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We all know the folks that are good at banking, teaching, construction, cooking, and plumbing. Cops, doctors, fireman and ambulance drivers to name a few. They make are lives better. We like these people for there talents. Some of them even hang around with me.

Enter the bait shop owner. One of my personal favorites. They are my kind of candy store. To me these places are better smelling than some restaurants. I can shop in these bastions of bait. I don’t garage sale or go antiquing. But if I drive down your main street and spot, so and so’s bait bucket, I’m stopping. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, Im going directly to the jail of bait.

I use the stuff they peddle. It aint no trinket emporium I’m entering and they all, every last one of them have something I wasn’t sure I needed until I hit a few aisles. Then its game over, they ring me up and tag me at the register.

Some shops have cantankerous owners while others have lures with more dust on the package than my fireplace mantle, but I sift through them. Who can’t look into a tub full of minnows? I have never seen a sign in a bait store that says, “You break it, you bought it”. The local photo wall of Harvey wall hangers is the wall of fame.

Some of the candy bars are older than my patched waders but I didn’t come for the human grub in the first place. Spikes, Waxies, Canadian crawlers or red worms on display just a chilled fingering away. Most of the proprietors will let you fondle the worms for a pre inspect or they open the boxes and show you just how fresh there wigglers are. Sometimes right over the candy bar display case, that’s my idea of the department of worm health looking out for me.

Old dogs with white noses adorn some floors. A cake topper is when the owner is out and the kids are tending the store. Moms and daughters really know how to count out a bakers dozen of minnows, or they say, oh help yourself, not that I would ever intentionally over dip the dipper, that would be like poaching in the minnow pool.

Logs walls decorated with relic photos and a calendar from the 1930s with some old buck photo is an eye grabber for me. I like the oversized fishing plugs and all the beer commercials with whopper bass. Its one stop eye popping shopping. Anchors on the floor by the door. There heavy, why carry all that weight any farther. Landing Nets hanging aside waders that have never been wet yet.

Best ball caps I ever get, right after I pay, the owner says, hey thanks for your biz and here’s a cap, no charge. They ask me where I’m going like they want to come with. Offer tips about which holes may produce. That’s a hotter tip to me than a stock brokers advice.

When I go fishing I like using local minnows or worms. Local fish have a local diet. Fresh mayfly larva is not at the big super stores. I get one to one service. No fancy plastic bag to put my stuff in cuz they stuff whatever I bought in a brown sandwich bag or a leftover box.

Just one problem with bait store owners, there always so busy selling the goods, they never fish with me. Maybe they know my lack of piscatorial talents?

The trout whisperer

Karl "Trout Whisperer" Seckinger is a respected JustNorth author and outdoor adventurer. His guide service, DuNord Guide Service, and the trout waters that he fishes in the Superior National Forest, are some of the most tightly guarded secrets among Trout enthusiasts in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Contact Karl at 218 - 525 - 0442 or write to him at:

DuNord Guide Service - 6999 Culbertson Road, Two Harbors, Minnesota 55616

Learn more about DuNord Guide Service in the JustNorth MarketPlace.