This month’s W2 Profile features 52-year old Donnie, a resident of Hopewell, Virginia who (along with this wife) owns a tackle shop and several growing tournament trails.
When you consider the people that have made the most impact on fishing the tidal James and Appomattox Rivers recently you have to think of Donnie and Erica Bell of James River Tackle, Co. (JRTC) in Hopewell. The husband and wife duo have operated the 3,500 sq. ft. tackle and bait shop for seven years now in a 1950’s era building a few blocks from the launch ramp at Hopewell Marina on the Appomattox River.
“My wife is the brains of the outfit,” Bell said.
Bell has definitely made his mark on fishing in his back yard. With his trusted CEO, Erica at his side JRTC has established itself as an important part of the fishing community. The shop carries plenty of the latest bass fishing lures and gear, rods and reels for all species, plus catfishing supplies, live and frozen baits, some saltwater gear and a rod building shop. In fact, that’s how Donnie said he got started in the business.
“I started doing rod and reel repairs in my garage and built many custom rods for my friends and they wanted more. So, we decided to open a shop and carry tackle and it expanded to what it is now,” Bell told W2.
Donnie and Erica recently put a new roof on the vintage building located on a side street of Hopewell a short walk from the Appomattox River. Then, back in August heavy rains brought another challenge in the form of 18-20 inches of water flowing through the shop. After the flood waters receded, Donnie and Erica worked hard to clean up the shop. Sodden drywall was removed, replaced and repainted, a new entrance was created and all the block walls were sealed and painted.
“It was a nightmare.” We had support from area anglers that offered to help and our friends helped. That was great and we are grateful. It means a lot,” Donnie said.
It took a huge effort, but the shop was back open in by the second week of September.
Bell says what he enjoys most about owning a tackle shop is helping his customers.
“We get a lot of people in there that really don’t know much about fishing, and we help them out with what to use and where to go. They come back and tell us about their adventures.”
His mark on the fishing community doesn’t end with the tackle shop. Five years ago Bell started the JRTC Weekend Series. He said the goal was to start a tournament series to give area anglers a place to fish locally as well as to promote his shop’s vendors and the store.
“We wanted to build an even stronger relationship with the fishing community and our shop. The Weekend Series helped us do that,” Bell said.
The JRTC will continue in 2027 with five non forward facing sonar events (April 10, May 8, June 26 and July 10) including a two-day, September 18-19 Championship, all launching from Hopewell Marina.
Bell is also excited about two, new trails he has started dubbed “Pure Skill” that also do not permit the use of forward facing sonar.
“What happened is that we had a meeting last year about our Weekend Series and the use of forward facing sonar. As a result, the 2026 trail did not permit the use of FFS. We also heard that a lot of anglers wanted to fish other places besides the James River. With that in mind we decided to get together a schedule for solo tournaments and team tournaments that visit the better fisheries around the state, and it’s blown up with deposits.”
So why ban FFS in all of his tournaments? We asked Bell that question.
“A lot of the comments from our meetings were that many anglers fishing against forward facing sonar experts were having a hard time competing. With people working Monday through Friday they just don’t have enough time to get good enough to be competitive with FFS experts.”
To reinforce his point and justification Bell referred to a comparison between the NPFL and the BASSMasters Elite Series.
“Just look at the National Professional Fishing League (NPFL) versus the BASS Master Elites. Guys who are way down in the Elites are doing well on the NPFL, because they don’t want to rely on FFS fishing. We were the first trail around here to eliminate the use of forward facing sonar and we did so because that’s what our anglers wanted.”
The Pure Skill Solo Series has three events while the Pure Skill Team event also has three AND a Fall Classic event.
There are still openings for the 2027 Pure Skill trails, though half of the 60-boat field had already submitted deposits. For more information contact Bell at 804.691.4764.
