In the weeks since Hurricane Milton, Jeremy Lee has seen his fishing tackle business slowly pick up, almost getting back to normal nearly a month after the storm.
“This past week we started to see a little bit of an uptick in traffic as well as tackle sales,” said Lee, who owns Premier Tackle, 2539 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. “Clothing and sunglasses sales didn’t really get affected after the storms, but the tackle and bait definitely did. People were more concerned with rebuilding after the storm and not really sure what was going on with the water.”
Since 2020, Premier Tackle has been operating east of Interstate 75 in Manatee County. Despite being further than most from saltwater, Lee’s decision to open in the growing Lakewood Ranch area proved successful.
The business owner considers his store lucky, taking minimal damage from Hurricane Helene and Milton, as central to eastern Manatee County fared much better than areas closer to the Gulf of Mexico.
“We have a lot of customers who come down from up north and love to fish. They may have a second house down here,” Lee said. “This area really is a destination, most people think it’s just the beach, but it’s not — it’s the whole area.”
Early success helped Lee begin to expand his business. On Sept. 1, 2022, he signed a lease to open a second store in Naples. By the end of the month, the store and area around it was destroyed.
“Hurricane Ian hit a few weeks later. We weren’t very lucky in that instance,” Lee recalled. “People didn’t even know where we were yet, and then the entire area had to be rebuilt. We had to stop that business within six months and ended up closing the store. We took all the inventory from that store and moved it back to Lakewood Ranch.”
Seeing the ruin that Ian caused in Naples has given Lee a unique viewpoint on the most recent destruction. He can already see that this area is faring better in its recovery.
“I think by mid-November we’ll be in good shape at the business. It’s night and day better here. People already know we’re back and open. In Naples, it’s more of a small town and people didn’t get back to fishing quickly, boat ramps remained closed and some guides I know didn’t take a trip for a year,” explained Lee.
“We’re already recovering. The fishing right now is great. It seems like after big storms the fishing gets a positive reaction. New currents, deeper channels, storms shaking things up a bit.”
When asked what else it would take to get business back to normal and beyond, Lee said he wants to see a bit more bad weather, but preferably not in our area.
“I think it needs to get cold up north,” said Lee. “A lot of those people who come down for winter wait until it gets cold up there, so a few strong cold fronts and they’ll be back down to start fishing again.”