Iconic Point Pleasant Bait & Tackle Shop Closes Its Doors

Reel Life Bait & Tackle (Credit: Google Maps)

A bait and tackle shop known for being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week has now closed its doors for the final time.

The staff of Reel Life Bait and Tackle on Bridge Avenue in Point Pleasant said their final farewells Saturday, announcing that the store would be closing.

Rich Przewoznik opened the store on Memorial Day weekend in 1989, then moved the store down Bridge Avenue to its current location four years later, his son, Bob, said in a post to the store’s Facebook page Saturday night. Reel Life quickly became one of the busiest tackle shops on the eastern seaboard, long noted for staying open 24 hours a day all summer and during striped bass season.

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“Rich used to say, because the fish don’t know what time it is,” the post said.

The post did not give a specific reason why the store was closing, but said the shop is “now in the past.” For the past several weekends, the store has been hosting large sales of its inventory, though most people in the local fishing community did not know about the impending closure.

“We are for ever grateful to our loyal customers,” the announcement said.

Customers remembered the personal service in the comments section of the post announcing the closure.

“Reel Life stayed in business for as long as it did for a reason,” a customer named Matt wrote. “Besides being a top-notch shop, Rich treated his customers well and his love of fishing showed. I have good memories of hanging around the store as a kid when you first opened and kept coming back on the occasions I’d get to fish in the area as an adult.”