Poe is best known for his wrapping, but Bill Poe's Custom Rods also has gained a reputation as a bass angler's mecca, the original bass pro shop in 20-foot-by-24-foot shack stocked with hard-to-find bass tackle from the world over.
Driving into the yard, customers are greeted by a furry mongrel named Rooster.
"He followed me home one night, cold, wet and hungry, and I had to keep him," Poe said.
Inside, three sides of the building have peg-board walls filled with lures, soft plastic baits and other accouterments that anglers crave, many of which won't be found at a superstore. Mega Bass crankbaits from Japan ($24 each) sit in a locked case. Lucky Craft crankbaits ($15) adorn one section. A box of Zoom crankbaits, a recent shipment, waits
by the door.
"For years, I've been one of two people I know of who sells Zoom crankbaits," he said of the handmade wooden lures from Zoom Bait Company in Cumming, Ga., a popular soft-plastic bait manufacturer that produces very limited quantities of crankbaits. "They're not cheap at $14 to $20, but once you sell 'em a crankbait they like, they'll come
back and buy a rod.
"Very few people come out here to buy on pack of worms, I can tell you that. I consider this a rod-building shop -- anything else is a bonus -- although dollar-wise I sell more tackle."
Manteo guide Bryan DeHart is one such customer. The first attempt to call DeHart found him about one mile from the Nags Head Pier, landing a striped bass for a client, one of 198 he put in the boat during a three-day stretch. Several of Poe's rods were in the boat. On subsequent call, DeHart had more time to talk.
"My freshman year of college [at UNC-Greensboro in 1989] I met my long-lost aunt and uncle at a fishing show in Greensboro," said DeHart, 33, referring to the Poes. "His shop, and then his house, turned into a nice little hangout to get away from college. I made a lot of friends and contacts during my years in Greensboro, but Bill and Mary
Ruth have meant the most to me over the years.
"He does business the old-fashioned way. Everybody who fishes the [bass] tournament trail knows Bill Poe. People come in there just to hang out with Bill."
"I miss the rascal," said Poe, who finds time to reunite with his protege during the annual spring shad and striper run on the Roanoke River.
Dennis Reedy of Siler City is another fan. A veteran of local tournament trails, Reedy has been visiting the remote shop for 12 years.
"The saying 'location, location, location' certainly doesn't apply to him," said Reedy, 45, who works at a civil-engineering company. "His shop, it's a community-center kind of thing. All of the stuff in there is dedicated to the bass fisherman. There's nothing in there low class, and he builds the best custom rods I know of."
Another of the regulars is Buddy Dowd of Siler City.
"I go there once or twice a week," said Dowd, 49, who has been fishing competitively for 20 years. "It's like a watering hole -- go in and drink a Pepsi. He has stuff before anyone else does, and there's always something going on."
Monday and Tuesday nights are the best times for visiting the shop, when anglers drop by to hear what transpired on lakes in the region.
"Bill will tell you he's the greatest fisherman who ever lived, but we have our doubts. Nobody's ever seen him catch a fish," Reedy said, joking.
Still, he knows what anglers want. He learns directly from them.
"We usually have quite a crowd here on Monday nights talking about what happened that weekend," Poe said as he wrapped line guides on a blank with black thread. "There's been a lot of tales told around this table. I really enjoy the people who come here, because they're the kind of people you want here, you know what I mean."
Poe regularly has anglers from across North Carolina and into Virginia make the trip to his shop, and he counts former pro football player Tim Goad and current UNC running backs coach Andre Powell among his customers.
Unlike most tackle shops, Poe is not open on weekends.
"That's when my customers fish," he said.
No, "school nights" are the best time for heading to Staley, when Poe can take a break from wrapping rods and commence to rapping with customers, exchanging information with his band of followers in a little angling oasis in the Piedmont.
Original story by Mike Zlotnicki appeared in N&O weekly Thursday Outdoors section.
