SMALL BUSINESS | North Coast Bait & amp; Tackle Location changes focus of enterprise for entrepreneur

The businessman learned the art of keeping fishing bait alive and hearty.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LAKE MILTON -- Mike Westfall's race car shop was in a great location -- for a bait-and-tackle store.
Westfall opened a shop for fixing cars and selling parts in 1987 on Grandview Avenue in Craig Beach.
It was located across from the Lake Milton dam, which is a popular fishing site, and the fishermen started asking if they could park in his lot. Westfall had no problem with that but noticed one day that there were 18 cars parked outside his shop even though he had no customers.
"At that point, I decided I needed to sell bait or worms or something, so I put in one small showcase of basic fishing equipment. Within two years, all the race car stuff was out, and we were a full-scale bait shop. The fishermen just ran me out of my own race shop, basically," he said, with a laugh.
By 1998, the fishing business had grown large enough that he moved it to its current location on Mahoning Avenue, near the causeway. He had been operating a beverage drive-through business there since 1989.
He still runs the race car shop at the Grandview location, but the bait shop is his main business.
North Coast Bait & amp; Tackle is a full-service bait shop that carries live bait, rods and reels, tackle boxes, fishing gear and safety equipment, such as life jackets, fire extinguishers and distress flags.
Other offerings
Although he closed the drive-through lane, the business still carries beer, wine, beverages and snacks. It has a gas pump on a nearby dock and offers watercraft registration services and fishing and hunting licenses.
Westfall, who said he doesn't particularly like to fish, said his biggest hurdle when starting the bait shop was learning how to keep the bait alive.
"We'd buy something and it would die, and we'd have to figure out why it died. There's a little bit of an art to keeping them fresh and lively so the customers have good, live, hearty bait," he said.
North Coast Bait & amp; Tackle is open April through October. Westfall operates the business with Jessie Beckett, who also works as a cashier at Jackson-Milton Elementary School.
The couple sells nightcrawlers wholesale to other bait shops and also owns a bar in Lake Milton, The Sail Inn. In the winter, Westfall works as a truck driver.
They hire seasonal help at the bait shop for the summer, and their daughters, Jennifer, 4, and Melanie, 7, also help out, Beckett said.
"Melanie makes suggestions to the customers," she said.