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Apr 3, 2026 By Ben Moyer 6 min read

Don’t expect the wide-open space of big-box retail, and the parking lot is rougher, and smaller, than the mega-stores. But if you long for a shopping experience enhanced by warm smiles, honest tips on the hottest bait, amazing inventory, and a sincere wish of good luck, there’s only one place to go for fishing tackle — Dunlap Creek Lake Outdoor Center, the intimate hut-shop perched on a knob above the so-named lake in Fayette County’s Menallen Township.

Lila and Bob Pento operate the Outdoor Center as a kind of second career. Before retirement, Lila worked at the pharmacy at Giant Eagle, and Bob worked in the insurance industry and later for Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation (FACT).

The Outdoor Center is “kind of” a second career because the Pentos don’t take a paycheck.

“My husband has always loved fishing,” Lila Pento said. “When we had the chance to buy the home here on the property, people who like to fish the lake asked if we were going to open the shop.”

Local fishing legend “Captain Al” Packan formerly owned the Outdoor Center, making it a valued destination for anglers. When fire destroyed the original shop in 2009, Packan erected the smaller structure, then sold it to the Pentos in 2017.

“We thought we’d get some inventory and just run the shop while the house was being remodeled, as a hobby, something to do” Lila said. “We’ve never wanted to pay ourselves, but we enjoy the smiles on the faces of people who come in so much that we just kept doing this. I guess you could say we see it as a public service. It’s nice when people walk up to this little building, open the door, and see all that we have here. Our kids and grandkids help us out when they can.”

Help is in order. There may be no other tackle shop anywhere with such diverse gear so artfully displayed throughout so tight a space. Jars of hot-pink, red, neon-yellow, and electric-green baits line walls next to bags of red-and-white bobbers, and lures of every shape and color. Taller patrons duck their heads below ranks of fishing rods festooned from the ceiling. Bubbles murmur from a minnow tank’s aerator in a corner behind the counter. Nets, life-jackets, and photos of customers with their catch fill in any voids. The center even sells kayaks.

“We try to help make the experience here special,” Lila said. “Especially for the kids. If a kid comes in here and really needs something but doesn’t have enough money, well, we see this as an impressionable time in their lives and we believe fishing can help them through some temptations they’ll face, so we encourage them and help them get what they need.

“The money from sales rolls into more inventory, insurance, utilities, and anything to keep this place running,” Lila continued. “We didn’t want to hire employees because then it’s more complicated than we want this to be.”

The Pentos’ sense of public service extends outside the shop to events around the lake. They coordinate Dunlap Creek Lake’s Big Trout Program, selling decorative buttons that finance stocking big trout to supplement the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s stockings.

“Some of our customers help us sell buttons,” Lila said. “That’s what buys the big trout from a private hatchery that cause so much excitement here.”

The Pentos also support Mentored Youth Trout Day, a program of the Fish and Boat Commission that offers special opportunities to fish for trout to kids under age 16.

“We prepare grab bags of fishing tackle for every kid fishing here that day,” Lila said. “This year we put $27 worth of tackle into every bag.”

Recently, when the Pentos saw a school-group from Laurel Highlands picking up litter in the park, they wouldn’t let the kids pay for pop and water after the cleanup.

“They deserve to be recognized for helping keep this place nice,” Lila said.

The Pentos’ support of kids’ fishing even goes off-site.

“We are big into the Trout in the Classroom program,” Lila said. “When a school class goes to a stream to release the trout they raised, they also have a fishing day. We make sure they have all the tackle and rods they need. The kids make us homemade thank-you cards, and we hang them up in here.”

Each spring, Dunlap Creek Lake Outdoor Center hosts a commemorative trout stocking organized by Avery Matthews (21), graduate of Purdue University in Wildlife and Fisheries Management, to honor his grandfather, Ben Olinzock. The trout-stocking highlights a fund-raiser day with raffles, food, and refreshments. All proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society.

“My grandfather took me fishing here at Dunlap when I was a kid, and it set my course in life,” Matthews said.

This year’s Ben Olinzock Memorial Trout Stocking will be April 18.

Fifty-acre Dunlap Creek Lake is owned by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. The surrounding park acreage is owned and maintained by Fayette County as part of the county park system.

The Pentos history at Dunlap pre-dates the Outdoor Center.

When we were high school sweethearts, we came out here to Dunlap to swim before it was a park and developed like this,” Lila said. “We always thought this was a beautiful place.”

Lila and Bob became reflective talking about their past at the lake.

“A few years ago, you could meet people who lived five miles from here who never heard of this lake,” Bob Pento said. “But this is a gem, and more people are coming from nearby and farther away now to enjoy it.”

“I think this lake should be on the brochures that promote Fayette County,” Lila said. “Like the way we promote Ohiopyle and Fort Necessity. This isn’t a huge lake, but it’s big enough and there are lots of fish of many kinds, and it gives people somewhere safe and inviting to go outdoors in nature.

“Now that the county and township are finishing up the walking trail that circuits the whole lake, this place will only become more popular,” she continued. “It’s a wonderful asset for families in our area. People can even come here and see the bald eagles that fish here too. How many places can claim something like that?”

Ben Moyer is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America.