Sydney aka Sam was a stay at home mom that baked cheesecakes on the side and John aka Rob was a union steamfitter. In November of 2013, on his way home from black bear hunting, Rob was in a horrific automobile accident that nearly took his life. He spent months not being able to do anything. Sam had to find a way to make ends meet and, living on the north end of Pymatuning Lake and having been an
avid fish keeper for 20 years, decided a bait shop would be something she could do to pay the bills and put food on the table. The first year we had fathead minnows, night crawlers, bobbers, and hooks. But with a happy attitude, superb customer service, and a willingness to listen to each and every angler as to what merchandise to bring into the store, the inventory and customer base has steadily grown. Then, Labor Day weekend, 2017, our live bait distributor informed us he was no longer delivering bait. He said we could either find someone else or buy his business and do it ourselves. Being the people we are, we bought his business and contacts. He had 10 bait shops, in PA, that we took over. The wholesale side has grown from those 10 shops in Pennsylvania to 150 shops in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia as well as 6 smaller wholesalers in those states. We have grown from just Sam to Sam, Rob, our children, Elizabeth and Jack, and 5 employees with further expansion of employees expected for 2021. We determined in 2020 that we need a live stock barn for the bait fish and more cooler space for the rest of the livestock. We hope to break ground on the barn this spring and have it built by this fall. The barn will double our bait fish capacity. We have invested in a new walk-in cooler which will double our worm and bug capacity. We, also, have invested in a walk-in freezer. We estimate that it will hold some 5000 giant frozen shad. Our goal is to have the best bait available to, both our retail customers and our wholesale customers. We want to be the place you come when you come to the north end of Pymatuning Lake and the place you tell your local, at home, bait shop to order bait from because we have the freshest bait and customer service second to none. Thanks,
The Robinson Family
