Little did I know, life experiences in the 80’s would lead to a family business 40 years later. When I was just a kid waiting for my dad to get home from work each day, we would head to Lake Michigan to perch fish. My dad said it was to get us out of our mother’s hair each afternoon and give her a break. (Everyone has their own excuse to get to do what they love whenever possible). Unfortunately, for the part of Lake Michigan I grew up on, the perch have all but disappeared, and slowly so have the great bait shops that once provided phenomenal tackle and mentorship to inquiring fishermen. Our family and friends still use the baits we learned about so many years ago. However, finding them was becoming as hard as finding fish on a rising pressure kind of day. This led me to jump into making the molds and trying to develop a similar lure myself.

Fast forward to our crazy life of a sports family with both parents coaching in high school while trying to run businesses as well. Why not start another company? Well, that’s what we did! Only this one is built with our adventure-loving family and some influences of having a little fun and creativity along the way. Observing all the fun slogans and clothing our teenagers would come home wearing, we took a dive into the fun side of the tackle world by developing a fun Tag Line “Baits So Great Your Rod May Never Be Straight” and name for our company, “Happy Tug Tackle.”

So Cast right in, here it goes. Our family of 4, an 18-year-old daughter (heading to Iowa State next year, I’m going to miss my first patient ice shack partner), a 14-year-old son (hasn’t sat still in his life unless he is in a deer stand or ice shack) smart and supportive wife (supports everything we all do and even adds some common sense to the equation for us) and myself (mid 40’s midwestern guy taking a shot at a dream in an industry he has thought of being a part of since that first push-button rod and reel 40 years ago) so we’re launching Happy Tug Tackle. We will be rolling out the fun apparel first, with the first run of sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats & accessories with Happy Tug Tackle Tails soon to follow. We would love to have your support and have you join us in this journey we have created! The apparel was developed with a love of the outdoors and the fun witty vibe our family rolls through life with!