Fisherman's friend

Friday, September 26, 2008

The Winding Creek Bait store may not sit near a large body of water, but for the past seven years Barbara Wiles has been making a living running the shop on Eastview Drive in Madisonville, and with her one-on-one customer support, business has grown each season as the word spreads amongst Hopkins County fishermen.

Whether it’s live, swim, or crank bait, lures, lines, rods or reels, Wiles has it, and if she doesn’t she’ll special order it.

“I stock a wider variety of each different type of bait and many more colors,” she said. “They get one-on-one customer support. When they walk in the door, we’re there to help them. They don’t have to look for a sales clerk.”

Wiles originally opened the store as a live bait shop after raising her own fishing worms. In addition to worms, Wiles keeps crickets, minnows, and other types of live bait.

Unlike some chains where bait like crickets live just one or two days, Wiles feeds and cares for the different bait before it is sold. Wiles said she can even sustain them over the winter for the next season.

With a dedication to providing quality live bait, most customers come to the store before wetting their lines.

“We get crickets and then in the spring we’ll get the red minnows for crappie,” local fisherman Kalem Tippett said. “She’s the only place around here that I know where you can get those little red minnows. Those are pretty good on the crappie in the spring time.”

As for competition, a fisherman’s only other options locally are in Central City or Greenville, Tippett added.

Although Winding Creek’s posted hours say 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., seven days a week, Wiles has an intercom buzzer that rings at her house, which is next to the store, when customers need an item after closing.

Wiles said she enjoys helping her customers, but admitted she has had calls as late as 3 a.m. asking when she would open.

“When I was a kid I always dreamed of being able to walk to work,” she said. “Little did I realize it would be a short walk, just across the driveway.”

Another customer, Kenny Morse, echoed Tippett’s sentiments and said the service and friendliness doesn’t hurt either.

“It’s the only one around,” Morse said. “I’ve been coming here a long time, about since they opened. They’re good about opening the door. You can stop and ring the buzzer, they’ll come from the house and let you get stuff any time you want. I’m out here all the time. I don’t buy any where else.”

Although Wiles notes what each customer buys, she said they won’t often share where they will be heading or what they’ll be trying to catch.

Morse, who showed up to buy crickets, reinforced Wiles’ statement.

“You can’t get that out of me,” he said.

Then, to Wiles he smiled and said, “Well, I showed you a picture once, remember?”

Wiles said she understands why most fishermen keep their lips sealed.

“Everybody always wants to know what the other guy’s catching them on and they’ll never tell me what they’re catching them on because they know that I’m going to tell the next guy so he’ll buy the same thing or something similar,” she said.

Growing up, Wiles fished nearly every weekend at Kentucky Lake with her father, but running the store has given her a deeper knowledge because of the interaction.

“I learn a lot from every fishing person that comes in here because I pay attention to what they have to say,” she said. “I get some really good fish stories. You learn a lot from the customers themselves, probably more than you can learn anywhere else.”

While Wiles learns at the store from her customers, she is also learning in the classroom at Madisonville Community College.

Although Wiles graduated from Madisonville-North Hopkins High School in 1983, she returned to the classroom to receive her associate’s degree.

Wiles is studying information technology and e-commerce. She hopes to get her degree by fall 2009 and use her knowledge to expand her services.

“Within the next year, hopefully I’m going to have a website,” she said. “I’m hoping that it’s going to branch out. I’m trying to get more and more people to know how to find us.”

In the meantime, word spreads among the Hopkins County fishing community.

Morton’s Gap resident Sammie Dukes said he found out about the shop during a conversation with a former co-worker of his.

“I actually learned about this place at the beginning of the summer,”he said. “I’ve been fishing all my life, but never really got into anything where I needed live bait, so when I started to realize live bait is the way to go, you got to find a place where live bait is.”

Reputation of Winding Creek has even reached customers beyond the Bluegrass State, and they will stop in when fishing locally.

“I’ve got customers that come in here from Florida, that come in here to go to Canada to fish,” Wiles said. “I’ve got a guy out of Texas, every time he comes through town, he stops here. If they’ve ever been here once, they’ll usually come back and look around again.”

The store may be open every day until the fishing season is over, but Thursday through Sunday is typically the busiest time as people escape to the water for the weekend.

Some of the customers will go to fish the lakes recreationally at Earlington, Grapevine or Peewee while others hit Lake Beshear and Kentucky Lake to do tournaments.

During the spring, Wiles said she gets a lot of business because March through May is a good time to fish for crappie, a fish most of her customers are after.

When it’s slow though, Wiles likes to take a seat on her favorite rocking chair in front of the store.

“It’s nice to sit out here and wait on the customers, sit down and talk to them before they leave,” she said. “They enjoy the swing and the rockers too.”

Before opening the store, Wiles lived in Hopkinsville and Nashville, but returned to Madisonville in 2000 and opened not much later.

After 17 years of retail parts store management, Wiles said she finally found the right atmosphere.

“I always wanted a retail store where people would be happy when they came in,” she said. “When you work in a parts store, they’re upset because their cars are broke, but when they come in here they’re going fishing and they’re pretty much in a happy-go-lucky mood.

“I have a lot of adults that are now taking their children and grandchildren fishing, trying to carry the sport onto the next generations. Most everybody that comes out here is good people.”