Simply put, Winston Perry absolutely loved Murrells Inlet. With Perry's passing on Jan. 13 at age 73, a little of the lore, the personality, the charm, the quaintness of old Murrells Inlet is gone too.
Perry carried on his family tradition as the owner-operator of Perry's Bait & Tackle Shop, which has long been a fixture along U.S. Hwy. 17 Business in the inlet as a friendly spot to stop in on the way to the boat ramp just a few hundred yards down the road.
"He thought Murrells Inlet was the best place in the world," Perry's wife, Linda Bourne Perry, said earlier this week. "He thought he had it made here. He was a really likable person, he made everybody feel like they were his best friend."
Perry carved out his niche in the inlet, plying its waters to catch his own bait for his waterfront shop and harvesting oysters and clams in the winter.
It was a much simpler time and the pace of Murrells Inlet much slower when Perry's Bait & Tackle was originated over a half-century ago. The late Grady and Meddie Altman Perry moved to the beach from Hemingway in 1954 and - a year later - established the original Perry's, a bait and boat rental venture at Woodland Landing.
The Perry's teenage son, Winston, helped with the business in the early days before serving a stint in the Navy.
Upon returning from the service, Winston Perry rejoined the family business, eventually took over ownership and bounced around the inlet's waterfront, renting various properties and buildings from which to operate the business.
In 1971, Perry found a permanent home on the inlet's waterfront, just north of the present-day Marsh Walk, and purchased the property where the shop is still in operation today.
Since then, Perry's location on the creek front has made it a primo spot to purchase live bait for anglers fishing for species such as flounder, trout, red and black drum and sheepshead in the inlet.
"Having the continuous flow of water out of the creek is a big help for the bait," said Linda Perry. "He always caught all his bait, caught the shrimp and minnows. He worked really hard trying to keep us ahead of everything."
Perry was most at home among the oyster beds, marsh grass and fiddler crabs in the inlet's numerous tidal creeks, from Oaks Creek to Parsonage Creek to Mt. Gilead.
"Mostly what we catered to was the inside jon boat fishermen, but things have changed so much now," said Linda Perry. "Now we sell everything you can think of, [bait and tackle for fishing] out in the ocean and everywhere."
In the spring, Linda Perry and the Perry family plan to spread Mr. Perry's ashes in one of those creeks he so loved.
One of Perry's four sons, Eric, and his wife, Jessica, are carrying on the family tradition by taking over operation of the business, with a little assistance from Mrs. Perry.
Jessica Perry has taken on the honorable task of creating a reef in Perry's memory. The reef is expected to be named the Winston Perry Memorial Reef and fittingly will be placed on the ocean's floor at the Paradise Reef site three miles east of the Murrells Inlet jetties.
More commonly known as the 3-Mile Reef, the sprawling reef site is permitted by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and is officially known as Pa-09. Within the permitted area are other reefs such as the H.P. Springs, Jr. Reef and the Grand Strand Saltwater Anglers Reef.
Jessica Perry is coordinating the funding and the logistics of placing 100 tons of concrete culvert pipe on the site to create the original Winston Perry Reef and hopes the reef site can be added to annually. She offered thanks to the Grand Strand Saltwater Anglers Association, which is contributing to the reef fund.
Contributions are being accepted to help with the reef project. Call 843-651-2895 for more information.
"We're within $2,500 of having the project done," ssaid Jessica Perry.
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