By Donald Wittkowski
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word fanatic as someone “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion.”
Although there is no listing in the same dictionary for the word fin-atic, we feel pretty safe in telling you that it is someone marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion – to fishing.
“Fin-Atics,” you see, is the clever name that Bill Wiggins dreamed up for the fishing and tackle shop he was planning to open up in Ocean City while he was still studying business as a student at the University of New Hampshire.
Just a few weeks before he graduated in May 1991, the store opened its doors under the ownership of the then-21-year-old Wiggins. His father, Bill Wiggins III, helped to finance the venture.
Twenty-six years later, Fin-Atics is still serving Ocean City’s fishing fanatics from its location at 1325 West Ave. It is the city’s largest bait and tackle shop, but added a line of kayaks about 10 years ago to expand its appeal to younger, outdoor-minded customers.
“Around the time the economic recovery started, I started to think and saw the writing on the wall. I had to diversify from being a pure fishing store,” the 47-year-old Wiggins explained.
Wiggins pointed out that the local fishing business has changed since the recession of 2008-2009. There once were five fishing stores in Ocean City, but now there are three. Summer tourists now represent Fin-Atics’ largest customer base, not the year-round residents who once served as the store’s primary market, Wiggins said.
People who fish often fall into an older demographic, so by adding kayaks to the store’s product line, Fin-Atics is now expanding its reach to younger customers to help it grow its business, Wiggins said.
Hobie kayaks are the store’s main line, but it also sells other brands. By getting into the kayak business, Fin-Atics was able to capitalize on the growing popularity of kayak fishing in both fresh and salt water.
“The trend started about 10 years ago, but has really gotten strong in the last five years,” Wiggins said.
Fishing and tackle, though, remain the store’s primary focus. Walk through the doors and you’re immediately greeted by hundreds of fishing rods standing tall in the middle of the store. In all, the shop has about 250 to 300 rods and the same number of reels, Wiggins said.
The store also carries plenty of line, lures, live bait, clothing and accessories to give any fisherman or woman all they need for their next trip out on the ocean, bay, river, lake or pond.
It was on the tiny ponds of Yardley, Pa., where he grew up, that Wiggins first learned to fish with his father. His dad, now 69 years old, still lives in Yardley, but has a summer home in Ocean City.
When his father bought a boat, the two began fishing in the ocean. Wiggins still remembers the first ocean fish he caught – a bluefish – when he was around 8 or 9 years old.
Wiggins and his staff, all experienced in the art of fishing, relish sharing what they have learned over the years with their customers. Ed Bronstein, an original partner in the business, still works in the store a few days a week. One employee, John Grzymko, has been working in the shop since 1992, Wiggins noted.
“The end goal is for someone to catch something,” Wiggins said of the fishing tips given to customers. “We try to make it as easy as possible so they’re not fumbling.”
You would think all someone needs to do – in a town surrounded by the ocean and bays – would be to drop a line in the water and wait for the fish to jump on. But there are certain secrets about the best places to fish, the best times and the best baits. That’s where the advice from the Fin-Atics staff can really help the customers, Wiggins stressed.
“I would not call Ocean City the mecca of fishing in the state. But the fishing is good or even great in the back bays. It can be good in the surf, too,” he said.
Calls to the store’s number at (609) 398-2248 give customers the option of listening to a detailed fishing report for the ocean and surrounding bays, including the types of fish that are biting, where they can be found and which baits to use.
