What are some of your favorites? Do you have a place that you feel stands out?
I think we have lots of high quality bait shops up north, with some really good owners that treat you very fair, so you almost can't go wrong no matter what you list on here. But, a few do rise to the top for me.
Northern waters in conover is great and has good prices on their bait and accessories.
I think its a speedway gas station on the right just north of eagle river. Good bait, I like the walleye mix in the winter, and they have a paddle wheel where you can win prizes or free bait. I have won free bait one time.
Joking Joe’s in Three Lakes is pretty good. New owner this year but he ran out of fat heads on opening weekend and didn’t have his license terminal. Told to go to the Shell gas station. They had both but Shell counted the minnows!! Oh well hopefully he will be stocked up next time!
I agree karsyns corner is a good bait shop Kelly is a good guy and always takes care of me when I come in. upnorth sports and gifts is another decent shop in presqueisle very good selection of baits and lures rods reels boat parts etc they got a little of everything In there it's just up the hill on hwy b from karsyns corner. Although I will say karsyns bait is a little cheaper and more friendly people and they are a do it best hardware store also good luck fishing everyone!
Karsyn's Korner hwy b in presque isle. brand new bait shop / hardware store. great people and great bait.not fully stocked yet but the have all the live bait you need. prices and counts are more than fair. say hi to brenda in the gas station. she and her husband own the joint.
County Line gas station west of Minocqua on 70 is kind of surprising to me. Quite a bit of tackle for a gas station, even will have ice drills and shacks. Often I went there and they had things marked down to get rid of them and the prices were better than I could find online. Even regular priced tackle was not bad at all. Usually when I'm up north I assume buying local will mean higher prices, but not in this case from my experience anyways. If you get the right person working there, you get plenty of minnows too. Did have them count bigger shiners but even then they throw in a few extra typically.
Most of the Minocqua bait shops are getting to be counters so I avoid them. I get that minnows are more expensive now, but they buy them by the pound, not by minnow count. There was a place in Door County that sold minnows by the pound, I honestly thought that was better than the 'per dozen or scoop' approach. Easier to figure out their profit too I'm sure. Wish more did that. You would just ask for a 1/4 pound of fatheads, etc. They just put a bucket of water on a scale and zeroed it, then added minnows until they got to the right weight.
Case in point, last winter the 'large' shiners were the size of mediums at best. So you paid the large price, for smaller minnows. I think that was a supply issue as I saw that at multiple shops.
I’ve had my ups and downs with every shop I've been to up there. Kurts is often open late and has a great tackle selection, but I’ve had my minnows counted there too. Same with rollie and helens, and more recently dewey catchem. Nice shops but you should be able to get me a dozen shiners without touching them all with your hands. Sometimes they really seem to want your business and sometimes they don’t. Everyone has bad days i guess, but the negative experiences are the ones you remember and tell people about. I buy most of my bait in mercer, at flambeau flowage sports and turtle river trading company. both shops have smaller tackle selections and tighter hours, but they know how to sell minnows the right way. The mercer shops have better jig selections and info for the tff as well.
Kurts Island in Minocqua has always bent over backwards to get me what I need. Above and beyond.
R and M Musky Shop in Eagle River has always been great with minnows and being flexible with what I need for the day.
Lots of other great shops though. Don't want to forget anyone so I'll stick with just those two right now and say that there are a number of other good ones in Vilas/Oneida as well.
