RR Brannstrom | At the Daily Press at Bayview Bait and Tackle in Gladstone, owner Diane Carlson packs up some crawlers for longtime customer Denny Merrill.
RR Brannström
rbranstrom@dailypress.net
Editor’s note: The Daily Press will feature a series of articles about local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. This series will be serialized regularly in the Daily Press.
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GLADSTONE — South of Terrace, just a stone’s throw from the ocean, the shop run by Diane Carlson (originally from Rock, now Escanaba) is aptly named Bayview Bait and Tackle. Known as an excellent source of fresh live bait, the store also sells fishing and hunting licenses, ORV stickers, lake maps, and fishing gear from major and local suppliers.
Bay View is located at 7110 US 2 and 41 and M-35 and is connected to Bay View Motel, although the two are not affiliated.
This is the third location where Carlson sells bait. Thirty-five years ago, she and her then-husband purchased Ludington’s Bait and Tackle, which had been open in downtown Escanaba since the 1950s. They took it over in her 1989.
In 1992, Carlson hired Chris Wahl, who later became his business partner and a well-known figure in the fishing industry.
In 1996, John and Betsy Anderson, owners of Bayview Fish Market, moved up the road near where Burn on the Bay Ice Cream Parlor is now. I asked Carlson if he was interested in opening a bait store. Shop in the other half of the building. She did so on the condition that the store be named Bayview, to match the name of the fish market.
At that point, Wall and Carlson were leading the show. Carlson found it difficult to keep up with running Bay View Bait and Tackle in addition to Ludington Bait and Tackle, so he maintained a more successful store and opened Esky’s in 2003. He said he had closed the store.
For about 15 years, while the bait shop was owned by the Anderson family, there was a steady stream of customers on site. However, when the property was sold, the new owners had other plans and the business had to relocate.
Friendly neighbors Dan and Ellen Kotowski owned the nearby Bay View Motel. Despite its name, it had nothing to do with a fish market or bait shop. — and provided a new home.
Bay View Bait and Tackle has moved to its current location, which is a converted two-room motel. Regular customers followed.
“It’s a small town. We have a lot of loyal customers.” said Carlson.
One example is Denny Merrill. On the day reporters stopped by, he planned to get a license for a fish-hunting combo, feed it, and have a conversation. Merrill, who now lives in Cornell, said Bayview will always be his. “My favorite place” As has been the case for about 30 years.
As the seasons change, inventory changes slightly. Carlson says winter items have been relegated to some boxes or less prominent sections of stores for some time.
Business can depend on the weather, but many anglers don’t care about the weather.
“A lot of people come all year round.” Carlson said. “But some people, like Denny, go to Florida for the winter, so we don’t see them at all. There are some things you don’t see in the winter, and some things you don’t see in the summer…but people who fish. Most of us fish year-round.”
That category included Ms. Wahl, who died of cancer four years ago. Not only is he remembered and missed by Carlson and those who knew him, but he is immortalized on a plaque near his favorite fishing spot on the Ford River. The wall, installed by Bay de Noc Great Lakes sportfisherman Frank Pearson, was designed based on stickers made by Wall’s brother and sister-in-law with the same artwork.
“Let’s fish forever with the bait shop guy.” The words are written above the silhouette of an angler standing in a boat with a giant pike on the end of his fishing line.In the following, Wahl “Ambassador Baie de Noc”
The text first mentions the nickname the child gave Wall, which Wall later used as a sign-off online. “The Bait Shop Man” —And honorary titles too. “Ambassador” Refers to his tendency to point other anglers in the right direction. Carlson said Wahl won several Master Angler awards for the pike he caught.
Carlson has run Bay View Bait and Tackle himself for the past four years, with occasional help from friends. If business is slow during the off-season, hours will be reduced.
Now that spring is here, the shops along the main road are open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Until about October.” said Carlson. When people asked Carlson what her plans were for her retirement, she said she planned to continue running Bayview Bait and Tackle.
