ENCINITAS — A North County family drew on its skills and interests to address a problem familiar to local anglers: the lack of a nearby bait and tackle shop.
Morgana Taylor and Marc Meyers began discussing the idea of opening their own shop with their children, including Merrick Meyers, in November 2025.
Taylor told The Coast News that North County Bait & Tackle — which opened in July — was about “filling a void” for a community of avid anglers without a fishing hub between Oceanside and Point Loma.
“Every kid around here has a fishing pole on their e-bike, and it’s fun to have somewhere local for people to go to,” Taylor said. “It’s great because we didn’t want to also open up somewhere that would maybe take someone else’s small shop business.”
“It’s really tight knit,” Merrick said of the fishing community. “Everybody knows everybody, it’s really odd.”
Merrick now serves as store manager, while his older brother oversees much of the website and other digital operations and his sister sometimes helps with inventory. Taylor contributed her local business and real estate expertise.
“Everyone is either family or a friend of our family in the whole store,” Taylor said.
She added that family members and friends sometimes simply hang out at the store.
“That kind of stuff is kind of the vibe that we have,” Taylor said. “Nobody in the store has a bad attitude, which is really important for me.”
Merrick said the store strives to serve anyone interested in fishing, regardless of experience or preferred fishing style.
“We try to fit everybody’s needs in here,” he said. “We’ve got stuff for off-shore fishing, on-shore, salt water, fresh water and a little bit of fly stuff. We try to have most of everything.”
The store’s offerings include shirts and stickers by local artist Tim Gunther of Pato de Agua, as well as knives from the father-son team behind Leucadia Blade Co.
Taylor said she has taken cues from Merrick and his friends when deciding what to stock.
“Sometimes I think that people don’t listen to people that are younger because they don’t have the experience,” she said. “But they actually know what is happening at the moment. And so I think you can merge youth, experience, and expertise.”
Taylor added that living abroad shaped her approach to the business. Rather than focusing on getting rich or building an empire, she wants the shop to serve the community while creating a sustainable path for her children.
“I lived in Europe for like 16 years and they have a lot more of working enough to have a quality of life, which is sometimes hard to see here, because there’s so much of so much,” she said. “I think if we can just teach the boys to have a really healthy, running business with something that they’re passionate about, with something we’re helping the community and helping kids do something fun and healthy and cool, you know, that’s with something we’re helping the community kind of all you can hope for as mom.”
