"The
water is always blue!"
by Bart Montgomery
(reprinted compliments of
The
Chronicle of Grand Lake)
Gene Hargis, a former educator and coach at Jenks High School, is one of the many who had found a second career on Grand Lake! Hargis' Bluewater Bait Shop in Disney
recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
If Gene Hargis tells you he doesn’t miss coaching, it’s a flat out lie. After a quarter of a century at Jenks High School, it’s just a part of whom he is. He was a teacher by day and a coach by night. It’s a good thing he had the full support of his lovely wife
Miley.
“She always made the joke that she worked so I could coach,” Gene said with a grin.
He’s coached a number of other sports, but football is his passion. You give Gene a gridiron and a group of kids who are willing to play their hearts out and he’s one happy camper. There’s also likely to be a success story involved. During his tenure, the Jenks squad won two championships and only missed the play-offs once. He confesses that continually having a great talent pool didn’t hurt their chances a bit.
“Those kids start very young and they develop a winning attitude,” said Gene.
Gene’s time on the sidelines also afforded him the opportunity to become closer to his brother-in-law. Considering the man was the head coach, it was almost a necessity. The situation made for a very interesting circumstance when he happened to have a bad day though.
“It’s hard to come home and complain to your wife about your boss when it’s her brother,” said Gene.
For a man who eventually ended up with a Master’s Degree, he’s still always had the tendency to appreciate the simple things in life. When he was a kid, Gene fished Grand Lake with his dad. Later, he did the same with his own children. In 1993 he stumbled into an opportunity to purchase Blue Water Bait and Tackle in Disney. It was actually the kind of thing he’d thought about for years. Well, either that, or a salvage yard.
“I just like to tinker with stuff,” said Gene.
His interest in Blue Water had been ongoing but he had hoped to make the investment at a later time. Since it didn’t work out that way, he began driving back and forth from Jenks. His son Donnie also joined in on the new venture. The only down side to the whole deal was that Gene’s trips to the lake no longer consisted of the same pleasures.
“That’s the bad thing about owning a bait shop. You’re not out there fishing,” he said.
Fortunately there is somewhat of a system in place that allows Gene to go fishing and Donnie to go hunting or hit the water himself. It’s called covering for one another. Also, Donnie’s interest in hunting eventually spilled over into the business. The father and son team added a pro shop and soon became a certified dealer of Mathews Bows.
In 1998, Blue Water Bait and Tackle moved into a new building a few blocks down the highway. Adjacent to the infamous
Dam Hotel, Gene considered following suit by renaming his business The Dam Bait Shop. It wasn’t until his mother threatened to leave him with nothing that he decided to stay with the original.
“She was emphatic about me not changing the name,” said Gene.
Providing services such as custom jigs, rod repair and custom arrows, the shop
did quite well. Still, Gene missed being able to fish as much as he
wanted, so on March 1, 2005 he sold Blue Water Bait & Tackle. Only
semi-retired, he remains on the Jenks HS payroll as an energy consultant, but
now can fish and guide whenever he wishes.
