SALISBURY — Tim Still was raised in Salisbury. He grew up in a small house on West Fisher Street and played baseball at Salisbury High School under coach Tom Sexton. He remembers when the Rowan Public Library Headquarters was built downtown and became the hangout spot for kids in the area. Tim has fond memories of going with his dad to Fleming Candy Company on South Main Street to buy stock for his father’s concession stand.

Tim also remembers growing up in a poorer area of Salisbury, just a block away from what he viewed as significant wealth in the houses on Fulton Street. He made sure to walk down the street every day before school to remind himself of where he wanted to end up in life.

“Every day when I walked out of my house to go to school I had a choice. I could turn left and go towards where there was trouble or I could turn right and go down Fulton Street and think about how I’m going to be able to live in a house like that one day,” said Tim.

Since then, Tim has moved on to start his own company, Beach Bum Lures. Beach Bum creates life-like metal lures for surf, pier and offshore fishing at the beach.

Tim took a winding road to realizing his dream of success. After graduating from Salisbury in 1993, he thought that he had a chance of being drafted in the Major League Baseball draft and going pro. He’d filled out about a dozen forms from MLB scouts and thought he would be drafted in the late rounds. Tim ended up graduating from high school without having committed to any college to play baseball.

Luckily, coach Bill Nash and the Wingate Bulldogs came calling that summer. Tim would play at Wingate for the next four years, graduating in 1998 and going undrafted again. He would latch on with a few independent teams in order to keep playing the game he loved.

“At that time, I would say the Frontier League was better than it is now. Most of the guys had played minor league baseball but just had one thing that kept them from making the majors. Some guys had a good fastball but couldn’t throw a changeup, some guys had a good curveball but couldn’t throw a good fastball. My problem came when I found out that I had more power with a wooden bat than with a metal bat. That’s when the strikeouts started to add up,” said Tim.

Tim played with teams like the River City Rascals in O’Fallon, Missouri, and the Richmond Roosters from 1999 to 2001. He also worked as a sports reporter for the New Bern Sun Journal during this time. His final game in the Frontier League came in 2001, and he ended up going 3-5. After that, Tim said he decided he wanted to go out on top and he walked into the manager’s office and announced his retirement.

Tim would move between a few jobs after that. He would spend the next 15 years working for companies such as Wells Fargo, Citi and Roundpoint Financial Group and even made a stop as a copy editor at the Charlotte Observer.

During this time, Tim began to make metal fishing lures to help out with his own surf fishing. Tim bought a cast from Amazon and made and painted his own lures in a shed in his backyard.

“During one particular trip to the beach to fish, I was the only person catching anything, so the guys around me were all like ‘Hey, what are you using? We can’t catch anything.’ So i just gave away stuff like ‘Hey, try this.’ Took a quick break for lunch, came back and four or five guys wanted to buy stuff from me,” said Tim.

The final change came in 2017, when Tim was laid off from Wells Fargo, where he was working in fixed income securities. After that, Tim said he decided to devote his full attention to making his fishing lures into a business, Beach Bum Lures. He began to make a few fishing lures in his shed and then send them off to a factory to be mass-produced. A big break came when the former Wingate President Jerry McGee decided to invest in Tim’s business and help him get it off the ground.

Ever since then, Tim has spent his time building up Beach Bum Lures in an effort to get his product in stores nationwide. For now, his lures can be found in 11 stores up and down the coast and even inland in Salisbury.

Beach Bum Fishing Lures can be bought at Fleming Candy Company, the same store where a young Tim used to wander through the fishing gear areas while his dad, who has since passed away, shopped for candy to supply the concession stand.

“Without the hardships I experienced in Salisbury and through the rest of life, I don’t know if I’m where I am now,” said Tim.