"Make Us A Part Of Your Day"

By Charles Erickson/For The Leader-Herald

MAYFIELD – Just before 5 a.m., seven days a week, Jim Johnson walks a few paces from the house in which he has spent much of his life and unlocks the door of a converted garage that has served as the center of his livelihood since April 1986.

It is the start of another day of business for Jim’s Bait Shop, at 118 Second Ave. Ext. The owner-operator is the sole employee.

Johnson will keep this regimen until Oct. 15, when hunting season begins and the bait shop will be open on Saturdays only until the first day of December, when the seven-day schedule will resume and run through Oct. 15, 2023. He even opens the place on holidays, but normally closes at noon.

“I’ve got a few more years before I’m old enough to retire,” Johnson, 57, said on a recent Sunday morning, about three hours after he had opened the store. “But I’ll probably be here long after I’m old enough to retire. It’s still enjoyable.”

More than 36 years ago, Johnson was working at the Johnstown Knitting Mill. His father, also Jim, told his namesake there must be a better way for him to earn a living.

“He said working in a factory was a dead-end job,” Johnson recalled about the series of conversations he had with his father in the spring of 1986. “And he always wanted to have a bait shop.”

Jim’s Bait Shop, fully owned by the son, was opened in a garage next to the elder Johnson’s house. The location seemed right. There was easy access from State Route 30 and easy access to the Great Sacandaga Lake and other nearby lakes.

The original bait shop – it was in a side of the garage with a slanting roof – was a small area that held a refrigerator for the bait and offered a limited selection of lures, lines, rods and reels. It was here that the Johnsons established the bait shop and built up a clientele composed of local anglers and those brought to the area for recreational or purposeful fishing.

The diminutive store was also where Johnson was able to work alongside his father for the last seven years of his life. “We were in here together from 1986 to 1993,” Johnson said as she showed a visitor the old store, which is now used for storage. “This was the shop. This was all there was to it.”

The following year, an addition was added to the garage, and several years after that – another section was grafted onto the building. Jim’s Bait Shop features multiple aisles, with racks and display cases and tubs and tanks.

The shop seems jammed with merchandise, including live bait. “This is the best bait shop around,” said Buck Raymond, from Mayfield, after he left the sales counter with his latest purchase: swim baits made by manufacturer Keitech.

Johnson said Raymond is a frequent customer. “How often do I fish?” Raymond asked the room. “Every day that I can.”

The COVID-19 pandemic provided Jim’s Bait Shop with its best sales years ever, according to its owner. This was not a great surprise because social distancing has always been popular with people engaged in fishing.

“Fishermen don’t want anyone else near them,” Johnson said, laughing. “The pandemic was good for us.”

He added that sales during 2022 have been solid but are down from the peaks of 2020 and 2021.

Compared to boating, fishing remains an inexpensive hobby. Combination rod and reel sets in the store run from $45 to $100 and when cared for, the hardware can last for multiple generations.

Lures cost from $5.50 to $12. Even live bait remains reasonably priced.

“A lot of guys will come in and buy nightcrawlers and go,” Johnson said. “That’s $3.25 and you can go out and have a good day.”

Johnson said the tackle side of the business is more important during the summer fishing season, but live bait represents as much as 60 percent of revenues during the cold-weather months.

“It’s like a whole different business, ice fishing to summer fishing,” Johnson said. “It’s a whole different deal. Ice fishing is pretty big.”

When Johnson begins operating only one day a week, on Oct. 15, which coincides with the beginning of hunting season, he won’t use his six off days to pursue deer.

“Do you know what I like to do during that time?” Johnson asked a visitor. “I like to go fishing.”

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53 Church Street Gloversville, NY 12078 518-725-8616 Contact Circulation 518-773-8272

Gloversville WeatherGloversville, US 8:32 pm, September 16, 2022 56°F scattered clouds Wind: 7 mph Sunrise: 6:38 am Sunset: 7:06 pm