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Fishing

Florida bait shop shocks some with its raunchy name

Janine Zeitlin
The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — The first time you drive by the little shop on Bonita Beach Road, you may wonder about the name painted in bold letters on the outside wall: Master Bait & Tackle.

Perhaps the most photographed wall in Bonita Springs.

Was that a mistake? Do they realize how that sounds? It’s a pun … right?

For sure, a junior high one.

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“When I was in about seventh or eighth grade in Sarasota, they had a big marina there,” said Ken Strasen, the 71-year-old owner of the Master Bait & Tackle. “They had an opening for a baiter. We said, ‘If you’re really good, you can be a master-baiter.'”

The joke still makes Strasen grin. He’s not looking to offend potential customers, but he’s not worried about it either.

Ken Strasen, owner of Master Bait & Tackle, in the back of the shop where he keeps some classic T-shirts.

“We’ve got enough problems in this country, people sleeping in cardboard boxes and eating off the street, to worry about something like this, c’mon.”

It’s perhaps the most photographed wall in Bonita Springs. Wedding parties pose in front of it. Women, in lingerie, have modeled there too. It’s like catnip for tourists.

The name was coined by original owner and local fishing legend, Dean “Dean-O” Hicks, who opened the store in 1994.

“He had a great sense of humor,” said fishing captain Rob Modys, of Hicks. Modys hosts REEL Talk Radio, which Hicks founded. “He had this wonderful pirate voice, this ‘arrr matey’ kind of thing … He was a remarkable person.”

Hicks died in 2007 from cancer.

Strasen was drawn to the innuendo of the name when he was looking for a major life change two decades ago.  He was laid off after investing 25 years in an insurance career. He had risen to vice-president before another company acquired the business. “They said, ‘We don’t need you anymore,’ and I said, ‘Nobody’s going to do that to me again.’”

A tourist from the Philadelphia area shows off her selection.

After reading the classic career-help book What Color is Your Parachute? Strasen said good-bye to days of wearing ties and approached Hicks about selling. Hicks went on to open the more sedately named, Reels Inc. in San Carlos Park. When Strasen took over, he saw potential for expanding the merchandise selection. He doubled the size of the shop as part of a business strategy to float through lulls.

“People don’t fish all day long,” Strasen said. “During the day, you’ve got to have something and that’s what the T-shirts do. It holds its own and it doesn’t die. We have shrimp that die every other day.”

Bait makes up the bulk of their business. They sell an average of about 5,000 shrimp a day. Merchandise that doesn’t help catch fish accounts for about a third of their sales, Strasen said. Christmas, Father’s Day, and spring break are boom times for gifts.

The store offers roughly 65 styles of shirts along with a host of other accessories like cups, shot glasses, hot sauce, hats, sweatshirts and short-shorts that read, “Bite Me.” The tiny shorts attracted the admiration of an interior designer in her 70s who dropped into the shop on a recent afternoon. The woman and her friends were visiting from the Philadelphia area. They had driven by the shop and laughed about the name through lunch, where they admittedly had one too many.

In his time in charge, Strasen estimates a handful of people have complained about the raunchy sayings that extend well beyond masturbation puns. One of his favorite stories is about two women he heard giggling as they browsed.

When they walked by him, they shared, "This is disgusting."

“And I go, ‘Wait, wait, why do you say that?’”

Ken Strasen, owner of Master Bait & Tackle, comes up with most of the sayings on the shirts.

Look what it says, they replied.

“My last name is Master.”

They blushed and rushed out, he recalled.

Creativity comes in varied forms. In the bait shop, word play is part of the gig. Some of Strasen’s favorites: "You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning." "Manatee, the other white meat." "We’re not here for a long time. We’re here for a good time."

Manager Jemel Maloney deserves credit for, "Plays well with self," which a mother bought in bumper sticker form this particular day before hurrying out to pick up her son from school.

The joke doesn’t get old for Strasen. What does is people trying to pitch their own sayings. Strasen has plenty, thank you very much. The crank calls from kids can be annoying too and the stores that rip off the name even more so. (Strasen holds a copyright in Florida.)

During slow moments in the summer, sometimes Strasen and Maloney try to track down the copycats. There’s no time for that in season. This afternoon’s rush included the tipsy tourists from Philly, a couple from Rhode Island, and a father with his two adult daughters buying shirts. Maloney called out after them, “Check us out on Facebook!”

He shared another trademark quip.

“You too can Master Bait online.”

Follow Janine Zeitlin on Twitter: @Janinezeitlin

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