Buck's Bait and Tackle closes after 44 years | News, Sports, Jobs - Alpena News
News Photo by Michael Gonzalez The closed building of Buck's Bait and Tackle is pictured on Thursday with a sign on the door that reads 'Closed Forever'.
ALPENA — After 44 years in business near Long Lake on U.S.-23 North, Buck's Bait and Tackle has closed its doors.
Budd Jobson owned the store with his daughter, Lorie, and bought Buck's in 1994. Before then, the store was owned by two other owners. Budd recalled they didn't really enjoy working there and only lasted eight years, each.
Budd, however, loved the job.
"Closing the place, it's not what I wanted to do by any means," he said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it, even when it was working from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m."
When Budd bought the store in 1994, he wanted to switch the name to Budd's instead of Buck's, but his accountant said the name change would be financial suicide.
"I remember, even my daughter gave me a jacket that had 'Budd's Bait and Tackle' written on the back. It just wasn't going to happen."
His daughter loved working there, as well. So much so, she created her own fly rigs called "Lorie Rigs."
During the store's closure, all "Lorie Rigs" were liquidated to be purchased at the Citgo gas station on U.S.-23 North.
"Since COVID, business has not been going as well as we hoped," Budd said. "This year — on a good day — there were one to three people coming in. Even then, they were buying two dozen crawlers and that's it."
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