Yesterday I visited a couple of shops in Hastings to top up my bait supply. Like most on here, it's my guess we all like to keep a fair supply on hand. I can't recall the last time I purchased bait, this because I have spent several months travelling overseas, but at a guess it was early last year.

I have always written on this site my preferred choice of bait is anchovy. With the head removed to allow the gut cavity juices to leach out, they rarely let me down and I have yet to hear a fish complain. Again I can't recall how much I last paid for a kilo packet packet of anchovies but I was surprised to discover they are now being sold at $9.00 a packet ... ouch!!!

Hang on, worse was to come. I was pleasantly surprised two days ago to catch a small snapper, this especially as my target was a far larger quarry. As I had several takes that afternoon I thought I would try again last evening, only this time with a rig purpose built for pan sized snapper.

With this in mind my plan was to use another favourite bait: Bonito. Now here I was really in for a shock. The bonito being offered by retailers were obviously quite old. There was virtually no sheen on the skin and in many places the skin was missing leaving just bare flesh, plus they had large areas of freezer burn. If all this wasn't bad enough the price was: $14.00 ... Ouch.

Perhaps I am old fashioned in my thinking, I will leave it to the reader to decide whether I am on the right track or not. It is when I go to a shop to buy bait I always browse around the shelves and take the opportunity to top up on previously lost terminal tackle. Occasionally I may come across an item of considerable expense and it's only been brought to my attention because I have gone to buy bait.

Having worked for many years in the retail trade, including senior management level, the use of loss leaders is common practice, these are to attract customers through the doors of the shop. This is done knowing a high percentage of customers would purchase other goods at the more usual margin. The word 'loss' is simply an expression, the item still shows a margin but smaller than usual.

It's my thought, rightly or wrongly, larger companies could use this idea; lower the price of frozen bait and attract more customers through the door. Would this work? Well yesterday, although the bonito stayed in the shop's freezer, I refuse to pay that money for what were described as 'Medium Size' in fact they were very small. However, I did buy anchovies and my total account came to $58.00. The rest was made up of terminal tackle to make good my recent losses.

Competition among local sports shop can best be described as keen. Even with the imminent demise of one large retail chain, there are still plenty of sports shops in Napier/Hastings to choose from. With regard to the chain reported to be closing. If a particular shop is showing itself to be capable of showing a good turnover, it is highly likely it will be offered for sale as a going concern. It may not 'Bite the Dust'.

So come on you guys involved in sports retail, I am confident there must be one of you who is prepared to dangle a bait carrot to attract anglers who may well buy a lot more than they came in the shop to purchase. There are certainly many cheap bait opportunities on Trademe, how about catching up?

**** Footnote **** For those of you who believe Hangler is having another controversial moan, I urge you to consider this. I know of several anglers, my Grandsons included, who purchase their pilchards etc from the local garage, they don't bother to visit a sports shop. The number of garages, supermarkets and dairies that now offer a small selection of bait is growing. Every angler who supports any of these retail outlets is not buying other items for their tackle box. I respectfully suggest you are losing a lot of trade and it's there for the taking. All you need to do is drop the margin you wish to make on bait.

Just a thought.