Shallotte Inlet Bait Company

An alluring retirement

Pete Lee has always been a fisherman. He came by it honestly, some from his father, but much from his mother. He fished while working, but once he retired, it became an almost daily thing. However, he still needed something to do when howling winds and driving rains wouldn’t allow fishing. After messing around a bit with a few molds for soft plastic lures and jigheads, he realized he had accumulated a lot of molds and was making lures and jigs for friends, friends of friends and more. This is when Shallotte Inlet Bait Company was born.

Shallotte Inlet Bait Company has never been about filling the shelves at your favorite tackle shop or making a lot of money. You’ll hear their lures talked about in the parking lot at tackle shops, at boat ramps, at fishing clubs and other places fishermen gather, plus you’ll see them and the fish they catch posted on Facebook and Instagram pages. Shallotte Inlet Bait Company makes custom soft plastic lures, a few special jigheads, weighted swimbait hooks and other hook combinations not found at many tackle shops.

Personalized service

“The best way to describe us is that we’re a custom soft lure company,” Lee said while reaching for some glitter to mix in plastic for his next order. “I’m not here to try to compete with D.O.A., Berkley, Z-Man and those folks. I don’t want to turn this into trying to make enough lures to stock tackle shops. It has to stay fun and allow me to deal with fellow fishermen one-on-one. What I enjoy is making a special color combination for a fisherman who knows exactly what he wants. All I ask is for a minimum order of a dozen lures, so it’s worthwhile melting the plastic and adding in whatever colors and flash each fisherman wants. One of the big things is I don’t want to get too busy to be able to go fishing when I want.”

Shallotte Inlet Bait Company makes a full line of shapes for fresh and saltwater fishing, including paddle tails, curl tails, swimbaits, flukes, squids, ball tails and more. Two in the “and more” category are this writer’s favorites. The sandfiddler, or one-arm bandit, looks really good and can be made in the fisherman’s favorite colors, from natural to wild and with heavy or light addition of glitter for some flash. It looks like it’s crawling and there is no doubt fish will pick it up. They’re one of Shallotte Inlet Bait Company’s most popular shapes. 

Pungo Shrimp

My absolute favorite is the Shallotte Inlet Bait Company Pungo Shrimp. This shrimp is very realistic and is available in several sizes from 3 to 6 inches. As with any other Shallotte Inlet Bait Company lure, it can be made in any color or color combination from natural to wild, plus with a different color tail and light or heavy flake and sparkle. A special feature, at least for me, is the Pungo Shrimp has a bottom pocket, for hiding a mid-weighted jig or swimbait hook. 

Using this pocket to position a hidden hook and weight in the middle of the body makes the Pungo Shrimp come alive. With this neutral weight bias, it flutters down in a level attitude, instead of doing a nose dive, like with a standard jighead. This is definitely a more natural action.

My favorite way to use the Pungo Shrimp is to rig it backwards and fish it under a popping cork. It’s made for this. I use a 1/16-ounce mid-weighted, wide bend swimbait hook or a pencil jig. 

The hook is inserted with the point coming out of the shrimp’s head, the weight in the pocket, and the hook eye comes out roughly in the middle of the shrimp’s back. When fishing this under a popping cork, the shrimp jumps backwards when the cork is popped and then flutters down in a level attitude while the cork settles. There is also a wedge on the bottom of the tail that creates tail movement as the shrimp sinks.  Then, when the line comes tight, the Pungo Shrimp hangs level under the cork, which is a shrimp’s natural position. Any chop on the water bobs it up and down like a nervous shrimp. This works best using a loop knot to attach the hook.

One-man show

Shallotte Inlet Bait Company is a one-man operation and it can’t interfere with Pete Lee’s fishing time. He enjoys what he is doing and is willing to spend time with fishermen on the phone, by email and even in person, to get exactly what they want. On my first contact, he invited me to visit his shop. Imagine our shock when I realized he is the son of my first high school football coach.

Once over that little episode of “It’s a small world,” he pointed out the variety of colors, the diversity of glitter and flakes and happily explained the basics of making soft plastic lures. On another visit, several folks dropped in to talk about fishing and ask about lures. This definitely isn’t a high pressure business, but Lee strives to make exactly what each fisherman wants.

There is a test station nearby if anyone wants to see lure action. Shallotte Inlet Bait Company is on the bank of a creek that shows on charts as Saucepan Creek, but the locals call it Sasspan Creek and a local street is named this. Pete Lee has a dock that runs across the marsh to the creek. From this dock the view across the marsh is to the namesake of the company, Shallotte Inlet, which is a well-known fishing spot in the area that holds speckled trout, flounder and red drum. 

Testing waters

This dock was thought to be a testing place to see actions of lures at different retrieve speeds, how colors appeared in the water and what different types and colors of glitter created flash. However, specks, reds and flounder scour the headwaters of Saucepan Creek looking for food and sometimes interrupt testing sessions. While Lee enjoys testing lures and colors, one of his best testers is his wife, Debbie. She caught the current family record 28-inch speckled trout from this dock while “working” as a lure tester.

Shallotte Inlet Bait Company doesn’t make scented lures, but Pete Lee believes in scent. He said it sometimes helps fish locate a bait and sometimes helps seal the deal when they aren’t really in a feeding mood. We discussed some of the dipping products for changing colors and adding scent, the garlic scented Chartreuse Marker from Avid Angler Solutions and add-on scents. His favorite is Pro-Cure Scent Gel and there are several bottles of it on the shelves in his shop.

Minimal minimums

Shallotte Inlet Bait Company is a small operation, definitely a one-man show, but it’s the only place this writer is aware of that makes custom color soft lures. This is the place to get that curl tail grub with a blood red body and a purple tail that you think will work well in the headwaters of Hush Mouth Creek. Pete Lee will talk with fishermen and strives to get them exactly what they want. He makes it easy to experiment too, as his minimum order is only a dozen lures. He also makes some jigs and swimbait hooks that are worth checking out.

If you have an idea for unique colors on a lure, Shallotte Inlet Bait Company may be just who you’re looking for. Lee knows fishing and soft plastics – and can usually help.  Check out Shallotte Inlet Bait Company on Facebook.  You can contact Pete Lee at 842-902-4465 or info@shallotteinlet.com. ■