete with the large chain stores on tackle selection and pricing and can not show a profit on live bait sales alone.
"My dad always said that the bait was more or less just a service to our customers. What supported the store was the rest of it -- lanterns, rods, reels and lures," Snyder said.
Since 1888, Mud Creek Bait had thrived, nurtured by the legions of fishermen who filled their freezers and their smokers with the rich bounty of catfish that spawn in the Lake Erie backwaters. Mud Creek rented boats and supplied all of the necessary tackle, the food and drink, and the "what, where and how-to" information.
Some changes
Don DeMars, who with his wife, Cheryle, operated Mud Creek Bait for its final 31 seasons, lamented that the dramatic increase in walleye fishing out on Lake Erie might have cost him a substantial amount of business as more and more anglers stopped fishing for cats. He also noted a significant drop in the number of young fishermen, a crowd that used to keep his place hopping with activity on Friday nights but had since found the Internet and a hundred other diversions.
Superior Bait, a fixture in downtown Toledo for at least 50 years, got squeezed out by a decline in business and development. Customers used to ride municipal buses from the inner city to the shop a block from the Maumee River, stock up for a day of fishing from the banks of the Maumee, then take the bus home.
Tackle sales declined with the rise of the large discount stores. When a new ballpark came to the downtown a couple of years ago and Superior Bait lost its storefront, there was not enough business left to move elsewhere.
"When these traditional old bait shops close, the most significant loss is probably not the live baits they always provided, its the loss of information and expertise," Snyder said. "Its part of the nature of fishing that there is a lot of swapping of ideas and information, and so much of that went on right there in the shop."
At Maumee Valley Bait & amp; Tackle, a couple of blocks from the river, owner Gary Lowry and his wife, Janice, have had to be diversified and creative to survive over the long haul.
"Were in our 13th year, and we started this bait shop from scratch -- we didn't take over someone else's operation -- and it hasnt been easy at all. It was five years before we knew whether we could survive or not," Lowry said.
"I think the personal touch keeps our customers coming back. My wife and I are both fishermen, so we can tell them the where, how and what to use. We keep it simple, stock only tackle that works, and we put in 90 to 110 hours a week when were busy. If you didn't love it, you could never do it."