New bait and tackle shop coming to Port Jefferson – in the old McDonald’s

A former McDonald’s that has sat vacant for 10 years on Port Jefferson’s harborfront is being reborn as a full-service bait and tackle shop.

Port Tackle is expecting to fill the huge gap in the local market that anglers have felt since West Marine in Port Jefferson Station shuttered over three years ago. A soft opening is set for April 3, with a grand opening April 25.

Justin Braun, founder of the offshore fishing tackle company ChatterLures, and business partner Conor O’Keefe — the manager at ChatterLures and a childhood friend of Braun’s from Stony Brook — have gutted the building at 115 West Broadway, rebuilding the interior from the studs up.

They replaced the heating and air conditioning system, installed new electrical work, and put in new flooring and sheetrock. Meanwhile, they preserved one piece of the old fast-food infrastructure that turned out to be quite useful: the freezers.

“The freezers are there for the bait,” said Amy Braun, Justin’s wife and administrative assistant for the shop. “It’s set up pretty perfect. The sinks are there and we’re going to have a fillet station where people can come right in and fillet their fish.”

The ChatterLure lineup will help anchor the new store, alongside such name brands as Costa sunglasses and Pelagic apparel, said Amy Braun, who lives with Justin and their four children in Setauket. Binky Bro, a children’s line, will also be stocked.

Beyond retail, Braun and O’Keefe are building the space around events. All displays are mounted on wheels so the floor can be quickly converted into a seminar setup. It’s something they have done for years through Chatter Lures, traveling to speak about offshore technique and seasonal conditions.

For younger anglers, the shop is launching the Port Kids Fishing Club, anchored by an in-store “Catch Wall,” where kids can submit photos of their catches and compete for prizes.

“Not a lot of kids get to go fishing, and I feel like that’s kind of dying out,” Amy Braun said. “We just want to keep that going.”

Still, their lease continued and only recently expired.

Neighbors were quick to welcome the new tenants. Amy Braun said she walked the block introducing herself to nearby shop owners and found them eager for the space to be filled.

“They were just so happy the space was going to get fixed up,” she said.

Justin Braun, who serves as the Old Field harbor commissioner, grew up in Stony Brook near the water. He’s been around boats his whole life and has been fishing since the time he could hold a rod, his wife said.

He met his Amy while they were both students at Monmouth University in New Jersey, and even there, he was casting lines off the beach, she recalled

When the time came to propose in 2010, Justin Braun sold his boat — the one he’d owned for years, the one he’d taken Amy out on during their early dates on the Sound — to pay for her ring.

_{Top: The old McDonald’s on Port Jefferson’s harborfront will soon be home to Port Tackle (Brian Harmon photos).}