Snohomish Fishing Shop in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Shutting Down

Tim & Son’s Bait and Tackle from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

One of the most memorable buildings in the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movie, was Tim’s Bait & Tackle.

It’s the tiny shop the main character’s father owned. You can see a replica of the shop at a theme park in Dubai, or you can visit the actual shop that inspired it in Snohomish, Washington.

But not much longer. Triangle Bait & Tackle is shutting down after 43 years. Owner Jim Strege purchased what was then “Triangle Beverage” after graduating from college.

What the shop looked like when Chris Miller was a child.

Struggling to survive as “just another convenience store,” he decided to add some bait and tackle in 1985.

Following steady growth, it didn’t take long before the little convenience store became a legitimate tackle shop and eventually changed its name to “Triangle Bait and Tackle.”

What is the tie-in with the movie?

Christopher Miller was born in Everett and grew up in Lake Stevens, Washington, with his parents and two siblings. Chris attended Lakeside School in Seattle, where Bill Gates & Paul Allen famously tinkered with the school’s computer.

Chris Miller and Lakeside classmate Aditya Sood did their own tinkering, but with the school’s filmmaking equipment. This also led to their eventual careers.

Chris, with college classmate Phil Lord, went on to write and produce Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the Lego Movie, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider–Verse. Sood is best known for producing The Martian and both Deadpool movies.

In interviews about where inspiration for the look and feel of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs came from, Miller mentioned Astoria for the town of Swallow Falls and a tiny bait & tackle shop near where he grew up for the Tim & Son Bait and Tackle shop.

Triangle Bait & Tackle at 603 2nd St, Snohomish, WA 98290

Anyone who has driven towards 2nd Street from the library in Snohomish has seen this shop. It’s a tiny little 620 square foot bait and tackle shop, surrounded by streets on all three sides.

Much like the tiny house in the movie Up (which is in Ballard), the former 1946 beverage shop turned bait and tackle shop had the feel of an isolated, sad, stubborn little building surrounded by modern commercial development.

Why is it going out of business?

Triangle Bait & Tackle’s final sale was a retirement sale.

Owner Jim Strege is retiring after 43 years.

Jim Strege ran the shop for 43 years and was ready to retire. He offered to sell the business and building for $799,999.

Nobody took him up on the offer. Jim told me the shop was doing really well, coming off some of the most successful years, but he couldn’t find someone interested in taking over the business.

Over the past couple of months, Jim has been selling off his inventory, and last Saturday was the final day of being open. Jim wasn’t aware of the movie tie-in, as was probably anyone else.

The only reason I knew is because, as a former filmmaker, I used to listen to interviews and director commentary of nearly every movie I watched.

The look improved through the years, but always remained a little shop.

When Chris mentioned where he grew up and was describing the inspiration for the tiny shop, I knew exactly where he got the inspiration from, because it always caught my eye as well.

The building will likely be sold as a commercial building in downtown Snohomish. It’s unlikely it will become a fishing shop, but its legacy will live on thanks to the movies.