BEST MARINE STORE AND BAIT SHOP

El Capitan is a big, bright-blue box of a building as serene as the sea in an otherwise ugly strip-mall and warehouse-infested section of Miami. If the blue doesn't stop you, the big plastic model of a hammerhead shark affixed to the wall just may. Inside you'll find a well-run marine store that has been operated by the Coto family for the past 30 years. It features more than 15,000 tools of the fishing trade: anchors, poles, lures (with brand names like Nauti-Parts), lines, flares, maps, marine-toilet conditioners -- in short, more than you will ever need to get your Hemingway groove on. And bait? They've got plenty, if only the frozen kind, in flavors like ballyhoo (medium or rigged), glass minnow, silverside, herring, and squid. The place is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., till 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Sundays the family goes fishing.