Reelin’ ’em in
Steve Andrews is the owner of a fishing tackle shop in Carseldine in Brisbane called The Tackle Shop.
The store has been there since 1998, but Steve bought the business three and a half years ago, after running a mower superstore and before that an industrial skip and bin business.
“The store always had a good reputation for bait and accessories but, ironically, not really for fishing tackle.” says Steve. “We’ve now built up the tackle side of the business so now we’ve got a great range of bait and tackle.”
The store has a couple of competitors within a 6km radius, including big box retailer BCF, but this doesn’t faze Steve.
“A lot of independent operators complain about the bigger retailers like BCF, but the truth is they’ve expanded the market for everyone! The great thing is people are into fishing, and some of this is thanks to the BCF’s of this world, and when they start getting serious about it all, they generally come to us.” he says.
There are always new developments and new products coming out – Steve mentions new rods and reels as well as new baits, especially the soft plastic lure which came in about 4-5 years ago and can be used for any species, but makes for a more active and enjoyable style of fishing, as it’s more of a challenge than using conventional lures and bait. But the latest trend is kayak fishing, the fastest growing segment for The Tackle Shop – the kayaks are slightly wider than normal kayaks, and Steve’s heard of people catching marlins from them!
As a specialist fishing accessory retailer, Steve stocks the Nirey range of electric sharpeners.
“We’ve stocked Nireys since we bought the store.” says Steve. “We had a demo machine to start with I think, which did a great job. We have a lot of customers coming in and complaining about blunt knives. As a service we’ll sharpen customers’ knives on the spot using our Nirey and so they see how quick and easy it is and sometimes we’ll make a sale there and then. Everyone who has bought one has been very happy with it and we very rarely have any negative feedback. We need our knives to be sharp all the time since we do quite a bit of bait filleting, so we’ve got one in store and one at home.”
