New owner of Al’s Goldfish Company plans Midwest growth

Finn Rage Tackle has acquired Al’s Goldfish Lure Company and announced plans to expand the reach of the business into the Midwest.

Al’s Goldfish, founded 70 years ago, has been owned and operated by Jeff and Mandy DeBuigne (pictured) since 2018 and does most of its sales in the Northeast. The couple decided to sell after Jeff was offered a job ‘he could not refuse.’

The company will be relocated to Finn Rage’s home in Green Bay, Wisconsin later this summer.

“Selling Al’s is bittersweet for us because we love the products and the company’s history of American manufacturing,” said Mandy DeBuigne. “But we know that Paul Check, the owner of Finn Rage, will do great things with his vision for expanding the brand.”

Check said he will continue to build on the momentum generated by the DeBuignes by introducing more options and colours suitable for Midwest species, as well as more saltwater baits.

Al’s Goldfish was launched in 1952 with a single spoon known at Stuart’s Goldfish, named after founder Al Stuart. The flagship bait was renamed Al’s Goldfish in 1954 and sales reached one million lures a year by 1973. Other popular lures like the Forty-Nine and the Helgy were added to the line, along with the Saltwater Goldfish series in 2015.