McCORDSVILLE — The Bobber Shop has been transformed into a barbershop along Broadway Street in McCordsville, while the former bobber shop has moved into a much bigger space just down the street.
Chris and Kim Proehl moved their bait and tackle shop, The Bobber Shop, into their new digs at 6346 W. Broadway Street in January.
Their previous storefront at 6130 W. Broadway Street has been rented by their friend, Jessica Nelson, who has transformed it into a barbershop.
“It’s worked out really nice,” said Chris Proehl, a lifelong fisherman who loves seeing fellow anglers stop by his shop, seven days a week, on their way to drop a line at Geist Reservoir and other nearby watering holes.
He and his wife opened their first shop in December 2022, and had outgrown the 900-square-foot space within 10 months.
Their new shop — the site of the former Salsbery Garden Center — has nearly triple the space at 2,600-square-feet, plus an acre and a half of parking, which is great for fishermen pulling in with boats.
“They used to have to park on the other side of Pendleton Pike,” Chris said.
Nelson is equally excited about her space in the former bait shop, a quaint light brown house she’s in the process of transforming into a classically modern white house with black trim. It sits just west of the McCordsville Veterinary Hospital along the well traveled Broadway Street, also known as Ind. 67, which she said is a huge improvement from her former location near Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Lawrence.
“This is my fifth year in business but my old location was on the top of a balcony above a pizza place in Lawrence, so this is my first storefront and I absolutely love it,” she said Thursday, on a quick break between a steady stream of clients.
She’s staying open during renovations this spring, which she said will create inviting spaces to accommodate three barbers at once.
“This is my first store with employees so I’m very excited,” said Nelson, who is in the process of moving from Lawrence to McCordsville to be closer to her shop.
Things are also going well for her friends, the Proehls, who say the Bobber Shop expansion has enabled them to not only triple their space but triple their inventory. They’ve recently expanded their product line from 20,000 to 60,000 items, including a wide variety of worms and grubs.
“We’ve also got super worms — 1 ½ to 2-inch-long grubs that some customers buy to feed their bearded dragons and other reptiles. They also make great bait,” Chris said.
He and his wife were able to open their new shop unofficially in December to sell gift certificates for the holidays before officially opening for business in January.
Proehl said the recent chain of events between his shop, the new barbershop and the former garden center was all a matter of being in the right place at the right time and having the right connections.
“It’s all worked out really well,” he said.
“The customers all love it. Our Google reviews are all of the charts. We’ve got almost 50 reviews and every single one is five stars,” he said.
“We’ve had lots of really good feedback and everybody is grateful for the extra space. In the other store if we had three or four people in the store it would be crowded with people on top of each other, but now we’ve got a lot more space and it’s just worked out really well.”
Proehl is no stranger to owning a business.
He previously ran a sports bar in a bowling alley in Franklin, and has a secondary business transporting campers and RVs.
He now loves serving clientele who love fishing as much as he does, having grown up fishing in Brandywine Creek in Greenfield.
He and his wife are now in the process of opening a second bait shop along Greensboro Pike, between Knightstown and New Castle near the Westwood Reservoir.
“We bought the building a month ago which used to be the Hook’ Em General Store, so we’re thinking about calling it Hook ‘Em Bait and Tackle because I’ve been a Texas Longhorns fan my entire life,” said Chris, referring the Hook ‘Em chant and hand signal among University of Texas fans.
