06June1944

Don’t mean to bump and old thread, but I had been out of the game of fishing for the last couple years (college & moved to the city for work). The whole covid nightmare brought me back to the hobby I loved so much. To the topic at hand - my pops always taught me if something works - buy a ton, cause the company only cares about money, not if a reduction production cost product works or not... learned the hard lesson last fall & this spring. I fish the 4a A LOT and ended up having one of my most productive 4a colors bit off by what I assume was an alligator snapper (clean slice thru 50lb braid). Since I had a few extras, I didn’t worry at the time, but This spring, crankbait fishing has been off the charts productive. So I decided to order a few of the color I like from cabelas as back ups and to my horror - they are no where even close to the old paint job that bomber used to put on the plug (pre2014). I’m not even joking. The hues are way off, the pattern is weak at best, and they don’t pull half the fish as the 2005-2014 4A plugs do. I’m not sure if this is because bomber moved their production from China to Guatemala, or if it’s a cost cutting measure, but oh mylanta, I’ve had to spend a zillion on stocking up with NOS of the ones I like so much. It really stinks. As an aside, I’ve also noticed they don’t have the B04F as an option anywhere either. Only ones I was able to find were in Walmart’s box of assorted cranks. Ended up buying a ton of those too @3.43 a pc. I figure even if the ugly colors don’t work, I’ll paint em. I guess my question is what the heck happened to bomber? Are they losing market share that bad to all the idiot brands like googan squid? If so, they need to fire their marketing director and bring in someone competent. I’m may be a millennial, but if something works, I stick with it. I’m a bomber loyalist. I feel like most other fishermen are that way as well. If bomber is tanking, they need to right the ship before it’s too late.