Looking at the google for state line road I remembered another sure enough bait shop that is apparently still a bait shop. It is now called On Target Hunting Store on google but I don't think it was when I knew it well. There was a GOOD all you can eat catfish place across the road...none of those grain fed commercial catfish but straight out of the Chattahoochee with all that good Atlanta fertilizer. My mouth is watering now thinking of those fish, those hushpuppies and that tea that would put a diabetic in the grave with a smile the undertaker couldn't wipe off his face. But I digress.
That bait shop was the real deal. Honest to god cane poles hanging under the eves....anywhere from 6 foot long to 20. None of that bamboo with a metal feral crap either...one piece honest to god can poles the man cut off the side of the highway, laid up to dry and sold for about .10 cents a foot if memory serves. They had anything you could ask for. Minnows of every size and description, big bellied crickets you could flat line (honest to god....man fattened them up on sliced potatoes in the box...the smell was noticeable at the catfish place across the street if the wind was right), worms of ever description INCLUDING Georgia Jumpers....the ones that live in pine straw and can whup a 3 pound largemouth bass if they want to. They had chicken livers, gizards, hearts, beef and pork liver, ivory soap (for those who don't know real ivory soap is the best trot line bait ever....lasts forever and big channel cats love it) meal worms, wasp larvae as well as bee larvae, leaches that were caught in the creek just down the street by a kid with a rotting chunk of stew beef, this place had it all and did a BOOMING business. They even had chattahoochee suckers and shiners straight from the river. Talk about matching the hatch! They sold drinks in one of those machines you pulled one drink at a time from the door and they always had ice crystals in them. They sold home made fried pies....you ain't lived until you have ate a home made fried chocolate or lemon pie. None of that dang stuff mass produced but made by the hands of a good christian woman. This place was the for sure real deal.
But the truly interesting thing about this place was the plaque they had over the front door claiming it was the birthplace of....wait for it.....The Tom Mann Bait Company! Most people will say that Tom Mann started his business in Eufala and the companies web site says Enterprise Alabama. But there seems to be some truth to the fact that he grew up outside of what is now Valley in Chambers County and did indeed make and sell something close to the Little George in that very bait shop just outside Valley. Back when West Point first came to full pool and was so young it wasn't unusual to catch bass 2 at the time on a crank bait (the eco system hadn't settled in yet and bait fish were scarce and had a lot of places to hide) this was a widely held fact in Shawmut, West Point and what is Valley today. My uncle swore he bought some of those baits from Tom Mann himself at that bait shop. They had a letter from the Tom Mann Bait Company affirming that he had indeed sold baits at that shop but it could be a forgery....the company claims Enterprise as the companies birthplace and Eufaula is what the world knows.....
That bait shop was the real deal. Honest to god cane poles hanging under the eves....anywhere from 6 foot long to 20. None of that bamboo with a metal feral crap either...one piece honest to god can poles the man cut off the side of the highway, laid up to dry and sold for about .10 cents a foot if memory serves. They had anything you could ask for. Minnows of every size and description, big bellied crickets you could flat line (honest to god....man fattened them up on sliced potatoes in the box...the smell was noticeable at the catfish place across the street if the wind was right), worms of ever description INCLUDING Georgia Jumpers....the ones that live in pine straw and can whup a 3 pound largemouth bass if they want to. They had chicken livers, gizards, hearts, beef and pork liver, ivory soap (for those who don't know real ivory soap is the best trot line bait ever....lasts forever and big channel cats love it) meal worms, wasp larvae as well as bee larvae, leaches that were caught in the creek just down the street by a kid with a rotting chunk of stew beef, this place had it all and did a BOOMING business. They even had chattahoochee suckers and shiners straight from the river. Talk about matching the hatch! They sold drinks in one of those machines you pulled one drink at a time from the door and they always had ice crystals in them. They sold home made fried pies....you ain't lived until you have ate a home made fried chocolate or lemon pie. None of that dang stuff mass produced but made by the hands of a good christian woman. This place was the for sure real deal.
But the truly interesting thing about this place was the plaque they had over the front door claiming it was the birthplace of....wait for it.....The Tom Mann Bait Company! Most people will say that Tom Mann started his business in Eufala and the companies web site says Enterprise Alabama. But there seems to be some truth to the fact that he grew up outside of what is now Valley in Chambers County and did indeed make and sell something close to the Little George in that very bait shop just outside Valley. Back when West Point first came to full pool and was so young it wasn't unusual to catch bass 2 at the time on a crank bait (the eco system hadn't settled in yet and bait fish were scarce and had a lot of places to hide) this was a widely held fact in Shawmut, West Point and what is Valley today. My uncle swore he bought some of those baits from Tom Mann himself at that bait shop. They had a letter from the Tom Mann Bait Company affirming that he had indeed sold baits at that shop but it could be a forgery....the company claims Enterprise as the companies birthplace and Eufaula is what the world knows.....
