We are a full functioning live bait and tackle shop on Lake Michigan right here at Montrose Harbor! Whether you are brand new to fishing or an experienced angler we have what you need. Stop by and check us out! A little history of our shop; Willie Greene was a young boy in Uptown with a widowed mother. It was at the lake that he found what would eventually become his life’s work as well as the next 2 generations. He would fish the lakefront whenever he could, he even spent his 8th grade graduation day out fishing on the Horseshoe Pier. The old timers that fished out there took him under their wing. There was 2 Pole Johnny, Diversey Shorty, Uncle Henry, and Coffee George. Nicknames from the depression that was who you were or what you did. Uncle Henry taught Willie how to fish. Willie called him Unc! (no relation) he would take him fishing all over and was a mentor to my dad, which was good seeing he lost his dad at the age of 8. As a young boy he would pick worms and sell them to local bait shops, there were quite a few bait shops in those days. There was one on the corner of Montrose and Hazel called Ed Meyers and that is what lead him in the direction of selling bait. He went to Senn High School then when he was 17 the country was at war so he enlisted in the Navy and spent 4 years on a ship in the Pacific Ocean. Upon returning to the neighborhood after the Navy he proceeded to buy a carryall truck and got a partner and started to wholesale bait in and around the city sometimes even to other states. He would seine and catch minnows in the lake and the rivers. He would travel to farm areas that had ponds to catch crayfish. After a good rainstorm he’d pick night crawlers. There was a bait shop at the lake at Montrose Harbor. It dates back to 1934/1935 when the harbor was first built. It was a mere shack that was operated by a man named Pete Barry and called Barry’s bait. In the mid 50’s Pete Barry was done with the bait business and going to move onto other ventures and convinced Willie to take over the lease on the shop. He borrowed some money from a good friend of his and had a partner for the first year, that was in May of 1958 and that is when it became Willie Greene’s Park Bait Shop. He ran the shop and also continued to catch and wholesale bait through the early 90s. My dad along with the bait shop has been of fishing service to thousands of Chicagoans as well as people from around the world for generations. My name is Stacey Greene his only child and I was able to go with on a lot of those bait catching trips and have the fondest memories of those times. In 1974 he extended the front of the shop from a walk up window to a shop you could walk in to and it hasn’t changed since then. I had been in and around the shop my whole life so when my father passed in 2012 it was never a question that I was going to run the shop. So now myself along with my husband and my son Cory who has spent his whole life in and around the shop are a big part of the daily operations. We are blessed and it is our hope to continue this legacy.