DeCuffa said that in his early teens he got the itch to get out from behind the counter and head down to the docks, so Rumpf put him in charge of preparing and maintaining the shop's fleet of rental motorboats, known to many who frequent the island for their distinct white-and-orange coloring.

There was little competition back in those days as Jack's was the only motorboat rental in town. DeCuffa is the oldest of five brothers and he said that elder status led to a strong connection with his grandfather, who had two daughters of his own. "I was kind of like his son," said DeCuffa. "He took me under his wing and I helped him build up the business. I worked hard and put in a lot of hours for him." In 1965, Rumpf moved the store across the street to 551 City Island Avenue, a location he long coveted for its available parking and being situated at the first major traffic light. "It's at the first light with parking on the side, sitting on the water," said DeCuffa. "He waited for that location for a long time." In fact, there was a point as DeCuffa entered his late teens, that he was operating much of the business' various operations. The shop was open seven days a week back then and the days would start at 4 a.m. when he went down to the rental skiffs to get from 20 to 30 of them ready for the day's anglers. Before the store opened at 6 a.m. (it now opens at 5), anglers used to form two lines outside - one for boats, one for bait - and DeCuffa would walk up from the docks to unlock the doors and get everyone on their way. After catering to that morning rush, he would load up and hop in the truck to deliver bait for the wholesale business started in 1960, making stops across the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens into the late afternoon. He would then return to the store to lock up at 8 p.m. "I did that for a lot of years," he says with a hint of exhaustion.

The wholesale business expanded as far south as Staten Island, until the upward march of tolls and gas prices made such trips economically unfeasible. Today, Jack's supplies Long Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Connecticut, Westchester, Rockland and upstate New York. Rumpf, who also owned apartments and other property on the island that remains in the family, died in the summer of 1992 and left the business to DeCuffa, who renovated the shop and revamped the operation the following year -- including expansion of the tackle space and the addition of delivery trucks to an upgrade of the fleet of rental boats from wood to fiberglass.

John's Time to Fish

With all of the foot and boat traffic that moves through Jack's from spring to fall, it might make one wonder when exactly DeCuffa gets out on the water. "I never get out to fish," he said. "Only occasionally will I get out for a bit, and when we take off for the Keys in December." The Keys, of course, are the angling paradise off the southern tip of Florida, where DeCuffa and family spend December and January and where he has visited since graduating high school in 1981. Like the tackle business, he developed a love of the area from his grandfather, who frequented the region since the early '60s until his passing. It's down in the Keys where DeCuffa gets time to fish. "We have a house down there with a boat in the back yard; it's 10 minutes straight out to beautiful fishing grounds," he said. "Yellowtail, grouper -- that's when I do my fishing. I can't concentrate up here. If I’m out on the water, there's too much going with the business to really enjoy it. You want to run this type of business, survive the winter and the restrictions and regulation limits, you really have to dedicate yourself when the season's on."

Changes

Jack's has seen the ups and downs of six decades -- a period that covers vast changes in fisheries management, economic surges and retreats, and the inevitable shifts that the march of time draws upon people and communities. In the old days, the biggest competition for Jack's' boat rental business came from Rosenberger's Boat Livery, a longtime City Island institution that rented row boats and went under in May of this year after a 125-year run amid reported infighting among its partners and financial woes. The wholesale business has ebbed and flowed with the cost of gas and tolls in the area (it once had as many as five trucks working the region) and the marina business has slowly expanded over the past 35 years (his grandfather bought the property in 1965) to include a current level of about 200 slips. It's the marina business that drags DeCuffa out of Florida every winter in February to start preparing docks for an April 1 opening. He's got a couple of guys that have been on full-time for years, in addition to J.R., Carol and a driver for the wholesale delivery.

DeCuffa said putting in 14-hour days, 10 months a year keeps the Jack's Bait juggernaut on track and profitable. He shrugs aside the bait and tackle business' place among the current economic downturn with a belief that fishing is one of the few activities that won't break the bank if you don't let it. "You can't stop people from doing what they love to do, and people love to fish," he said. "It's the number one recreational activity in this country. A $20 bill gets you plenty of bait and tackle to hit a pier or the beach. That's not going to hurt you. You're selling houses or boats, you're hurting. You're a fisherman, you find a way." On the angling front, DeCuffa says things have mostly changed for the better over the years. "The porgy fishing has been phenomenal since they put limits on these fish and built them back up," he said. "The striped bass have come back from almost gone. I remember the buckets and buckets of fish people would take out of here. No one could use that much fish. The limits came in and eventually things turned around and the bait business around them did too. Eventually, the rules will come back to benefit the fishermen again. They'll get it right." DeCuffa said that in the early days, anglers would come in and buy flats of worms for striped bass. "That's all they used," he said. "There was no such thing as fresh bunker or squid for bass. You wanted to fish bass, you put a sandworm on the hook. Bunker was bluefish bait."

When the customers want to know where the fish are biting, they just ask John! DeCuffa's oldest son, John, who is known as J.R., has seemingly slid into the apprentice role that DeCuffa himself knew so well in the '70s. J.R., who turns 19 later this year, works the counter much like his old man likely did as a kid and has shown a strong interest in continuing the family tradition. One gets the sense that the father is relieved about his son's interest, perhaps with the years of 3 a.m. wakeup calls sitting fresh in his memory. DeCuffa moved his family (he also has a 13-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter) to Carmel, N.Y., about 10 years ago, but he said he plans to return to City Island when his youngest son graduates high school in five years. "When he's out, I'm back in," he laughed. For now, it's DeCuffa at the helm filling his grandfather's shoes and even expanding their path. The shop has expanded nationally with a mail-order Internet site, no doubt drawing customers with his quirky videos from the back of the shop. Talk to him long enough and DeCuffa will admit that he gets tired, but he quickly adds that there's little else he'd rather be doing. "I love what I do but I do get tired. You want to run this type of business, you really have to dedicate yourself when the season's on," he said. "It's a lot of effort by maybe a handful of people. But it's well worth it. I wouldn't have it any other way."