By admin 
SAN DIEGO – For most of his young life, Merrick Meyers and his dad would drive to tackle shops 15 miles north or 25 miles south of Encinitas to gear up for their fishing trips. One day last fall, Meyers’ dad asked him what he thought about opening a tackle shop of their own, closer to home.
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Meyers laughed it off.
“It was like, that would be cool. Probably be a lot of work, but it’d be cool,” he said.
A few months later, when that conversation had faded, his dad and stepmother had news.
“(They) go up to me and they’re like, ‘Hey, we now have a space. So quit your job,’ ” Meyers, 20, recalled.
Nine minutes from their house. Five-year lease. Business plan. It was happening. The family now owned North County Bait and Tackle. The 1,000-square-foot shop opened in June at 120 Encinitas Blvd., just west of Interstate 5, and Merrick is at the helm as co-manager.
The business fills a gap in the county’s bait and tackle shop map. For years, there was a stretch north of Pacific Beach and south of Oceanside without a dedicated store. A tackle shop in Solana Beach closed several years ago. Mira Mesa, Vista, Lemon Grove, Kearny Mesa and Lakeside have fishing gear stores, and there are large sporting stores around the county. A vast sporting goods and outdoor gear superstore, Bass Pro Shops, is heading to La Mesa.
But for people fishing under Batiquitos Lagoon’s bridges, heading east to to Lake Hodges or surf fishing around Moonlight State Beach, the Encinitas shop is more convenient.
The business also fills two voids for the family, said Morgana Taylor, Merrick’s stepmom and the business’s co-owner, with her husband, Marc Meyers.
It’s the tackle shop they wish they’d had. And it offers the kids, ages 8 to 22 years, practical, hands-on job experience.
“It was really just to bridge that gap (in tackle shops) and then have something that the kids could do that they were passionate about, and bring that to the community,” she said.
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Most of Merrick’s six brothers and sisters – some by birth and some through their blended family – participate. An older brother, Max Besozzi, 22, handles the store’s website and loyalty program. The youngest brother, Leo Morgese, 8, advertises the business by wearing its branded T-shirts to school.
“He won’t wear anything else,” Taylor said.
As for Merrick and co-manager Owen Casey, they do inventory and manage vendor accounts – which Merrick said is challenging. He recently landed Shimano, a highly regarded maker of fishing gear, after months of trying. The store also stocks local brands Leucadia Blade Co. small batch knives and clothing by Pato de Agua. It also has some hard-to-find slide swimmers – which look like small fish and attract bigger fish – by Deps, a Japanese brand.
Casey pulled out another special item: a hard-to-find surface iron, which is a type of lure that shimmers underwater and moves like a fish. Casey is Meyers’ good friend and fishing buddy – and he worked at a surf shop and delivered pizza before joining as co-manager.
“It’s just something that makes you better friends, in a way,” Casey said of working with this buddy.
“The boys are bringing their special spin” to product selection, Taylor added.
The shop gets busy around 3 p.m., when schools get out and “a big flurry” of middle and high schoolers come, Meyers said.
That demographic is exactly the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s target, according to its 2025 report. In 2024, almost 58 million Americans ages 6 and older went fishing, a record high. “Data continues to underscore the critical importance of introducing fishing at a young age, as 85% of current fishing participants fished before the age of 12,” the report says.
Taylor’s main career is grounded in land, not water: she’s a residential agent. Her husband owns a home tech and automation business. The shop is “an extra” for them, she said. The big surprise for her has been just how many locals visit the shop.
“I thought it was going to be for tourists, and we actually have mostly local people coming in,” she said. “The community’s been super supportive. And everyone, I mean everyone around here with an e-bike has a fishing pole on the back of it.”
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This story was originally published September 9, 2026 at 2:42 AM.