Recreational anglers’ spending benefits are widespread throughout state economy.
While few people doubt the positive influence of healthy inshore saltwater fisheries on coastal businesses, not many stop to realize they also would benefit many inland businesses.
There is also a pronounced tendency to underestimate the degree of the influence, especially to businesses well inland from the coast. Owners of several tackle shops were adamant that their economic viability should be included in discussions as legislators consider the option of granting gamefish status to speckled trout, red drum and striped bass.
Several of the numbers they cite are truly staggering.
Joe Varnell runs a tackle shop inside Greenville Marine in Greenville. He said the difference in tackle and boat sales in years with good or poor inshore fishing is so big it is difficult to comprehend – and he’s 90 miles, a drive of between an hour and an hour-and-a-half, from the coast.
“Our primary experience is with the ups and downs of speckled trout fishing,” Varnell said. “We have a pretty good customer base of trout fishermen, even though we are far enough from the coast you don’t just drive down and go fishing on a whim. I don’t have to ask if the speckled trout are biting, I can tell by looking at the shelves and daily register reports.”
Varnell said that until just a couple of years ago, his average annual sale of MirrOlures, a popular lure for catching speckled trout, ranged from roughly 200 to 250 lures. That changed in the fall of 2008, when there was an abundance of trout after several warm winters and trout fishing was a high point.
“That year, MirrOlure introduced the MR 17 series, and the word spread they were catching fish,” Varnell said. “With the abundance of trout, their popularity soared and we had difficulty keeping them in stock. Our three primary distributors were also having difficulty keeping them in stock.”
Varnell jumped at the chance to receive an order directly from the manufacturer, and he ordered four cases – two each of the most-popular color – or almost 1,200 lures, five times what he had been selling annually.
“I worried a little about such a big order, but I shouldn’t have,” Varnell said. “We sold those lures in two weeks. That made me bold, and I ordered another two cases of each, which sold out in 45 days. I had to order another two cases to make it through the end of the year. We sold just over 5,000 MirrOlures that fall.
“If you think it won’t get your attention to go from 250 of an item annually to 5,000, you need to experience it once,” Varnell said. “I kept thinking about how good this had to be for everyone, especially the tackle shops at the coast. If we increased from 250 to 5,000 and were this far inland, I imagined the coastal tackle shops had to hire more help to keep the shelves stocked. That is an increase of 2,000 percent.
“If you think you don’t notice that when it is building, let me tell you, it was even more noticeable the next year when it dropped off again,” Varnell said. “The next year there was an early freeze, and the trout bite stopped. When it did, so did our sales of trout lures. On television, they were showing the trout kills and pictures of commercial fishermen scooping stunned and (dead) trout up in nets, and the recreational fishermen stayed home. My business was off about 30 percent overall and 80 percent in trout tackle.”
Varnell said good fishing also directly affects boat sales. He said the past two years at Greenville Marine have been slow because of the slow economy, but he believes that lower trout numbers have been a contributing factor too. He said he also saw more business on the boat side of Greenville Marine during the fall of 2008 when he sold so many lures and Mack Cahoon, boating sales manager at Greenville Marine, confirmed it.
Cahoon said boat sales were up about 300 percent that fall and he’s certain he could have sold more boats if he could haven’t gotten them in his dealership. He said the dealership sold every trout boat it could get and lost some sales when potential customers wouldn’t wait a few weeks for boats to be delivered. He said almost every one of these customers were buying boats to go trout fishing.
Chris Medlin is the manager/owner of East Coast Sports in Surf City, the third generation of a family that has been in the tackle business in the area and a second-generation charter captain. He said he has seen the saltwater fishery decline in his lifetime, and it is a stark and lean comparison to the pictures in his father‘s and grandfather’s photo albums when fish were abundant.
“My dad and granddad have pictures that show how good our fishing used to be,” Medlin said. “The fishing was excellent from boats, and there were even days of 100-fish catches of trout and flounder from the piers. This island used to be loaded with fishing piers, and all of them had good business, but now business is slow enough they aren’t being repaired when damaged by a storm.”
Medlin said when fish are abundant, it shows in businesses all over town. When anglers are catching more fish, they fish more often, and they buy more bait and tackle and spend more money on lodging and meals.
“We had a run of chopper bluefish last fall, and it was a really good time,” Medlin said. “There were lots of fishermen in town, even during the week. They were renting rooms and eating at the restaurants, plus buying groceries and gas. We saw a lot of them too as those bluefish tore up a lot of tackle that needed to be replaced.
“About 90 percent of our customers at East Coast Sports are fishing for trout and/or drum,” Medlin said. “This is a contrast to the numbers for commercial fishermen who show these species to be less than two percent of their catch. They say having these fish as gamefish and not catching them would put them out of business, but I don’t see it.
“What about the recreational fishing jobs,” Medlin asked. “My family is fed directly from recreational fishing; so are the 12 charter captains and guides I book through Topsail Fishing. All the people who work for the piers and other tackle shops rely on recreational fishing directly. Recreational fishermen fill motels and restaurants and buy gas and groceries. Having them here affects most of the businesses on Topsail Island in some way.
“Topsail Island is losing fishermen because of the lack of speckled trout and red drum,” Medlin said. “I have customers from Goldsboro, Raleigh and inland who used to come in regularly, but now only come once or twice a year. Now, when they come, they stop by the store to show me the pictures of all the fish they caught in Louisiana, or wherever else they go. Not only do they make those trips elsewhere, but they come here less to save money to be able to make those trips.”
Medlin said he realizes Surf City is a small town and not a large popular vacation and fishing location like Atlantic Beach, Wrightsville Beach or Nags Head. However, he insists that recreational fishing is a popular activity, and good recreational fishing would be a major draw.
“Even in our small area, East Coast Sports sold 12,072 fishing licenses during 2011,” Medlin said. “That was just over $160,000 in license fees collected for the state. I’m pretty sure we have averaged more than 10,000 license sales each year since the saltwater license became required. This isn’t for all the fishermen that fish here, but only a few locals and the ones who arrive without licenses.
“That’s not an insignificant number of people, and every one of them is contributing to the economy and spending money at other businesses in town,” Medlin said. “With the inshore fishery in top shape, all our tourism-related businesses would benefit from an increased number of fishermen and their families visiting the area. Speckled trout and red drum are two fish that are the measuring stick for the inshore fishing in our area. We need gamefish status to protect the speckled trout and red drum.”
Eric Bachnik is the third generation of his family to run the day-to-day operations of L&S Bait Company, the parent company of MirrOlure. An avid and accomplished angler himself, Bachnik lives on the west coast of Florida and knows how a thriving recreational fishery can stimulate many businesses throughout the coastal region and extend into inland areas of the state.
“I am very excited for the state of North Carolina to be considering gamefish status for red drum, speckled trout and stripers,” Bachnik said. “The benefits are two-fold. I have seen first-hand in Florida how quickly a resource can recover when measures like these are implemented. We gave red drum gamefish status years ago and removed the inshore gill nets so they, trout and other species can thrive. Our coastal fish stocks are now healthy and attract fishermen from many states. They have become a major force in the local economies.
“With North Carolina’s fertile inshore habitat, these species will grow and flourish there too, probably much quicker than here in Florida,” Bachnik said. “Within a surprising few years of gamefish protection, they could develop into some of the best fishing in the continental United States, and North Carolina becomes a preferred location for traveling fishermen. More states should take action like Florida did and what North Carolina is considering and recognize that the dollars generated from recreational fishing are much, much greater than selling off a species.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Two decades after implementing gamefish status for red drum and removing gill nets from state waters, Florida is raising limits and extending seasons. Effective Feb. 1, recreational limits for red drum in the northeast and northwest sections of that state were increased from one to two fish per day. Also effective Feb. 1, the recreational season for trout will be open all year, removing seasonal closures in northern and southern Florida. The limit for speckled trout will also increase from five to six trout in Northeast Florida. Several commercial seasons were also lengthened. Click here for more information.
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