HISTORY  

When Andy Tonnesen says Tony's Bait & Tackle is a family business, he is not exaggerating.

The Tonnesens lay claim to being the oldest family run business in Stafford Township & one of the

oldest in Ocean County.  Established as a bait & tackle business in 1927 by Andy's grandfather

Edward Tonnesen, Tony's is actually named after Andy's great-grandfather Tonnes Tonnesen.

Tonnes, a Danish immigrant, caught & sold seafood up and down the Jersey coast from

Perth Amboy to L.B.I. and eventually settled at the location where the store is today in Stafford

Township.  In 1977, after the passing of Andy's grandfather Edward, his father Edward took over

the business after years of commercially working the bay & helping out in the bait & tackle shop.

In 1988 Edward handed the reins over to son Andy, who has been running the business to the present.

Andy operated the business for several years in the original building that his father & grandfather

did.  Since the building was low to the ground, it was prone to flooding.  In 2000 Andy tore down

the original structure and replaced it with an extensive building, allowing him to tremendously

increase his inventory, Andy tries, and usually with success, to supply his customers with a

variety of quality live, fresh & frozen baits.  To help insure the quality of his bait, Andy

catches a portion of the fresh and live baits sold at Tony's.

Andy remembers catching minnows with his father when he was just five years old

and also seining for spearing & mullet in his early years with his dad & brother. 

Along with supplying live minnows & fresh spearing, Andy also supplies live grass shrimp,

live green crabs, live shedder crabs, live eels, bloodworms, sandworms, night crawlers and

fresh bunker & surf clams; of course, when in season.

Tony's Bait & Tackle stocks a variety of fishing rods & reels including brand names such as

Shimano, Penn, Avet, Fenwick, Lamiglas, Ugly Stik and Abu-Garcia. Along with selling new

equipment, Tony's Bait & Tackle can make your old rods and reels like new again in their

rod & reel service department, although Andy does admit that some times it is cheaper to buy new.

Also Tony's carries several types of saltwater fishing lures such as GULP by Berkley; bucktails

by Spro, ProFish and Corky; jigging lures by Braid, Shimano, ProFish, Luhr Jensen, River2Sea,

and Ava; trolling lures by Island, Sevenstrand, C&H, Williamson, Sea Striker and Tournament

Cable......Just to name a few!

To accompany your lures, Tony's has a wide assortment of hooks, terminal tackle, tackle bags,

pre-made rigs ranging from snapper blue to shark, and top quality fishing lines such as Momoi, Ande,

Big Game, Trilene, Seaguar and Power Pro.  To Assist the landing of that big catch, Tony's stocks

various sizes of landing nets & gaffs.

When the weather is less favorable, Tony's carries foul weather gear by Helly Hansen, Viking

and Calcutta.  Also in the clothing line are some great looking T-Shirts.

For the crab lovers, Tony's has everything you need to harvest your own tasty crustacean, and

if you do not fair to well on your own you can purchase some blue claws from "Stinky's"

right next door to Tony's.

Tony's Bait & Tackle is open year-round, but understandably hours are cut back in the

winter time.  Feel free to call for store hours & the latest fish info @ 609-597-7250

and Tony's accepts all major credit cards & debit cards.