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NORTON - Steve Warchal's first business will have him standing outside this winter at 3:30 a.m.

That's a great time to catch ice fishermen, says his mother, Dina.

Steve Warchal opened the Tackle Box Bait Shop at 93 East Main St. on Aug. 14.

Selling new and used fishing supplies, the store fills a void locally, especially during the winter, his mother said.

The shop's current hours are 7 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 7 or 7:30 p.m. seven days a week, weather permitting, she said. The hours will change to just 3:30 or 4:30 a.m. to noon during the winter. "We're going to cater to the early-morning fishermen, to ice fishermen," she said.

"Usually when you're ice fishing, you've got to get your stuff at night, because nobody is open."

A 2006 graduate of Southeastern Regional Vocational-Technical High School in Easton, Steve Warchal was working at Belmont Pet in Easton shortly before that store closed in July, his mother said.

That store closing further reduced area fishermen's options for finding supplies, she said.

"All the bait shops are shutting down, so we thought we'd give it a go," she said.

The new shop is a camper. Warchal traded his 1997 Isuzu Trooper for it and refurbished it, his mother said,

Warchal runs the shop on a friend's land on Route 123, she said.

He works there six days a week. His parents, Dennis and Dina, are there on his day off.

"It's a good learning lesson for him, how to run a business," his mother said. "And we're completely behind him."

Warchal, 21, said the business gives him a chance to be in control of a venture. However, he admits that as a youth, "I really wasn't big into fishing."

"I've always been outside in the woods, climbing trees," he said.

However, he sees ice fishing as "huge" for business.

"(Lake) Winnecunnet is the first to freeze and the last to melt," Warchal said.

His mother said the shop will sell tackle supplied by Tom's Bait Shop in Middleboro. Used tackle, including fishing poles, will be sold, too, appealing to customers on fixed incomes, she said.

Warchal said reaction to his shop has been positive.

"Even in the first week, we've already had repeat customers," he said.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER cover Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.