FISHERMEN/A Christmas Wish......

[bulletbob]

This time of year is tough on these guys.. Stripers are done, tog on party boats is the only game in town, and its almost Christmas when most anglers are putting in more family time... years ago, guys would be buying bait and gear for Whiting and ling fishing, as well as worms, chum. mussels, hooks, rigs for winter flounder etc..

Tough situation, but its as much the tough regulations and complete lack of several traditional cold weather fisheries as it is the indifference of local fishermen. Up here, you have to search far and wide to find ANY fresh water bait.. There were still a lot of small local shops when I moved here in the 90's... They are all gone,, season is too short, and guys here are all downrigger fishermen that buy online... Only place to get bait is earth worms at Walmart.... I wish all those bait/tackle shop owners, party/charter captains that are hanging on all the best. Not the best days for many of them..bob

[stw]

Very well said everyone please get out and support your local small businesses give them the Christmas they deserve after serving us all year!!!

[Capt. Lou]

There’s a simple solution to this problem, and it lies with the manufacturers for most part ! They cut their purchaseprices to box stores for quantity purchases the mass merchants is capable of buying !
Only a couple of companies I know offer similar programs to independants , so the end result the independents are looked upon as overpriced , however to obtain their markup and keep the doors open they have to charge a little more .
They then must make up the profit by customer services , bait rigging etc,
So their not the blame for higher prices in some instances , they are forced into it by having to buy non competitively .
This is not always the case but can be in some instances , not all ! It’s a catch 22 for the independents if you don’t give them your business you both lose, so if you step up it all helps you get better deals !
Friendship prices will follow and your.both happy !

[gnuisance]

Whole lot of preaching to the choir going on in this thread. I guess no one buys from Amazon....

Tackle box has outrageous prices and capitalizes on being the first stop off the parkway. I won't buy bait or tackle there.

I support Pete and Julian's whenever I can, have spent hundreds in bait in both places in the last year and I'm just basically a weekend warrior at this point. Do I also occasionally order terminal tackle from Amazon? Yes I do, and I would venture to guess that most do. The convenience factor is tough to beat.

[TogRipper]

Originally Posted by gnuisance

Whole lot of preaching to the choir going on in this thread. I guess no one buys from Amazon....

Tackle box has outrageous prices and capitalizes on being the first stop off the parkway. I won't buy bait or tackle there.

I support Pete and Julian's whenever I can, have spent hundreds in bait in both places in the last year and I'm just basically a weekend warrior at this point. Do I also occasionally order terminal tackle from Amazon? Yes I do, and I would venture to guess that most do. The convenience factor is tough to beat.

True, however Amazon won't be sending you those hundred dollars in bait when the shops are out of business. Putting in the time and effort to catch your own (if you can) will be very inconvenient.

[Harpoon]

Lets face it, its way to easy to order online. That being said it does feel good to support the local guys. My question is, why do B&T shops not have better eCommerce options for purchasing Gift Cards, tackle, etc???

Look at TD/Melt/Cab/Ama and how easy it is to buy from them. Yes you could say there is an added cost to the vendor to host an eCommerce site, but the same was said about CC purchases at the same shops. Guess what happened...average transaction goes up when CC accepted.

Local tackle shops that have proper eCommerce sites would make it more convenient for local and non local shoppers to purchase products from them, without many of us driving 50-100miles round trip.

So essentially the B&T shops need to get up to speed with eCommerce (not FB/Insta...) and that may make their winters a tad bit better. Its all part of keeping up with business.

Originally Posted by gnuisance

Whole lot of preaching to the choir going on in this thread. I guess no one buys from Amazon....

Tackle box has outrageous prices and capitalizes on being the first stop off the parkway. I won't buy bait or tackle there.

I support Pete and Julian's whenever I can, have spent hundreds in bait in both places in the last year and I'm just basically a weekend warrior at this point. Do I also occasionally order terminal tackle from Amazon? Yes I do, and I would venture to guess that most do. The convenience factor is tough to beat.

Don't think anyone was trying to be self righteous on the thread. Think Capt. Ron's point was to make an effort to support the industry's small businesses because if we don't they won't last and if they go out the things they offer that big business and mail order can't will disappear with them. Believe that's a valid perspective. Put it another way, if NJF didn't have site sponsors which are predominantly small business owners, there wouldn't be a NJF site.

It's a personal decision each of us make that's neither right nor wrong but it has long term consequences to businesses struggling to stay in business. Don't see any harm pointing that out, these are shops that have supported us for years and personally whatever I can do to keep them around I will.

[nsc_tpt]

I too agree... i buy most of the bait and tackle stuff from local stores.. except the fishing rod and reel which i purchase rarely that too i do not want to hurt their business by returning if the rod did not fit or function well for me....

Please support local stores......

[krob8979]

I couldn't agree any more with capt Ron. Pete by far is the best in the business. Was there a couple of weeks ago as I was surf fishing on that really cold Saturday. Fished a few hours with nothing to show for it except frozen hands and lost jigs. Figured I'd swing by Pete's get a jig and try another spot.

Get to Pete's and not 1 soul in the shop. Walk in and he says to me, Kenny you look like you've had a rough morning and let me guess, kinda cold out there. He then proceeded to pour my a shot of brandy had me sit down and watch a video from Cancun. As I'm sitting there warming up, by the way, I'm now sweating due to the brandy, he ties me up a diamond jig with a teaser.

I will always support small local guys. If we don't, the brandy wont be there to warm ya up

Please support your local bait and tackle guy, whoever it may be.

They count on us as much as we count on them