Daytona’s Fishin’ Hole has been hooking anglers for 60 years

DAYTONA BEACH — It’s inevitable that Beach Street merchants come and go, a reflection of changing trends and times, but an enduring landmark still hooks anglers on the boulevard’s northern end, at the foot of the Main Street Bridge.

For 60 years, The Fishin’ Hole has kept fishermen supplied with rods, reels, bait, snacks and other essential items of “piscatorial paraphernalia,” as husband-and-wife owners Gene and Lisa Lytwyn call it.

The Lytwyns have owned the shop since 1984, when they bought it from a previous owner who established the “Fishin’ Hole” name in 1959. And that wasn’t the origin of the spot’s angler connection.

“It was a bait shop for 35 years before that, under another name,” Gene said. “It’s a 1908 building.”

With its wood floors and rustic décor, the shop is an intentional throwback to old-fashioned bait shops. At the same time, it’s maintained with an eye toward contemporary consumers: Clean, well-organized, and packed with inventory that blends tradition with technology.

“We purposely remodeled it that way,” said Gene, 60. “It was an old-style fishing tackle shop when we purchased it and we decided it had its charm looking like that. So we tried to recreate that as much as we could while still making it user-friendly and functional.”

Unlike many tackle shops, the scent of live bait doesn’t smack you in the face at the door. That’s not an accident.

“We clean the shrimp tanks two or three times a day, a job that takes about 20 to 30 minutes,” Lisa said. “We don’t want that to be the first thing that people smell when they come in the door.

“A lot of people, especially a lot of the women, that’s the first thing they tell us, ‘Oh, I can’t smell the bait!’ We take that as a major compliment.”

Although there are nostalgic items on the shelves — child-sized fishing rods, cane poles, hard candies — the aisles also are lined with tools of the modern fishing trade: designer shirts that wick away perspiration and ultra-light rods that can cost as much as $250.

“The rods are so much smoother, they cast so much further, last so much longer,” Gene said. “The fishing rods are substantially lighter now, much more sensitive. You can feel the fish much easier, you can cast much further.”

Likewise, new technology has yielded braided fishing lines that resist stretching for a better feel when a fish starts to bite, he said.

’Fishing as therapy’

At the same time, some things haven’t changed.

“The baits haven’t changed,” Gene said. “Live shrimp, mullet. The places that the old-timers finished are still good places to fish today.”

Likewise, patience is still required to catch a fish, an attribute that can be in shorter supply in an age of smart phones, instant messages and social media fixation, the Lytwyns said.

“Many people use fishing as therapy to slow down a world that is so fast,” Gene said.

“We want instant results on almost everything. We want everything to happen so quickly. This is a way to slow down, to relax a little bit. A lot of my customers tell me they don’t care if they catch anything. They just want to sit and unwind.”

Patience also was required to sustain the business over three generations, the Lytwyns said.

When the couple bought the business, they were newlyweds. He was working as an accountant for the Coca Cola Co., who was preparing to move its Daytona Beach business staff to Atlanta. She was working for a clothing retailer.

“I used to come into the shop on my lunch break and wander around,” Gene said. “One day, I just asked, ‘Have you ever thought about selling the place?’”

The Lytwyns, both avid fishing enthusiasts, took the plunge.

“Both of our parents thought that we were crazy,” said Lisa, 57. “I was pregnant with our first child and we both left our jobs. If you asked me now, I don’t know if I’d take that chance.”

’A lot of ups and downs’

As it turned out, the couple raised two daughters in the store, using a fishing cooler as a makeshift bassinet for their oldest, much to the amusement of customers.

“Both of the girls worked here and got really good at fishing,” Lisa said. “They out-fished most of their boyfriends growing up.”

The business was flooded several times by hurricanes, including damage from multiple storms in 2004 that required closing for six months to renovate, the Lytwyns said.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs,” Gene said. “We’re lucky to have very loyal customers. After the storms in 2004, we were really scared that we were going to put our life savings into rebuilding, open the doors and people wouldn’t come. But they started pouring in.”

Looking ahead, the Lytwyns are encouraged by the construction of the new 11-story corporate headquarters for Brown & Brown, just to the south on Beach Street.

“I think it will bring a few more people to this end of Beach Street,” Gene said. “It’ll be a little more traffic and a percentage will be fishermen who will poke their heads into the door to see who we are. I think we’ll be able to hook a few of them.”

’Like old friends’

In addition to customers, the store has inspired loyalty among its employees.

Bob Avens, 71, has been a fixture behind the counter for 27 years, since leaving a previous job in a hardware store.

“We’ve got a good bunch of customers,” Avens said. “That’s the biggest enjoyment of the job, helping people out and seeing a lot of the same people from day-to-day. A lot of these people we see maybe on a weekly basis. They are like old friends.”

A casual fisherman when he started the job, Avens admits rather sheepishly that doesn’t wet a line much anymore.

“My best piece of advice is don’t make your pleasure into your job,” Avens said. “After working 27 years at it, when I go home, the last thing I think about is looking at more fishing tackle. I still enjoy fishing, but it’s hard to get the ambition to get out there and fish.”

Fortunately, there are plenty of other fishermen to keep The Fishin’ Hole busy. Because fishing in Florida is a year-round sport, unlike the seasonal windows available up north, the Lytwyns strive to be open whenever an angler might arrive at the door. The shop only closes one day a year, on Christmas.

For that reason, the Lytwyns don’t do much fishing either.

“I can count the number of times we get to fish nowadays on one hand,” Gene said. “The store has to be open people want to fish. If you’re off for a holiday, you want to go fishing. After work, in the evening, we have to be open. It’s a seven-day a week business.”

The Daytona Beach News-Journal is spotlighting area businesses that have been around long enough to be an important part of our collective history. If you are the owner of a business that has been in operation for at least 25 years, or if you want to nominate a longtime business for recognition, please contact reporter Jim Abbott at jim.abbott@news-jrnl.com. Be sure to include your name, phone number and a little bit about the history of the business.

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