On a recent Thursday, the store was teeming with customers, many of whom had not been there in ages. The shoppers had come in search of deals at Pete's Going Out Of Business Sale.
After 26 years, owner Pete Allred is retiring. The door will soon close for the last time, but the date is still uncertain. "We'll stay open until everything is gone." Allred said.
To say that he has had an impact on the local fishing scene around Morehead City is an exercise in understatement. Pete is an icon in this area and his store serves as a local meeting place, where anglers can purchase the latest gear and catch up on what's biting.
"Pete is a keen observer who studies fish and people without even knowing it," said noted flyfishing celebrity and author Tom Earnhardt. "There are few fish related problems from the Gulf Stream to Pamlico Sound that he can't solve. He's a real gift to the angling community."
Allred came to the fishing business in 1963 after an on-the-job injury at Russell's Glass Shop forced him to seek other means of making a living. He was hired on at EJW Sports. At that time he had not fished too much. Tom Willis, who hired him, didn't see that as a problem, Allred recalls. "He said 'Good, then I can teach you from scratch.'" Th
e instruction took and Allred became an avid fisherman. In 1976, he caught 55 cobia, establishing his reputation as an expert on local cobia fishing.
"Cobia fishing back then was a big as trout fishing is today," Allred recalled. "Back in those days, you could catch cobia all summer. These days, it's rare to catch them past June. My best guess is that it is a water quality issue."
Now, Allred's favorite quarry is the speckled trout. In the fall, he is often found casting a Mirrolure to the rocks at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. The large quantity of State Citations for prize catches hanging on his walls attest to his skill.
He likes St Croix rods, Penn reels and is a big fan of the new braided superlines, like the Berkeley Fireline. Over the years the best lures haven't changed much except he says that today, "The lures are much more realistic looking."
Allred favors soft plastic tails attached to lead head jigs and the hard plastic plugs that have been popular for almost half a century. He used to like to use a bucktail jig, with the Upperman and Aunt Millie's being the ones he liked the best.
From his storefront on Arendell Street, Allred has seen a lot of Changes in his community and his business, mostly in the form of building and development that have affected the environment, the local economy and the tax base.
"Thirty years ago, the only time that there were many cars on Arendell Street was on the weekends," he said. "Now it seems like you have to wait a while to turn at any time of the day, no matter when you are here. You can hardly tell Sunday from Monday."
He also has seen many techniques and tools of the trade go in and out of favor. Two innovations stand out to him, however: slow-trolling for king mackerel and graphite fishing rods.
"We used to float fish for kings," he said. "When you would catch a fish you had to motor back up current to where the fish were holding. Then we started to leave the baits in the water when we motored up." From there it was a short jump to leave the floats off entirely. "Now everybody slow trolls for kings and most people think there isn't another way to catch them."
When graphite fishing rods came along, Allred saw another change. "Those are pretty important," he said. "When we went from glass to graphite, that was the biggest transition. They have allowed everybody to have a nice fishing rod."
In recent years the false albacore fishery has attracted many fly anglers to the Morehead City area. Locals like Allred who favored the speckled trout, scorned the Fat Albert.
"The only time anybody went after them was when nothing else was going on," he said. "Even today, most of the people who come here to fish for them are from out of town."
The interest in flyfishing for false albacore spurred a new segment of the guiding industry, in-shore fishing. "All the guides came in when the Fat Alberts got popular," he said. Today there are at least a dozen guides offering flyfishing services in the Beaufort-Morehead City area.
With the store closed, Allred will have more time for fishing. The home he shares with wife, Rhoda, who can also catch a fish or two, is within walking distance of Taylor's Creek and the Beaufort Waterfront.