Hooked on bait business

[Jer]

Hooked on bait business

Sunday, November 26, 2006
By BOB RUSS Repository Suburban Editor


REPOSITORY PHOTOS MICHAEL S. BALASH

WORMS BY THE DOZENS Eddie Langenfeld pulls up a glob of night crawlers he keeps in the coolers at his shop, Eddie’s Wholesale Live Bait, in Green. Lagenfeld has been dealing in live bait for more than 50 years.


GREEN Maggots and leeches and worms. Oh my.

It’s not a business for everyone, but for Eddie Langenfeld, it’s been his life for more than 50 years.

If it moves and can perch on a hook, odds are you’ll find it at Eddie’s Wholesale Live Bait. Langenfeld, his daughter, Sue Westfall, and son, Joe Langenfeld, sell bait not only to area anglers, but to more than 150 bait and tackle shops within 100 miles to the east, west and south of their headquarters on Comet Road, across the street from Nimisila Reservoir.

Eddie Langenfeld, 84, began catching bait when he was a kid.

“Me and my dad fished every Saturday, and he wanted bait of all kinds; the more baits, the better.”

So Eddie learned where and how to get the bait his dad wanted.

As he grew older, Eddie realized he didn’t want to work for anyone else. “I wanted to be my own boss. I was fishing one day and decided to get into the bait business. I already was catching my own bait, so why not?”

“I sell night crawlers, maggots, minnows, waxworms, redworms, leeches, slab shiners — anything that’s got live bait connected to it.”

The business began in Massillon and moved to Comet Road in 1960. He sells bait and tackle to area anglers from a mobile home, but wholesaling is the main business.

CHANGING TIMES

Son Joe said the business has changed with the times, and not always for the better.

“We used to sell bait at any time, 24 hours a day,” he said. “There used to be a buzzer; people would come for bait at 3, 4 o’clock in the morning, and we’d get up for them. We never used to have to lock the door. Then we had some boys break in ... and the locks went on.”

In the summer, the shop generally is open from 7 a.m. until dark. Winter hours are 9 a.m. to dusk, but it opens at 8 during ice-fishing season.

Business isn’t what it used to be, Joe said. Statewide, fishing has diminished since the 1980s. License sales in Ohio peaked in 1987 at 1.08 million, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife. By 2000, they had declined to 742,587.

“Most of the little kids who come in here have their grandpa with them,” said Joe. “But the grandparents who fish are dying off.”

Daughter Sue said there used to be a lot more shore anglers at Nimisila Reservoir, but since it became a state park, the numbers have dwindled. Moving parking to designated lots, the elimination of restrooms and changes in mowing are reasons, she and Eddie said.

Eddie stopped selling licenses when the state forced vendors to switch to computerized sales, “and we had to pay more to the state,” he said. “It just wasn’t worth the trouble and expense.”

FOCUS ON WHOLESALE

So the main focus today is supplying bait to other tackle shops and marinas. It’s a grueling business, father and children agreed.

“In the summer, we work eight days a week,” Sue quipped.

Joe started driving a truck for deliveries in 1985; five years later, Sue began making bait runs, too.

Each averages 70 to 80 hours a week on the road, Joe said. “On holiday weekends, that goes up to 100 hours. You make a delivery, get back and then they need another delivery.”

How has Eddie’s captured so much of the live-bait market? “I buy the best bait to be bought,” Eddie said, “and I keep them thriving.”

Leeches, waxworms, maggots and redworms are always in stock. But the mainstays of his business are night crawlers and minnows.

Years ago, Eddie said, he used to catch night crawlers at area golf courses. “But they all use chemicals on their grass now, which kills the worms. Now all my night crawlers come from Canada.”

“My night crawlers are all big. Some shops want cheaper bait; well, they can get it, but what they get are tiny crawlers, and half of ’em are rotting.”

Crawlers need two things, he said: fresh, moist bedding and cool temperatures.

Commercial worm bedding is fine, he said, but he prefers black peat moss. “It gives them something to feed on. I’ve got 500 crawlers per box and rebed every three weeks. By that time, the peat moss has been turned to worm excrement.”

In the old days, he used to catch his own baitfish. “I knew what creeks to go to for the various minnows and shiners,” Eddie said. “The kids used to go out with me.”

Now they come from Arkansas.

WINTER MARKET

“Minnows are the hardest to maintain,” he said. “Every place has a different water supply; it makes it hard. There’s iron water, sulfur water, and the chemical fertilizers — every time it rains, it goes into the water.”

The key to keeping minnows alive is to keep the water cool and oxygenated.

“The more air they have, the better they do,” he said. “And the finer the air, the better.”

Eddie’s has seven tanks, with 800 pounds of bait per tank. It also has two walk-in coolers for worms and leeches. The bait’s delivered twice a week.

The business runs even in the winter.

“There’s still a demand,” Eddie said. Nimisila draws a fair share of ice anglers, for one. “Then we got people who go south for the winter, and we’ll ship it to them — mainly crawlers and waxworms.”

Sue said pet owners buy bait to feed to their animals and fish. “It’s a good part of our business,” she said.

“Few people look forward to winter,” she said. “But it gives us a little break from the summer, when it’s nonstop work.”

The bait business isn’t for the lazy, Eddie said.

A lot of people try to get into the business because they think it’s easy, he said, but “you’ve got to do it right. It’s not just making money. It’s work.”

Reach Suburban Editor Bob Russ at (330) 580-8490 or e-mail:

bob.russ@cantonrep.com

[capt. woodward]

I used to deliver a semi reefer of Canadian nightcrawlers to tackle shops in Chicago area every two weeks back in the 70's and 80's. It's a HUGE business up here, yet the locals hardly ever use them, when minnows were readily available (to net) and cheaper (by the bucket).

[Washashore]

I guess that makes him the.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................MASTER BAITER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best regards,

Washashore

[capt. woodward]

Spelt it wrong - - MASTERBAITOR