a few months ago i found a bagley's bass n' shad crankbait on the bank of my pet lake and it has been absolutely killer. yesterday, thanks to a knot left unchecked after a 2 lb bass,

i lost the lure on the very next cast. i did some research to buy a new one and it turns out they stopped making them! why?

Dunno the particulars, but I'm a big fan of bagley baits myself.  Problem with Bagley is that they always seem to be on the brink of just shutting down for good.  You can find plenty of Bassn Shads on Ebay, and you can usually get them for a pretty good price.

If you google the name, there's a thread on another forum where someone claims the name has been changed to "Walleye Shad", but the product is the same.

I don't know anything beyond that, but it might be worth looking into.