The current state of lure manufacturing

[Gill-T]

It is a tough business!  What I am hearing……

 

-Bayrat lures are shutting down (maybe they will sell to another?). Can anyone confirm this?

-Northport Nailer. Best paint job in the business IMO. The owner says they are selling down the rest of their stock as they are heading towards retirement. 
-luhr Jensen J-plugs….forget about it. 
-Silver Horde plugs….good luck finding them in the color you want

-R&R …..has there been any Dave Wilczak sightings?

[GAMBLER]

12 hours ago, Gill-T said:

It is a tough business!  What I am hearing……

 

-Bayrat lures are shutting down (maybe they will sell to another?). Can anyone confirm this?

-Northport Nailer. Best paint job in the business IMO. The owner says they are selling down the rest of their stock as they are heading towards retirement. 
-luhr Jensen J-plugs….forget about it. 
-Silver Horde plugs….good luck finding them in the color you want

-R&R …..has there been any Dave Wilczak sightings?

It's tough to make money selling tackle for many reasons.  Lots of competition, Supply chain issues (still), NY taxes and Federal Excise tax.  If I didn't enjoy making tackle, I wouldn't continue to do it.  

[Doc]

13 hours ago, Gill-T said:

It is a tough business!  What I am hearing……

 

-Bayrat lures are shutting down (maybe they will sell to another?). Can anyone confirm this?

-Northport Nailer. Best paint job in the business IMO. The owner says they are selling down the rest of their stock as they are heading towards retirement. 
-luhr Jensen J-plugs….forget about it. 
-Silver Horde plugs….good luck finding them in the color you want

-R&R …..has there been any Dave Wilczak sightings?

As of January 4th, Bayrat has stopped production. 

Future or their mold is uncertain at this time.

This is confirmed directly from their sales dept.

Very unfortunate.  

[mr 580]

Dave Wilczak from R&R is painting.  I talked to him a couple weeks ago and he was planning to do Watkins Show.  He had a knee replacement in the fall so he was laid up for awhile.  He’s been doing a bunch of spinner blades for some guys on West Coast making salmon spinner rigs the last couple years.

[RWR1775]

I spoke to Jake Romanack at the Niagara Fishing Expo regarding Yakima Lures specifically.  He said they are getting things up and moving again.  Opened a factory in Mexico to supplement their Washington State factory around the time COVID hit and this created a lot of troubles as they were not even able to visit their plant.  He also mentioned that Washington raised their minimum wage to $20/hr and that created a situation where it was not economically feasible to produce many of their lower profit margin items with that labor cost.  The Washington factory is going to focus on more of their higher profit products and the other things will come primarily out of Mexico.  Demand has also been very high for their products and so they shut the website and focused on distributing largely to vendors on the west coast.  Jake believes this will be improving in Yakima's case in the coming months.

[GAMBLER]

19 hours ago, RWR1775 said:

I spoke to Jake Romanack at the Niagara Fishing Expo regarding Yakima Lures specifically.  He said they are getting things up and moving again.  Opened a factory in Mexico to supplement their Washington State factory around the time COVID hit and this created a lot of troubles as they were not even able to visit their plant.  He also mentioned that Washington raised their minimum wage to $20/hr and that created a situation where it was not economically feasible to produce many of their lower profit margin items with that labor cost.  The Washington factory is going to focus on more of their higher profit products and the other things will come primarily out of Mexico.  Demand has also been very high for their products and so they shut the website and focused on distributing largely to vendors on the west coast.  Jake believes this will be improving in Yakima's case in the coming months.

There already has been a huge improvement from Yakima.  During Covid, getting spin n glos was tough.  

[hookedupf7]

I was just thinking about r and r . Wondering Dave wa still around. Also very curious on bayrat. Hopefully someone buys there molds and continues. 

[Gill-T]

I noticed that since Gibbs bought Michigan Stinger, they are not contracting with Protroll. They seem lighter and there is no echip. 

[stinger]

On 2/25/2023 at 9:54 AM, hookedupf7 said:

I was just thinking about r and r . Wondering Dave wa still around. Also very curious on bayrat. Hopefully someone buys there molds and continues. 

 

I ran into Dave two weeks ago in Johnson City. He is still making lures and said that he will be at the Watkins Glen show.

 

[hookedupf7]

Thanks stinger. Probably won’t make it Watkins. I am hoping to be on the water fishing by then. I have his contact. If he isn’t coming to brewerton I will have to order through mail I guess

[chowder]

New ownership at NK. Supposedly they are sending me some of their new glow Mag spoons to try so we’ll see what we see

[Missdemeanor]

I saw some of the paint jobs on the Northern Kingss after the new company took over..... Hmmm... What a shame...

     I'm glad to hear Capt Dan Kelly brought back the ole Pirate spoons .. they were fish killers... I have been in touch with him and they are working on better paint schemes and durability...

 

[HB2]

I think a lot of the success of the original Pirates and NKs we the blanks and the plating . 

 

 

[Rtrucking40]

Anyone have any idea what ito flies is up to I used to order direct off there website and cannot find it anymore.. also very unfortunate with bayrat glad I have a cpl that should last a while

[Missdemeanor]

3 hours ago, HB2 said:

I think a lot of the success of the original Pirates and NKs we the blanks and the plating . 

 

 

100%agree....  Whoever warrior uses to plate their spoons does an awesome job...

   I'm very excited to see how the pirate stack up against spring kings....

[chowder]

11 hours ago, Missdemeanor said:

100%agree....  Whoever warrior uses to plate their spoons does an awesome job...

   I'm very excited to see how the pirate stack up against spring kings....

How are these “Pirate” spoons being marketed? I don’t see them for sale 

[mr 580]

Rtrucking40 regarding ITO Flies.  Ryan had a booth at the Niagara Show with quite a lot of product.  I bought some coho/eye flies from him and he mentioned this was the 1st show for them in awhile.  Check Facebook for him.  Like a lot of small businesses I’m sure Covid made an impact.

[Missdemeanor]

8 hours ago, chowder said:

How are these “Pirate” spoons being marketed? I don’t see them for sale 

If you have the book of faces.... Here's the link...https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083336642657&mibextid=ZbWKwL.   I'm sure more marketing is in the future... I'll post updates when I can....