It seems an unlikely place to find a bait and tackle shop, tucked into the corner of a strip mall off Santa Fe's construction-clogged main drag.

But Fish Tales Bait and Tackle shop owner Christopher Lloyd figures that since most anglers have a nose for finding fishing spots, they'll discover his shop, too.

And then they'll return time and time again.

"All we need now is a bigger sign so they can find us in the first place," he says of his shop tucked in the corner between the Ace Hardware store and Office Depot in the College Plaza Shopping Center at Cerrillos Road and St. Michael's Drive.

Making the shop even harder to find is the fact that it's inside Super Computer, another business of Lloyd's. "They'd only let us have one sign," said Lloyd, "and I had to go with the more important business."

Fish Tales is worth seeking out, for it carries a good supply of lures, tackle, hooks, lines, rods and spin casting reels, and is run by people who can tell you how to use them.

"You go to big-box stores for your gear and you'll be lucky to find anyone there who even fishes," he says in disgust.

That's why he opened his shop a few years ago when he was at his former location in the 1500 block of Cerrillos Road, across from Santa Fe Indian School.

"There's a niche here and I'm going to fill it," he says of his bait and tackle shop.

Lloyd says his customers will find all the popular fishing supplies, stuff like peach/salmon powerbait, at prices he claims are cheaper than what the big-box stores charge.

And he carries worms, snagging hooks and the ever-popular, hard-to-find Pistol Pete prop flies, too.

There's also racks of good rods and spinning reels to go with them. The walls are lined with plenty of plastic baits like worms and plugs, and there's a good selection of spinning and hard lures, too.

It's a real bait and tackle shop in the heart of trendy Santa Fe.

Lloyd, a 60-year-old Long Island New Yorker decided to move to Santa Fe after visiting a friend here back in the 1980s.

"I found it very attractive that you didn't have to drive three hours to just get out of the city," he says. "And there's really no traffic here to speak of."

And while he was here it didn't hurt that he went fishing on New Mexico's top trout stream, the San Juan River, with longtime guide Curtis Bailey of Soaring Eagle Lodge.

"That was a good day," he says of the many big, hardy trout they caught during that outing.

These days, Lloyd spends most of his fishing time on local waters like the Pecos River, the lakes at Nambé and Santa Cruz or up at Abiquiú Lake, where he gets a kick out of catching bass and walleye.

Many times he spends those days fishing with his good buddy and co-worker, Steve Kniesel, 58, of Pecos, who can also be found manning the counter of the bait and tackle shop.

Lloyd got the fishing bug at an early age when he was an elementary-school student attending summer day camp and his class took a field trip to a local fishing pond.

"They handed me a pole and some bait and I was kind of hooked after that," he says.

Upon growing up, Lloyd worked in the auto body repair business and when he wasn't working, he was out chasing fish in many of the East Coast's fabled trout streams.

Lloyd said he spent many of those days fishing out of Rosco, N.Y., where one finds access to legendary rivers such as the Beaverhead, the Delaware and Willowemoc Creek.

"It's the fly-fishing mecca of the East," he says.

But in 1999, Lloyd decided to pack it all up and make an epic road trip out west to the City Different where he would start a new career in the computer repair business.

Lloyd hooked up his car to the back end of a motor home and with his dog, Rusty, set out to spend the next three months traveling across the country and fishing anywhere he could.

The list of places he stopped at is long, but the most memorable had to be the legendary trout streams of Montana where the size and abundance of fish he encountered there still astounds him to this day.

"They have some amazing fishing up there," he says.

Visitors to Lloyd's shop will find that he hasn't gotten out of the computer repair business yet as he pursues his passion for fishing. His other business, Super Computer, occupies one side of his store.

Those looking for a custom- built computer system for gaming or other purposes can find what they're looking for here along with used equipment, repairs and troubleshooting.

And if you're looking to talk fishing, then this is a good place to stop, too.

Fish Tales Bait and Tackle Shop is at 2010 Cerrillos Road, Suite No. 17, inside Super Computer in the College Plaza Shopping Center.

Karl F. Moffatt is a longtime New Mexico journalist and avid outdoorsman who can be contacted through his blog at www.outdoorsnewmexico.com.