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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

New blood at old bait shop

Former owner of iconic Cook shop back for goodbyes

David Colburn
Posted 5/10/23

COOK – It’s been a fishing opener tradition for over three decades for some anglers who’ve counted on the Northwoods Bait and Tackle in Cook to fill their bait buckets on their way …

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New blood at old bait shop

Former owner of iconic Cook shop back for goodbyes

Posted

COOK – It’s been a fishing opener tradition for over three decades for some anglers who’ve counted on the Northwoods Bait and Tackle in Cook to fill their bait buckets on their way to their favorite hot spot, and that tradition will continue this weekend under new owners Paula and Dave Dundas.
But there will be a touch of the old tradition as well, as former owner Joe Kruchowski is back from his Nevada gold and silver mine to ease the transition into the business for the Dundases and say farewell to the customers who supported him so faithfully over the years.
Paula Dundas, a former school teacher, said serendipity played a big role in the decision to buy the store.
“It’s really a pretty funny story,” she said Tuesday. “My husband and his buddy were out fishing this fall, and his buddy was throwing some plastics around. My husband had a real minnow. His buddy wasn’t having any luck, and my husband just set his hook, catches a fish, and says, ‘Hey, this is live bait nation.’ They were laughing saying that’d be a great name for a bait shop. They were talking and joking about owning a bait shop when they came back through town and saw the “for sale” sign on this bait shop. My husband came home and said, ‘Did you see the bait shop was for sale?’
I was formerly a teacher, home on maternity leave this year, and he was like, ‘What would you think about doing this?” I said I thought it sounded like a great idea. We love to fish, we love it up here. The rest is history.”
Dave grew up in Mt. Iron, Paula in Britt, and now they live on a farm just south of Cook with their nine-month-old daughter. Dave is continuing with a construction job he has in Hibbing, so Paula will be the one most frequently running the store, with Dave working there, too, on the weekends.
Regular customers who come in this weekend will notice fresh paint on the walls and some new pegboards for products.
“We built some new stands and things like that – we wanted to just give it a little bit of a facelift, but we didn’t really change a whole lot from what Joe had,” Paula said.
Kruchowski’s tutoring has been invaluable in learning the ins and outs of the business, Paula said.
“Just yesterday he helped me get the water dialed in to find the ‘sweet spot’ as he likes to say where the water needs to run to keep your minnows and leeches alive. There’s a special spot in that valve that you’ve got to find every year, and every year it’s a little bit different. He’s put us in contact with his bait dealers, and people are popping in all the time looking for him because he knows where to fish and what to fish for what times of the year. I’ve got to get Joe to write down all the secret spots.”
Paula said they intend to maintain the quality of the bait folks have been used to getting from Kruchowski, but they do have plans to diversify some of the available tackle, using Minnesota-based suppliers to do it. She’s adding custom lures from a supplier in Hoyt Lakes, and a new line of planer boards called “The Blade” that are also made in Minnesota. Other items will be added as the summer progresses.
“We like to support our local community, and that’s not just our Cook community, that’s the Minnesota community,” Paula said. “If we can find people who have a quality product that’s worth selling, absolutely let’s get that in here.”
Paula said they want the shop to be a true destination store with a broad customer base that will benefit the local economy.
“People who come in and shop our business are going to go to Zup’s, they’re going to go to the gas stations, they’re going to go to the liquor store, they’re going to go to the hardware store, so we want to bring people in and really help our area up here,” she said.
One of the big questions on the minds of anglers right now is if there are going to be enough minnows available this weekend. The statewide minnow harvest has been on the decline since 2017, and this year’s prolonged snow and ice cover may have had further negative impacts on baitfish. Bait dealers around the state have been warning of possible shortages for weeks.
Paula is optimistic that their supplier is going to come through with enough to meet their demand.
“Joe said it’s going to be tight just because of the late ice out and cold temperatures,” she said. “We’re fortunate that we have a really great bait guy who’s been able to get us some rainbows, chubs, leeches and crawlers, so come on in and pick some of that stuff up.”
Paula said that she and Dave have received great response from the community as they’ve transitioned into the business.
“As people have found out we bought it they’ve been super supportive and helpful,” Paula said. “From the grocery store and the gas stations and the hardware store, they’ve all said if there’s anything they can do to help, just let them know. They all understand that if we help each other everybody does better.”
The lure of gold
You won’t find a man who’s happier about his semi-retirement gig than Joe Kruchowski. He’s traded in 35 years of minnows and lures to pursue the lure of precious metal in a gold mine that he and wife Kelly bought near the infamous Area 51 secret Air Force test site in southern Nevada.
“We’re working at a place called the Little A’Le’Inn, after the little alien beings,” the jovial Kruchowski laughed. “It’s a world-famous bar in Rachel, Nevada, population 42. With Area 51, people come from all over the world and get their pictures taken by the base.”
Kruchowski said he learned about the Little A’Le’Inn by watching Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, and that when they went there, they hit it off with the owners.
“Before I knew it I was working for them for four or five months,” Kruchowski said.
Kruchkowski works at the bar three days a week, and the other four he and Kelly are working their mine.
“That’s the main reason we got rid of the bait store, so we could do this gold mining,” he said.
But after all the years of being in Cook, Kruchkowski isn’t planning on completely saying goodbye to his local ties.
“I’m trying not to get emotional about everything, because I’ve had the same people for 35 years coming through,” he said. “In my mind, I’m just going to come back another day and see them. I’ll come back next summer maybe for a week and stay at a resort and say hi to everybody. I’m not going to be one of these guys that just disappears permanently.
But he will be saying some goodbyes at the bait shop this weekend, and Paula said it’s a good opportunity for regular customers to come in and wish him well.
Beginning on fishing opener Saturday, Northwood Bait and Tackle will be open from 6 a.m to 7 p.m. daily, although Paula said there could be days they will stay open later, depending on demand. The shop also has a new phone number, 218-780-0089. And in a nod to Dave’s original comment, the business email address is livebaitnation@gmail.com.