Store looks to the needs of its customers
Through all the changes in the area, B & R Tackle and Hunting Supplies has been a staple in the York Beach Mall for 29 years.
Coastal Point • DAN GRAYBILL:
Greg Hamilton mans the register at B & R Tackle and Hunting Supplies, at the York Beach Mall.
“I’ve seen the area grow 10-fold,” owner Bill Hamilton said. “It’s almost getting to be too much. I used to be able to see the ocean.”
As much as the area has grown, B & R Tackle has grown as well. The store used to be a single room and comprised mainly fishing products. Today, it is moved into two rooms and now has fishing tackle, hunting supplies and beach supplies.
Hamilton bought the store because the previous owners were traveling from Florida to Delaware a lot and it became too much. He also bought a restaurant that his wife ran.
He runs the shop year-round now, but when he first started he was only open in the summer (May-September). In the winter, B&R is open five days a week. Hamilton’s son Greg is a business partner now.
“I was raised at this mall,” Greg said. “It’s nice to do something that I like for a living.”
Hamilton has pretty much every major brand of rod and reel imaginable, including top-end names like St. Croix and Tica. They also make more than 50 custom rigs for surf and offshore fishing. They carry a full line of bait — from ballyhoo to squid.
The wide range of beach supplies he has are throughout the store, including top-line Telescope chairs. There are also toys, Boogie boards and coolers.
He stocks a wide variety of guns and ammunition, too.
Coastal Point • DAN GRAYBILL:
Bill Hamilton tends to business.
The ideas for the beach supplies weren’t there from the get go.
“I would keep a list in my head when people asked for items,” Hamilton said. “I then started putting them in.”
And that is how he outgrew the initial space. He said he has outgrown the current space but there won’t be any more expansion for the shop.
B & R Tackle also assists people in booking fishing and hunting trips. They find people who charter boats and book them, mostly in the Indian River Bay and some in Ocean City. For hunting trips, they direct people to the right area for game or hook them up with a guide.
The shop serves as an official weigh station for fish and an official check station for deer.
The store maintains a Web site —www.brtackle.com — that shows all the products Hamilton offers and updates with a fishing report and pictures of some nice catches from the area waters.