John Bushell Sr. is gone. The waves covered his footprints at the surf's edge for the last time Monday morning. The quiet-spoken man who owned Betty and Nick's Bait and Tackle, Seaside Park, died on the sand with his wife Beth at his side.

He had sold bait and tackle and offered daily advice on fishing for 36 years. Tens of thousands of fishermen counted on the information that he provided on his Web site, in newspapers and across the counter.

John and Beth were fishing in a memorial tournament Monday morning, and John had just landed a slot striper. He had caught another bass and a bluefish before that.  The tournament, held in memory of John's cousin, the late George Cattano Jr., was participated in by a group of friends and relatives of Cattano's.  John had caught several bass the week before, and was looking forward to the fall striper run.  "It should be a good season," he told me a few days ago. "I'm going to fish whenever I can. Come on down when you get a chance, and we'll fish together."

His son, John Jr., who worked with his father in the shop, and plans to continue the operation, said fall was his father's favorite time to be on the beach.

"It was the one season that he could find time to fish the surf every day," John Jr. said. "He loved it; he'd call us from the beach, and tell us what was going on. He was always too busy to get out much during the summer."

John's father and mother, Betty and Nick, opened the shop that bears their names in 1969. John and Beth took over the operation in 1970, and the business was expanded in the 1980s with more room for tackle and a full luncheonette. John Sr. and John Jr. increased the operation in recent years and added a second shop, Barrier Island Bait and Tackle, also in Seaside Park.

Surf fishermen who frequented Betty and Nick's came not just for bait and tackle or to buy one of John's hand-crafted rods, but for food, fellowship and, above all, fishing information.

They knew that John had it all on the tip of his tongue. Everything from wind direction and water temperature to which cut or bar was producing bass in the park.

He got it from the usual tackle shop sources: fishermen, who stopped to report a catch, buy bait or simply gossip. He also gathered it from store employees such as Frank Zappella, Brian Pasch and Bill Shive, but the final touch was John's personal observations and analysis.

He loved to fish. He was brought up that way. His father was a dedicated surf fisherman.

Tom Fote of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association and former New Jersey representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission knew John well going back to the 1970s.

"We fished together up at Sandy Hook, and I can remember John's father making John carry a load of bluefish all the way from the point of the hook through the sand back to the car," Fote said. "He kept what he caught."  John was different, though. He kept some fish, but released most of the bass, blues and weakfish he caught in the surf.

As much as he loved fishing, John never neglected his business. His answer to finding time to be on the beach was often to fish after dark. He liked to be on the beach in the hours before dawn.

Betty and Nick's Bait and Tackle was open 364 days a year, closed only on Christmas Day. John Jr. said he hopes to be able to run the business the same way his father did.

There will be limitations.  "My father probably built 5,000 custom-made rods over the years," John Jr. said. "We were planning to come out with a signature series of rods this winter - the John Bushell Sr. series.

"He probably repaired 20,000 rods and 30,000 or more reels over the years," he said. "He'd been tying all the rigs for the shop - high-low, chunking, live eels, teasers, weakfish, bluefish - you name it. He'd start tying in the winter and tie some all year."

John Sr. was a member of the Berkeley Striper Club and thus a member of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association.

"He was always interested in fisheries management and the new regulations," Fote said. "He was very supportive of the JCAA, and used to let me use his copy machine and his backroom before we had an office and equipment.” He used to come out to the hearings, but got pretty frustrated with the management process in recent years," Fote said.

John Jr. said the shop will be closed until Saturday, and remain open from then on with the same schedule as in the past.

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