Manatee County tackle shop owner says fishing and business have changed since hurricanes

In the weeks following Hurricane Milton, Jeremy Lee saw his fishing tackle business slowly pick up steam and was almost back to normal nearly a month after the storm.

“Last week we started to see a slight increase in traffic as well as tackle sales,” said Lee, who owns Premier Tackle, 2539 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. “Clothing and sunglasses sales weren’t particularly affected after the hurricane, but tackle and bait definitely took a hit. People were more concerned about hurricane recovery and didn’t really understand what was happening to the water.”

As of 2020, Premier Tackle operates east of Interstate 75 in Manatee County. Despite being further away from salt water than most, Lee’s decision to open in the growing Lakewood Ranch area proved successful.

The business owner considers his store lucky to have minimal damage from Hurricanes Helen and Milton, as central and eastern Manatee County fared much better than areas closer to the Gulf of Mexico.

“We have a lot of clients who come from the north and love to fish. They can have a second home here,” Lee said. “This area really is a destination, most people think it’s just a beach but it’s not – it’s the whole area.”

Early success helped Lee begin to expand his business. On September 1, 2022, he signed a lease to open a second store in Naples. By the end of the month, the store and the area around it were destroyed.

“Hurricane Yen hit a few weeks later. We were not very lucky in this case,” Lee recalls. “People didn’t even know where we were yet, and then the whole area had to be rebuilt. We had to stop doing that business for six months and ended up closing the store. We took all the inventory from that store and moved it back to Lakewood Ranch.”

Witnessing the destruction Yang caused in Naples gave Lee a unique perspective on the latest destruction. He is already seeing the area recovering better.

“I think by mid-November we will be in good shape in business. Day and night are better here. People already know that we are back and open. In Naples, it’s more of a small town, and people didn’t get back to fishing right away, the boat ramps remained closed, and some guides I know didn’t go there for a year,” Lee explained.

“We are already recovering. Fishing is great right now. Fishing seems to be getting a positive response after big storms. New currents, deeper channels, storms shake things up a little.”

When asked what else needs to be done to get business back to normal and beyond, Lee said he wants the weather to be a little worse, but preferably not in our area.

“I think it’s going to get colder up north,” Lee said. “A lot of those people who come for the winter wait until it gets cold out there, so a few big cold fronts and they’ll be back down to start fishing again.”