The little shop that could

Perched on the northern outskirts of Morgan Hill in unincorporated south San Jose is a converted fruit stand where anglers – beginners to professionals – have been stopping for more than three decades before casting off for their next fishing excursion.
Coyote Bait & Tackle is a longtime local staple in South County and favorite haunt among the most avid of fishermen. Behind the counter, knowledgeable and courteous employees welcome all patrons with a friendly smile and advice on where the fish are biting.
“We pride ourselves on our customer service,” said store manager Mickey Clements, a 2002 Live Oak High School alumnus and ardent outdoorsman who’s shared his fishing know-how with swarms of customers over the past seven years. “Our criteria to work here is you have to at least know your way around a fishing pole and a couple of the lakes.”
Situated on the southbound side of Monterey Road and surrounded by 11 waterways within a 50-mile radius – including Calero Reservoir and Uvas Dam to the west and Anderson Reservoir to the east – the small, blue-colored store is ideally located for its piscator clientele.
“We can set you up with a rod and reel for $20 if that’s what’s in your budget,” said Clements, proudly pointing out the shop’s 5-star rating on the business review website Yelp.
The shop received a steady flow of regular return customers on a recent Friday. Between assisting patrons, Clements made plans with a fellow employee for a midweek salmon fishing run to Moss Landing on the coast.
“I fish as much as I can, whenever I’m not working,” said employee Alex Tran, 25, of San Jose, who has been at Coyote Bait & Tackle for about a year. “It’s like family here. Everyone is knowledgeable and we help our customers who have been coming in here for years because we share the same passion.”
Long before Highway 101 extended through the South County area in 1985, however, motorists driving down Old Monterey Road pulled over for entirely different reasons. That’s because the stretch of two-lane highway Coyote Bait & Tackle presently sits on – a once treacherous area known as “Blood Alley” by the locals due to the many accidents – was lined with fruit stands filled with the freshest apricots, peaches and cherries.
One stand was purchased in 1974 by Morgan Hill native Terri Bradford, who now co-owns the business with her 49-year-old daughter Denise Bradford. At the time, Bradford didn’t anticipate her little produce venue would someday be a popular pitstop for hundreds of fishing fanatics.
“It was my first (entrepreneurial) endeavor,” recalled Terri of opening the fruit stand with a small live bait shop on the side for extra business when Denise was still in grade school.
As the only fruit stand on the southbound side of Monterey Highway – the others positioned across the roadway – business was good for the Bradfords.
In the summer of 1977, Terri – now 69 and in semi-retirement – bribed her then 13-year-old daughter to come work at the stand with the promise that, if Denise stuck it out, plane tickets to Hawaii were waiting before the next school year. Denise, along with a childhood friend, worked through the summer and earned a vacation to paradise.
But times in the fruit stand business weren’t always lucrative, especially in 1985 with the construction of the 12-mile Highway 101 extension through South County, known as “Blood Alley Bypass.” The impact, which re-routed a majority of the traffic away from the Coyote-Morgan Hill area, was worse than the Bradfords and other business owners along Monterey could have ever imagined. Instead of a steady stream of regular customer, Terri said, “it went from a busy highway to nothing. It was dead.”
With a fruit stand piled high and a lack of customers, Terri sent an employee to the flea market in San Jose to sell their produce.
She also made another career-altering decision.
“We started buying not so much fruit and started to buy more bait and tackles and snacks to stock the store,” Terri remembered.
Denise, who by then had graduated from Presentation High School in San Jose and was working full-time with her mother, grabbed the fish by the fins, so to speak, and began transforming the fruit stand to a full-service bait shop.
“We just went for it,” said the Morgan Hill local, recalling a strategic business alteration that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
First, Denise paid for a vendor’s spot at a nearby outdoor trade show to introduce the local fishing industry to the new Coyote Bait & Tackle shop.
There was only one problem: Denise knew little about fishing.
Aside from the tidbits she picked up by working at her family’s small bait shop over the years, Denise felt like “an idiot” among the industry giants at her first exhibition.
But she kept on swimming.
“I just kept going at it. I got into fishing myself,” she explained. After that first show, she began to read every book on fishing she could get her hands on. “I was determined that I was going to know more.”
The next year, Denise – an amiable, energetic businesswoman – set up shop at a big 10-day fishing showcase at the Cow Palace in Daly City, something she has done every year since. Things only got better from there.
Roughly one year later, “fishermen would just get off 101 and do their shopping with us and get back on the highway,” said Terri, a laid-back, kind-spirited mother who could not be prouder of what her daughter has accomplished. “It took a full year to get everyone in that mindset.”
Denise didn’t stop there. She scouted out bass fisherman clubs and attended their meetings, expanding her business into the realm of professional bass tournament fishing. Presently, Coyote Bait & Tackle is a must-stop for local fishermen as well as professional anglers, including those on the Western Outdoor News Bass Tour, which is a West Coast professional circuit that hosts about 10 competitions per year.
“We just capitalized on everything,” Denise said, cheerfully shrugging her shoulders as she sat in her small back office surrounded by fishing inventory yet to be stocked, file cabinets of invoices and photos of past fishing excursions pinned up on the walls.
“It just has evolved through the years and I just accepted it as we went along,” added Terri. “I enjoy coming to work every day.”
Today, Coyote Bait & Tackle sponsors its own professional bass angler, Zak Elrite, who started coming to the shop as “a wide-eyed kid looking at all the lures” with his father before heading out to favorite spots such as Anderson and Calero. The pro angler is also sponsored by industry leaders Dobyns Rods, River2Sea and BassAngler Headquarters.
“Everybody knew Coyote Bait & Tackle was the place to go growing up. That’s how I got introduced to fishing,” said Elrite, a 34-year-old San Jose resident who is still amazed at how much the shop has grown into the utmost authority on fishing in the area. “It’s meant the world to me.”
Elrite, who runs a general contractor business and a guided tour company called “Zak-Attack,” explained that no matter where he drops his fishing line and who he speaks with at various tournaments, they all know and respect the Bradfords as leaders in the industry.
“Denise is amazing,” continued Elrite, who will be competing in the 2013 U.S. Open for bass fishing on Nevada’s Lake Mead in September. “She knows all the top-level pros … she stocks the store with the best quality products. She’s really taken the reins and made it what it is today.”
These days, Denise can point out a “Whoppler Plopper” top water lure; to a “Lunker Punker” lure for bass fishing; to a “Crippled Anchovie” salmon-fishing lure for her customers.
“It wasn’t something that I was passionate about. It wasn’t something that I picked to do. It just picked me,” said Denise, whose fondest memories involve family fishing trips, along with younger sibling, Jennifer, to Mexico – where Terri once caught a 90-pound Marlin that hangs on the shop wall behind the counter.
She also knows when to fish (some of the best times being in the fall through spring); where to fish (stripers abound in the San Luis Reservoir, she says); and what to fish for – whether it’s the season for catfish, crappie or carp.
“It makes me smile everyday to see what she’s accomplished,” said Terri, giving all the credit to her daughter.
Denise, however, will tell anyone who asks that they did it together, a mother-and-daughter team to the end.
“That’s very special. We can work all day long together and talk at night on the phone,” Denise said. “That’s been a blessing, being able to work with her for my whole life.”
Located: 8215 Monterey Road, Coyote
Hours: 6 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (M-W), 6 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Thurs); 6 a.m.-8 p.m. (Fri); 6 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Sat); 6 a.m.-7 p.m. (Sun)
Phone: (408) 463-0711
Website: www.coyotebait.com