I found this site helpful for finding local bait shops and thought I would share it.

Bait Shop Search

Loretta - that is pretty informative. Many should find this very useful.

Loretta -- I hate to burst a bubble. I was hopeful that this would be a good tool.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have much info, at least for me. And, what I did find, wasn't very accurate. I looked at it for local live bait (mainly places that sell minnows) in areas I regularly fish in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina,Northern Wisconsin, and Northern Minnesota.

Knowing locals, stopping in the local greasy spoon restaurants, or sipping a beer in a local beer joint is unfortunately far more useful.

I actually didn't even recognize the few places listed in the areas that I checked.

Sorry,
Ken

Ken, the only one listed by me has been out of business for 2 years. It doesn't have Stanley's Marina at Koontz Lake, they have been selling bait for over 50 years.

Hmmmm.....sorry

It was helpful for me and I called several that were listed on that site for my area. There are no bait stores listed in my phone books anymore, I don't know why and I couldn't find any using on-line white/yellow pages.

Your mileage may vary.

"The bait shop search is free of charge and is supported by our sponsors. If you are the owner or manager of a bait shop in the United States or Canada, please submit your bait shop for addition into the database. If you know of any listings in our database that have closed or are inaccurate, please contact us."

Yeah the one listed by me has been out of buisness as of 2005 so it is a bit of a guessing game. Hard to believe Batesville Ark, does not have 1 live bait shop with a population of 10,000 people and the White River running through it you would think that would be a no brainer for someone!!


RC

Thanks Loretta,
Taking time to find and share this was appreciated by me (and probably others) I emailed the web crew at this site about a local bait shop by me that recently went out of business (sad to see local folks go out of business)

The bait fridge in my local Meijer store (local midwest US chain) usually has 1 or 2 containers of really old crawlers from a commercial bait company. Would love to see some hand picked home grown crawlers and other bait sold locally. I hear the minnows are brought to Michigan from Wisonsin. I can't imagine a local person can't do it as well and for cheaper than trucking from Wisconsin!!

Local Wal-Mart here has redworms, leafworms and nightcrawlers. Many gas stations have "walts crawlers", just a nightcrawler that is supplied to them.

Loretta, thanks for taking the time to post the link!

RC, a buddy of mine lives in Wynn. I'll send him an e-mail to see if he knows how to find baitshops.