Falcon Rods DISCONTINUING Cara Line of Rods???

[Tywithay]

2 hours ago, fishindad said:

I saw the photo of the revamped Cara in the Bassmaster 2020 iCast article. To me, it looks and reads like it's being made overseas like the Expert. I own 8 Caras and love 'em. If they are no longer made in the US, I won't buy any more Falcons. Really blows because IMO Caras were the absolute best stick out there in the $200-$270 price range.

 

The problem as mentioned is it is almost impossible now to find a rod company that produces every rod using US employees in a US factory. Sure, everyone here probably uses foreign-made vehicles, phones, reels, electronics. etc, etc. But I believe we should try our best to support US companies and employees whenever possible.

 

 

Like the US pilots, boat captains, customs workers, truck drivers, and retail workers, that source and sell stuff from overseas? It doesn't matter where it comes from. If it gets to your doorstep, several American jobs got it there.

[Cgrinder]

9 hours ago, Tywithay said:

ALX Ikos blanks are made overseas. Only the Zolo and Enox are USA.

Oh yeah, that's good catch.

[NOC 1]

22 hours ago, CFDoc said:

I also see the noble stance of trying to buy USA; however, I truly don't see how that's possible in today's society.

 

Every single poster on here that is not buying rods made in the USA is posting about it using electronic equipment that is 90% or more made in China.

I try to buy USA made stuff too. But you have to realize that the Global economy is not just a random thing that happened. It is designed that way. The powers that be pretty much insist that you buy from overseas makers. It is designed to be the modern version of Mutually Assured Destruction. At this point, where you buy is almost irrelevant. It is how you vote that MIGHT be able to turn it around.

 

Our specialty is software, grain, and making autos for the Japanese and German companies.

 

 

[NOC 1]

On 7/1/2020 at 9:11 PM, zell_pop1 said:

X2 I will not buy a Cara/Lowrider made in China.

I buy from US makers when it is to my advantage. Their job is to make sure that buying their product IS to my advantage. I buy grapes from Chile because I can buy them in April. When an American company can sell me a rod made in the USA that I like better than Megabass, then I will buy it.

 

It's complicated economy. What do we do about cars? Do we put money in the US maker's pockets by buying domestic cars or into US auto workers pockets  by buying Japanese and German makers who have outsourced their assembly here?

 

Unless you have found some way to avoid buying everything else that you buy from China, why pick on Falcon? They are also an American company with American employees and were in fact one of the companies that held out the longest for American made blanks. So now you want to punish them because they can't get an American blank at a competitive price?  (That is, if they can get any American blanks at all)

[fishindad]

19 minutes ago, NOC 1 said:

I buy from US makers when it is to my advantage. Their job is to make sure that buying their product IS to my advantage. I buy grapes from Chile because I can buy them in April. When an American company can sell me a rod made in the USA that I like better than Megabass, then I will buy it.

 

It's complicated economy. What do we do about cars? Do we put money in the US maker's pockets by buying domestic cars or into US auto workers pockets  by buying Japanese and German makers who have outsourced their assembly here?

 

Unless you have found some way to avoid buying everything else that you buy from China, why pick on Falcon? They are also an American company with American employees and were in fact one of the companies that held out the longest for American made blanks. So now you want to punish them because they can't get an American blank at a competitive price?  (That is, if they can get any American blanks at all)

Great post. Now I do not work for Falcon but recently bought the last two American-made Head Turners thanks to someone who is "inside". Word is the owner's son doesn't/didn't want to continue assembling/building rods on American soil so all the rods have been outsourced. I agree we should not "punish" Falcon or "reward" another company that makes ALL their rod lines here in the US (are there any left?). Everyone at every income level has bought foreign products because that's our choice on how to spend our hard-earned dollars. Pretty soon the only way to go USA is to have a custom builder with NFC blanks build all your rods. With Fuji components. ?‍♂️

 

[NOC 1]

6 minutes ago, fishindad said:

Great post. Now I do not work for Falcon but recently bought the last two American-made Head Turners thanks to someone who is "inside". Word is the owner's son doesn't/didn't want to continue assembling/building rods on American soil so all the rods have been outsourced. I agree we should not "punish" Falcon or "reward" another company that makes ALL their rod lines here in the US (are there any left?). Everyone at every income level has bought foreign products because that's our choice on how to spend our hard-earned dollars. Pretty soon the only way to go USA is to have a custom builder with NFC blanks build all your rods. With Fuji components. ?‍♂️

 

Yes, that is if you can figure out how to get NFC to actually ship you a blank. I don't know anything at all about why Falcon has changed, but I do know that most all of the companies that have depended on American blanks are in a world of hurt as they are pretty much unobtainable in production quantity. It makes it tough when your big selling point has been "Made in the USA" and now, to stay in business they have to go to Chinese Blanks. Heck, even Daiwa, Shimano, and Megabass are using Chinese blanks. It's almost to the point that if you want a fishing rod, it will have to be a Chines rod.

 

St Croix still makes some blanks in the US, but will no longer sell them OEM. Your builder can still get them from one specific outlet, but the price of the blank is almost as much as the cost of the finished rod. 

 

Batson makes some blanks, but I'm not sure if they are all made in the US or if they are any good even if they are.

[Tywithay]

36 minutes ago, NOC 1 said:

Yes, that is if you can figure out how to get NFC to actually ship you a blank. I don't know anything at all about why Falcon has changed, but I do know that most all of the companies that have depended on American blanks are in a world of hurt as they are pretty much unobtainable in production quantity. It makes it tough when your big selling point has been "Made in the USA" and now, to stay in business they have to go to Chinese Blanks. Heck, even Daiwa, Shimano, and Megabass are using Chinese blanks. It's almost to the point that if you want a fishing rod, it will have to be a Chines rod.

 

St Croix still makes some blanks in the US, but will no longer sell them OEM. Your builder can still get them from one specific outlet, but the price of the blank is almost as much as the cost of the finished rod. 

 

Batson makes some blanks, but I'm not sure if they are all made in the US or if they are any good even if they are.

I think Falcon wanted to still offer rods at the same price point, rather than continually raising them with usa materials. A good example is Kistler with the nfc rods. It was maybe 4-5 years ago when the KLX came out and they cost $179 or somewhere thereabouts, with a full cork and split cork option. Today, they go on sale often, but still retail for $300; nearly double. Falcon is from Oklahoma. Most folks down there don't fish with $150 rods, let alone $300. If Falcon was selling a $300+ USA made Cara, they're not going to be able to compete with the Loomis and Croix's of the world, and make money. 

[GReb]

I don’t blame Falcon at all. They wanted to continue putting out an excellent product at an affordable price and going overseas was necessary to do so. I just sold several much more expensive USA made rods and replaced them with Experts. Truly fantastic rods so I cannot wait for the new Cara line 

[CFDoc]

16 minutes ago, GReb said:

I don’t blame Falcon at all. They wanted to continue putting out an excellent product at an affordable price and going overseas was necessary to do so. I just sold several much more expensive USA made rods and replaced them with Experts. Truly fantastic rods so I cannot wait for the new Cara line 

 

I have a gen 1 cumara, several exprides, one poison Adrena, and several experts. I find myself wanting to tie every bait on either the Adrena or experts these days. 

[CountryboyinDC]

2 hours ago, NOC 1 said:

 

St Croix still makes some blanks in the US, but will no longer sell them OEM.

St. Croix sells some US-made blanks through Rodgeeks https://rodgeeks.com/collections/st-croix-scv-blanks.  You can get the blanks in a bunch of colors if you're building a custom stick.

 

I understand that some things are nearly impossible to find USA made.  Fishing rods are becoming that way and companies like Falcon are not helping.  If St. Croix, Impulse, ALX, G Loomis, Kistler l, and others can find a way to do it, so can Falcon, they just chose not to.  Everyone can buy what they want, but my last Falcon was likely a Cara T7.  I really liked the actions in a bunch of models, but I'm coming to like ALX more with each one I buy, and they're priced as well as Falcons.

 

[zell_pop1]

Idk maybe some of you did not lose their factory job to the Chinese and still make the same money they were making 20 years ago, but me from rod blanks to auto parts I buy USA made whenever possible even though it costs more. Now an Asian company making things in Asia fine, but not US companies. 

[NOC 1]

On 7/3/2020 at 12:29 PM, CountryboyinDC said:

St. Croix sells some US-made blanks through Rodgeeks https://rodgeeks.com/collections/st-croix-scv-blanks.  You can get the blanks in a bunch of colors if you're building a custom stick.

 

I understand that some things are nearly impossible to find USA made.  Fishing rods are becoming that way and companies like Falcon are not helping.  If St. Croix, Impulse, ALX, G Loomis, Kistler l, and others can find a way to do it, so can Falcon, they just chose not to.  Everyone can buy what they want, but my last Falcon was likely a Cara T7.  I really liked the actions in a bunch of models, but I'm coming to like ALX more with each one I buy, and they're priced as well as Falcons.

 

Yes, Rod Geeks is the one outlet that I referred to. Those companies you named make some decent rods. As far as I know ST.Croix and Loomis are the only ones making SOME of their own blanks. The others are outsourcing blanks from one of the very few other companies that are making blanks and some of them sell only one or two models with US made blanks. And as far as I can see they are having a difficult time sourcing those in a way that allows unimpeded production. I can't say much about Impulse as I know nothing about them.

 

NFC us for one reason or another not keeping up with orders and like I said, St. Croix has stopped OEM sales.. Let's all watch as some of these other makers also reluctantly go more and more toward Chinese and Vietnamese made blanks as their blank supply dries up and their prices rise.

 

All being said, this is not fault of people who are buying fishing rods. The country is full of people who are trying to raise a family on less than $50k a year and to expect them to pay $300 every time they buy a fishing rod just to buy American is asking too much.

 

I have several St. Croix rods and just don't like them all that much. I won't spend the money that Loomis wants for its rods when I can buy a rod just as good for much less. Loomis has simply priced themselves out of the range that the vast majority of people can or will pay. If that is just what it costs to sell US made rods, then it goes a long way towards explaining what happened to the US rod makers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CountryboyinDC]

@NOC 1, you make a lot of good points.  I don't fault anyone that is struggling to make ends meet not making Made in USA a priority.  For Falcon, they were making $200-$220 rods (Cara T7), now they're making Chinese-manufactured Experts at the same price.  There are already tons of those, and I'm sure some of them are likewise good.  Me, I'm spending my $200 on a St. Croix Avid or ALX Zolo going forward.  ALX makes the blanks for the Zolo and Enox in the US.  The Ikos line has the blanks made in China.  Again, everyone should spend their money how they want, I just want to make sure that Falcon knows that I'm not happy with their change in manufacturing strategy.

[NOC 1]

On 7/3/2020 at 4:55 PM, zell_pop1 said:

Idk maybe some of you did not lose their factory job to the Chinese and still make the same money they were making 20 years ago, but me from rod blanks to auto parts I buy USA made whenever possible even though it costs more. Now an Asian company making things in Asia fine, but not US companies. 

No, but I did lose my engineering job to someone from India on an H1B visa. Yeah, it sucks to lose your job overseas, but it sucks just as bad to lose your job in the US to someone imported in for the sole purpose of taking your job for a third of the money.

 

I cannot now afford to pay double just to buy US made stuff. But I do prefer to buy US made stuff when I see close to an equal value.

4 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

@NOC 1, you make a lot of good points.  I don't fault anyone that is struggling to make ends meet not making Made in USA a priority.  For Falcon, they were making $200-$220 rods (Cara T7), now they're making Chinese-manufactured Experts at the same price.  There are already tons of those, and I'm sure some of them are likewise good.  Me, I'm spending my $200 on a St. Croix Avid or ALX Zolo going forward.  ALX makes the blanks for the Zolo and Enox in the US.  The Ikos line has the blanks made in China.  Again, everyone should spend their money how they want, I just want to make sure that Falcon knows that I'm not happy with their change in manufacturing strategy.

Good points. I have been looking at the ALX rods this last year, so maybe I'll try one at some point.

[jbrew73]

I’m looking forward to the new Cara line. 

[fishindad]

13 hours ago, NOC 1 said:

I cannot now afford to pay double just to buy US made stuff. But I do prefer to buy US made stuff when I see close to an equal value.

 

Totally agree and everyone knows Loomis rods are ridiculously overpriced because they add on to the sticker price, the cost for replacing all the broken rods that get warrantied every year. Similar to the way Ford/GM cars have legacy costs tacked on to the sticker price to pay for all the pensions and healthcare of retirees (disclaimer: just to reference a similar business model; nothing against their vehicles).

 

There's no way an NRX is $400-$450 "better" than an ALX or Falcon Cara rod. (again just using Loomis as an example since other rod companies probably do the same).

5 hours ago, jbrew73 said:

I’m looking forward to the new Cara line. 

Me too. I hope they get released soon because our open water season here in Michigan doesn't last long and I would like to try one out now!