Here's the hook: This sale's all about fishing

CHESAPEAKE

Chris Case dug his hands through boxes of swivels, snaps and snelled hooks. Amazingly, he never pricked his finger on one of the needle-sharp points.

He managed to find plenty of what he was looking for - the tackle that every angler regularly loses.

"Terminal tackle. The stuff you have to have," Case said. "... It's much cheaper here."

Curious shoppers and serious buyers were taking part in an age-old Saturday tradition - the flea market. But this was no ordinary yard sale. Sponsored by the Great Bridge Fisherman's Association, this menagerie at the Hickory Ruritan Club was all about fishing.

Robbie Lapham and his 10-year-old son, Nicholas, listened to a seasoned salesman tell them about the "exceptional qualities" of the rod and reel they were looking at.

"Looks like a nice outfit," Lapham said. "What kind of fish would you use it for?"

All around were tables of similar goods. Some items were shiny new, set up in professional-looking displays. Other s were weathered and used, crammed in boxes or piled in mounds.

Darrell Spruill browsed through a box of hooks and weights. He held a new-looking reel attached to a rod that surely had caught its share of fish.

"New reel, old rod... new fishing outfit for me," he said.

And unlike most flea markets, there wasn't much a cabin-fever-suffering angler couldn't find. Lures, line, tackle boxes, lead weights, rods, reels, bait boxes, gloves, knives - even boats and motors.

Including a dinosaur of an outboard motor: a 1927 Evinrude.

"We're not sure what horsepower it is," Billy Curling said. "Don't even know if it runs. But it's not for sale.

"This one is, though."

Curling pointed to a 5-horsepower, 1952 Scott Atwater "bail-a-matic" outboard that had a $500 tag. Not a typical flea-market price. But this working piece of history probably held a higher status than most items. It had a collector's feel.

"They haven't made this thing for decades," Curling said. "But she runs like a champ."

The Great Bridge group's programming chairman, Butch Pierce, was the flea market's champion.

After visiting several similar events outside South Hampton Roads and picking the brains of their organizers, he easily sold the project to the association 's board of directors.

Pierce's enthusiasm hadn't waned two hours in, after more than 500 shoppers graced the hall's narrow walkways and made their rounds past nearly 70 vendors.

Funds raised at the flea market will be used to help with the association's community projects and a pending scholarship.

" It's exceeded my expectations," Pierce said. "It's obvious we need more room."

Shopper Garland Burke was equally pleased, as a young member of his family lugged around a half-dozen fishing rods and a bag full of lures.

" I see lots of stuff I can't live without," he said. "If I was really bad, I could even duplicate a lot of stuff I already have.

"But there's too much stuff here I ain't got yet. So I'm going to keep looking."

Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com