For nearly 60 years, Moe’s Bait Shop has served Detroit’s vibrant fishing community.
But the number that explains the shop’s connection and devotion to Detroit’s fishing scene more vividly is 100.
And that represents the 100-plus hours a week that Jim Mogielski happily spends mostly at his largest shop, located at 14712 East Jefferson in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood, during Michigan’s fishing season.
“We’re here for the people, not to get rich,” explained the 55-year-old Mogielski, who is open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m., Monday through Friday and then from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m. on the weekend. “You have to have what the people want, but I don’t push to sell anything.
“We have a relationship with just about everyone who comes in here, so if people buy, they buy. But I will also tell a customer that you don’t have to buy it all at one time, that’s just the way that I have always been. I want to make sure I’m giving people a good deal and making people happy.”
And on Father’s Day on Sunday, June 15, he’s expecting the usual crowd of dads and their kids to stop by. For many of them, it’s a tradition that’s the perfect way to bond and say I love you, without even having to say a word.
On the morning of June 11, Mogielski was quick to admit that he is a “different” type of business owner. But he is not about to change because with each customer that is served at one of two shops he operates about 4 miles apart on East Jefferson Avenue, Mogielski honors the legacy of his late father, John Joseph Mogielski, who started the business within a party store across the street from Belle Isle in 1966. He later moved a little farther east down the road to a spot within the old Lillibridge Hotel at Lillibridge and East Jefferson.
During the business’ still early years, a young Jim Mogielski — then known as “Little Moe” in relation to his father, “Big Moe” — began to get involved with the business.
“I would pack worms for my dad and I would work and work and work,” said Mogielski, who in those days also was joined by his brothers Paul, Michael and Edward.
Along with working hard, Mogielski also listened carefully to everything his father said at the shop. And there was one particular message that stuck.
“My father always said that if anything ever happened to him, that he wanted me to keep the shop going,” said Mogielski, who also found some time when he wasn’t working as a boy to enjoy fishing with his dad, which they did on the Detroit River by the old Uniroyal plant. “Then, when he died (in 1989), I made the commitment to keep the shop going because it was important to him. I had a good full-time job, and there was really no money to be made at the shop at the time. But I just grinded it out and it got better when fishing got better in the area.”
In the process, Jim Mogielski would transform from “Little Moe” to “Big Moe” and he also would find a friend who admired his mission and had talents to help him in a major way.
“We really became friends from the get-go,” Mogielski’s friend of 32 years, Michael Noblett, said on the morning of June 13 in between assisting customers at Big Moe’s Bait & Tackle at 6440 E. Jefferson, off Mount Elliott just west of the Belle Isle Bridge. “We met playing foosball (at the former Wizard Arcade on East Eight Mile Road), two young guys across from each other playing and then we started playing as a team. But when he began to talk about work, like everybody does, I could relate to everything he was talking about because I had been into fishing all of my life.”
As it turns out, Noblett, who has managed Big Moe’s Bait and Tackle for his buddy since it opened 14 years ago, used to fish for walleye with worms purchased from Moe’s Bait Shop’s early location within the Lillibridge Hotel decades ago. But he didn’t know the Mogielski family at that time because Noblett’s brother-in-law made the worm purchases while Noblett manned their boat at night. However, since Mogielski and Noblett have worked together with the business, they have often been confused for brothers by customers. And like his brother in the business, Noblett delights in answering questions from customers about the wide array of rods, reels, tackle and live bait that his shop carries. Noblett also has Mogielski’s work ethic, which means Noblett will be working on Father’s Day and expects to have a big steak waiting for him when he gets home in the evening.
Earlier in the week, Mogielski said he was not sure of the other things he would be doing on Father’s Day, outside of taking care of customers at his shop. But Mogielski’s son Brian, who was assisting him at the shop on the morning of June 11, revealed a surprise he has been planning as a reminder of the legacy built by his father and grandfather.
“I’m thinking about surprising my dad with some type of fishing plaque — something to hang up in the bait shop,” said Brian Mogielski, who earlier explained how bonding with customers about fishing agrees with him much more than the office job he previously had. “With the plaque, I’m thinking of a family photo and a fish frame to go with the theme of the shop and what the shop has meant to our family.”
If that plaque is hung in the shop on Father’s Day, there is a chance that it will be seen by Johnnie Ankom, a longtime customer of Big Moe’s Bait & Tackle shop near the Belle Isle Bridge, who visited Moe’s larger shop located about 4 miles farther east in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood for the first time on June 11 and enjoyed the experience.
“If the fish are biting on Father’s Day, I plan to go fishing,” stated Ankom, who flashed a wide smile when Big Moe confirmed that he would indeed be open on June 15. “I know everything is moving down, so I’ll be following the fish.”
A lifelong Detroiter and a 1987 graduate of Mumford High School, Ankom prided himself on being an ambassador for his city during the many years he spent as a cab driver. And he believes that Big Moe and his bait and tackle shops have represented Detroit in fine fashion as well.
“We’ve had so much taken out of the city through the years, so it’s great to have shops like this in the city,” said Ankom, who started fishing when he was about 3 years old while growing up near Eight Mile and Livernois. “Now I can say that at both of their shops, it’s always a good experience. They’re very detailed; whatever questions you have, they answer to the best of their ability. They also have the best prices on the river, as far as I’m concerned.
“But more than that, you’re always going to get more care and love at your neighborhood shops. And a shop like this — it feels like home.”
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Father’s legacy, dedication to customers lives on at Moe’s Bait Shop in Detroit
Reporting by Scott Talley, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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