Norman Baits Sold Out!

[thirtysixit]

Just got my first batch of crankbaits since Norman was bought by PRADCO. Made in Guatemala. I was very sad to see that.  I always looked forward to seeing the American Flag on the front of the packages... End of an era. 

[jtharris3]

Well that sucks.

[deaknh03]

I bet if you go to Guatemala and buy a norman, it's made in the USA.

[Todd2]

That really does suck. That flag is why I continued to buy Norman.....that and its a great crankbait. Not sure now.

[papajoe222]

On my last order of Norman baits, only one of the four was from Quatemala. The other tree were made in the USA. 

Get them before they're gone guys and gals. 

[scaleface]

The local Wal Mart still has USA made Deep Little N's in two colors . I bought 2 last week . Norman got the N series right .

[BiteFiend]

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

The local Wal Mart still has USA made Deep Little N's in two colors . I bought 2 last week . Norman got the N series right .

The Walmart I went to last week also still had the American made ones. I agree they definitely got the N series right. I always check to see if the colors they carry ever change since the two colors they do carry, I have not had success on in the lakes I fish. I go to the local tackle shop when I am specifically seeking them out since they carry them in a ton of colors. Hopefully the quality and action of the baits doesn't completely go down the crapper. 

[timsford]

They also raised the price up quite a bit to almost 7 dollars on the pradco brands site, lurenet.com. Normans and bandits have always been some of my favorites because of quality at a reasonable cost, now they are made cheaper but sell for more

[scaleface]

I'm an avid Deep little N user . These last two American made I  bought are junk . Two weeks ago I lost two ,one to a snag and the other to a huge fish  , so I had to replace them . Well one ran badly to the right  , so I tuned it but it did not have a good action . The other ran badly to the left , so I tuned it too and it also just didnt have a good feel . I used the second one anyway and caught three bass , all three barely hooked  , one was hooked on the outside . I then switched to a deep diving Rapala Crankin Rap and   bass after bass engulfed it . Im very disappointed . They have always ran true before .

[soflabasser]

I have a couple old Norman crankbaits in my lure collection.They are great lures that can outfish a lot of the new lures in today's market. 

[Raul]

I never understood why "made in X ( place whatever country name you want here )" has anything to do with the better quality or the lack of when it comes to proven brand names.

My now quite old Berkley Lighting Rods were made ..... in Mexico ( I living in Mexico has nothing to do ), every single aspect of the rod is perfect.

I have a bunch of Risto Raps that were made .... in Ireland, something you wouldn´t expect from a Rapala lure which traditionally are made in Finland, every lure is perfect.

I have a couple of GraphiteLeader Bosco rods made  .... in China, you can see quality craftsmanship in every aspect of the rod, GraphiteLeader/ Olympic is a Japanese Brand.

I don´t see why PRADCO purchasing Norman and no longer making the lures in the USA will have a negative impact on the quality of the product.

YUM products ( owned by PRADCO ) are made in Costa Rica and all the ones you get are quality made, actually where I live you can find tons of discarded YUM baits that have only minor flaws, but those minor flaws are enough to discard the bait.

[Sam]

Hey guys, it is quality control at the factory that is causing the problems.

To up root a manufacturing center and move it can have an enormous negative impact on quality control. Remember, we now have new management and workers who may not share the history or love of the company or product. The new individuals sit at a table and put the products together, not caring if the product is good or poor.

The new employees have quotas to make and they will make them, one way or the other.

With all of the government regulations; taxes; ACLU; EPA; minimum wage; workers' compensation insurance; health/dental insurance; pension plans, and the list goes on and on, why in the world would PRADCO want to continue to manufacturer anything in the good ole USA when they can go out of country and produce a product close to the USA standards but without all of the baggage of the United States?

This is magnified with products with a very slim profit margin.

When sales of the products start to fall then PRADCO will improve its quality control.

Until then, it is what it is, like it or not.

And I love a special Norman crankbait for the Historic James River. Hopefully I can find some made in the USA on the Internet and scoop them up before they are all gone.

[Turkey sandwich]

Without getting into a political/economics rant, this makes me sad.  They've always been solid producing baits for me and definitely have a pretty specific niche in how I fish.  The loss of jobs and quality control aspects both just suck. 

[Hog Basser]

I just bought a mix of 28 old Norman crankbaits off e bay a few months ago, still in the original boxes.  There's quite a few sellers on that site of the old vintage ones.  I was mainly targeting the "quarterback" which has been out of production for a while, ended up with 10 of those in that lot.  It's my dad's favorite lure, so I'm saving them for his birthday and will distribute the rest to my nephews at Christmas.  May keep a few for myself too.  

Also, I fished a recently purchased "flat broke" about a month ago and it ran horribly to the left.  I may try to tune it, but I was very disappointed.  

[Nice_Bass]

at this point I already have a lifetime supply of DD22's. 

If I ever run out...I will buy more DD22's even if they are made on Mars. 

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, Nice_Bass said:

at this point I already have a lifetime supply of DD22's. 

If I ever run out...I will buy more DD22's even if they are made on Mars. 

I dont have a lifetime supply and am out of working Deep Little N's .

  I will not buy anymore at Wal Mart   from this lot even though they are USA made  . I'm going to start buying them from flea markets and such . I' dont recall ever buying an out of tune Deep little N and to have two run this bad is just throwing money away . I have found that baits that run way off usually cant be tuned to run correctly and reach their  maximum depth . Oh well , Rapala  Crankin Raps are filling the void nicely . 

[thirtysixit]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 5:29 PM, scaleface said:

I dont have a lifetime supply and am out of working Deep Little N's .

  I will not buy anymore at Wal Mart   from this lot even though they are USA made  . I'm going to start buying them from flea markets and such . I' dont recall ever buying an out of tune Deep little N and to have two run this bad is just throwing money away . I have found that baits that run way off usually cant be tuned to run correctly and reach their  maximum depth . Oh well , Rapala  Crankin Raps are filling the void nicely . 

I love Norman's but I've had to tune my fare share of them...

[Columbia Craw]

Bandit went to PRADCO.  I haven't read about a quality issue with them. I'm being optimistic.  Fortunately, I have 17 of my favorite color in the DLN and back ups in other colors and models.  It's a sad commentary....Innovation/America v. Production/Off shore. Global economy. 

The outsourced baits have visible weld seams on the back and belly.  I'm think they eliminated a step to smooth the seams. Hooks look good. Finishes with the gel coat looks the same.  Now we'll see how they run.  My USA stocks all ran true.  I can tune a bait fine but it's an inconvenience.  

[bigbill]

Just for this reason I been filling boxes up with the Norman thin N's. Bomber fat a's, model a's ect. I got burned when bps discontinued the top nocker it's not going to happen again.

As far as quality control it can happen with any lure company. I purchased six Mann's baby 1 in browncraw five caught fish one doesn't.

BE AWARE OF THE SCALPERS....there raising prices on the Norman thin n already seen them up to $8 to $15 already.