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The first time Lester Byrum opened the doors of Byrum's General Store, Benjamin Harrison was president. Over on the east side of the state at Kitty Hawk, Orville and Wilbur Wright were still 13 years away from proving that man could leave the ground in powered flight. The year was 1890, and the store sat in what was then the countryside west of Charlotte. The folks in Byrum's rural community of Steele Creek welcomed the opening of a store with beautiful hardwood floors, a real foundation and a variety of general merchandise that surely must have included at least a modest selection of fishing hooks. Over the years, Lester Byrum forged ahead in building a business that, 110 years and several generations later, thrives as one of the area's leading fishing tackle retailers.

"We just keep on keeping on and it gets better every year," says 47-year-old Robby Byrum who presides over the 2,400 square-foot store. "I guess we're proof that if you offer what people want and sell it at a fair price, you can hang around forever. I know it's true today with fishing equipment and hot dogs."

Although the ancient building looks about like it did more than a century ago, the business has undergone major changes in how it serves the community. What was undoubtedly a good rural location along Steele Creek Road for a 19th century drygoods store has become an even better location for a 21st century tackle store. Robby Byrum has made a firm commitment to stock virtually everything serious tournament fishermen need. Robby estimates total inventory at 4,650 types of products and a total of 30,000 SKUs.

Customers coming through the heavy wood front doors are greeted on the left of the store with a 50-foot-long, 8-foot-high display of soft plastics. "With the enormous popularity of plastics, we try to carry them all," Robby says. Next to the plastics is a row of crankbaits with an adjacent aisle dedicated to topwater lures. A portion of the next row is filled with spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, with terminal tackle and some crappie and striper baits in another row. Rods and combos - usually between 700 and 1,000 units - are positioned directly across from the cash register near the front of the store. Retaining a chapter from the store's history, one long aisle is reserved for groceries. Byrum's also maintains an inventory of reels, which are in a locked glass case near the register.

Catering to the tackle needs of serious bass anglers poses a special buying challenge for Robby. "They know what they need and they know what it should cost," Byrum says. "So I do a lot of listening." Byrum makes a point to study trade magazines, and pays close attention to advice offered by sales reps. In recent years, he has cultivated an email line of communication with customers, some of whom travel as many as 125 miles to visit the store. "They'll write to me and ask if I have a particular bait and, if l don't have it, I'll do my best to find it," Robby says. "We do a lot of special orders."

A small but lucrative percentage of Byrum's buying is done to meet the needs of several foreign customers who, Robby speculates, are attracted by the store's antique aura. "Several years ago, half a dozen Japanese retailers came to a tackle show in Charlotte and somehow ended up in our store," Robby says. "They started ordering from me - the same stuff they could get cheaper from a wholesaler – and we've been doing business ever since. One of them recently traveled to Florida for a tournament and on his way back to Japan, brought his wife to Charlotte to meet us and take a look at the store."

With a brisk, profitable retail trade and a good location - and with land and building mortgages paid off decades ago - Byrum's might be a candidate for a transformation into a state-of-the-art outdoor store. No way, the Byrums say. For the same reasons many folks succumb to the allure of 100-year-old bed-and-breakfast retreats, tackle customers enjoy walking on Byrum's creaky hardwood floors and eyeing antique tackle displays. "Uncle Lester's potbelly stove is long gone, but sometimes I wish we had it back," Robby jokes.