Has anyone seen the BPS Nitro Square bills yet?

[rgasr63]

I recently received a couple of gift cards. So I tried to order some square bill cranks online  that I had lost this year fishing. To my surprise most of the colors were not shown anymore. The new product will be called BPS Nitro I was told. Has Anyone seen these new cranks ?  

[rangerjockey]

 No, but the lucky craft, 6th sense or the ol' Strike king would be a better choice than a BPS house brand.

[rgasr63]

@rangerjockey That is true but places I fish they either get broken or lost. I have some of those others but I throw the budget ones too.

[greentrout]

3 hours ago, rgasr63 said:

I recently received a couple of gift cards. So I tried to order some square bill cranks online  that I had lost this year fishing. To my surprise most of the colors were not shown anymore. The new product will be called BPS Nitro I was told. Has Anyone seen these new cranks ?  

BPS has a liberal return policy. 

 

Good Fishing

[TOXIC]

Do you think Bass Pro makes their own crankbaits?  Of course they don’t.  Figure out who does and you might be surprised by who it is.  Probably a top tier more expensive crankbait manufacturer that allows BPS to rebrand them.  I know that was the deal years ago when I was pro staff for both Bass Pro and SPRO.  BPS wanted SPRO to manufacture their line of XPS cranks and they refused.  It started a small dispute that, for a while, resulted in some SPRO products being pulled from inventory and shelves at BPS.  

[king fisher]

I recommend the Academy H2O house brand square bills.  I haven't tried the BPS ones, but have tried many name brand SB. and many times prefer the H2O over the more expensive ones.

[rangerjockey]

On 12/17/2023 at 9:52 AM, TOXIC said:

Do you think Bass Pro makes their own crankbaits?  Of course they don’t.  Figure out who does and you might be surprised by who it is.  Probably a top tier more expensive crankbait manufacturer that allows BPS to rebrand them.  I know that was the deal years ago when I was pro staff for both Bass Pro and SPRO.  BPS wanted SPRO to manufacture their line of XPS cranks and they refused.  It started a small dispute that, for a while, resulted in some SPRO products being pulled from inventory and shelves at BPS.  

Whoever they farmed the hard baits out to this year may not be the same as last year. I'm sure it's who gives them the best deal. 

 

[Stratocat_Joe]

2 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Whoever they farmed the hard baits out to this year may not be the same as last year. I'm sure it's who gives them the best deal. 

 

Maybe, but the only large tackle manufacturers I'm aware of that have set up shop in Springfield, MO (Bass Pro's HQ) is Strike King/Lews.  When I'm back visiting family there, I like to walk through the Outlet store and it's usually packed with BPS/Lews reconditioned reels and BPS/Strike King products.  I was just in the BPS in Macon, GA and I noticed the BPS packaging was changing.  The BPS Nitro is probably just a rebranding of the original product, similar to what Academy did last year with their H2O/H2O Express line-up.

[FrnkNsteen]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:52 AM, TOXIC said:

Do you think Bass Pro makes their own crankbaits?  Of course they don’t.  Figure out who does and you might be surprised by who it is.  Probably a top tier more expensive crankbait manufacturer that allows BPS to rebrand them.  I know that was the deal years ago when I was pro staff for both Bass Pro and SPRO.  BPS wanted SPRO to manufacture their line of XPS cranks and they refused.  It started a small dispute that, for a while, resulted in some SPRO products being pulled from inventory and shelves at BPS.  

That would explain why BPS carries very little Spro, and strengthens why I don't like BPS anymore. They have become the Walmart of fishing and use their weight to try to bully other manufacturers.

 

I'd rather spend a bit more and buy Spro (or other manufacturers)

I HAVE been pretty happy with the Academy baits as a cheaper option though!!

[Bankc]

I've bought a few BPS XPS cranks and have no complaints with them.  I have no idea who makes them, but they seem to me to be on the same level of quality as H2O Express, which is pretty good.  BPS even has a few unique models that I haven't seen anywhere else, like the Egg.  And I really like the Egg.  

 

Then again, I'm not too picky.  If it catches fish and doesn't break, it's good enough for me.  I rarely even switch out hooks unless there's a problem.  If they're not sharp enough, I sharpen them.  Most of the plastic crankbaits are pretty much the same to me.  But I don't buy Megabass, so I don't really know what it's like to use a high-end crankbait.  Ignorance is bliss, I guess.  

[rangerjockey]

2 hours ago, Stratocat_Joe said:

Maybe, but the only large tackle manufacturers I'm aware of that have set up shop in Springfield, MO (Bass Pro's HQ) is Strike King/Lews.  When I'm back visiting family there, I like to walk through the Outlet store and it's usually packed with BPS/Lews reconditioned reels and BPS/Strike King products.  I was just in the BPS in Macon, GA and I noticed the BPS packaging was changing.  The BPS Nitro is probably just a rebranding of the original product, similar to what Academy did last year with their H2O/H2O Express line-up.

Lew's moved out of Springfield years ago. Some of the guys that worked at the tackle shop there went to Bait Wrx and Boat Wrx.  Boat Wrx just closed it's doors a month or so back.

When Strike king or, I guess whatever the parent company is bought Lew's they closed the shop on Hwy 65

I don't think the reason your seeing a lot of returned Lew's stuff is because of the fact that they used to have a warehouse/office here.

[flyfisher]

3 hours ago, FrnkNsteen said:

That would explain why BPS carries very little Spro, and strengthens why I don't like BPS anymore. They have become the Walmart of fishing and use their weight to try to bully other manufacturers.

 

I'd rather spend a bit more and buy Spro (or other manufacturers)

I HAVE been pretty happy with the Academy baits as a cheaper option though!!

It's not bullying, it's capitalism at work.  

I don't fish conventional that often but when I do I stick to name brands simply because I am not as up on the current manufacturers of products that are house brand so if i need something, I want consistency.  I haven't bought but maybe 5-6 cranks in the last 3-4 years and they were all spro or rapala.

[gim]

3 hours ago, Bankc said:

I've bought a few BPS XPS cranks and have no complaints with them.  I have no idea who makes them, but they seem to me to be on the same level of quality as H2O Express, which is pretty good.  BPS even has a few unique models that I haven't seen anywhere else, like the Egg.  And I really like the Egg.  

The Egg and the XPS Lazer Eye crankbaits are solid.  The stock trebles are very good too.

 

My personal favorite is the discontinued Storm Subwart.  I've still got a few, but I aint paying 40 or 50 bucks a pop on ebay to replace them when I lose one.  I've tried about 8 or 10 other brands compared to the subwart as a replacement and the closest I've found is, you guessed it, the XPS Super Shallow Crank or The Egg!  The great thing about these is that they're $4.99 each too.  I probably have 5 different colors of them.

[FrnkNsteen]

4 hours ago, flyfisher said:

It's not bullying, it's capitalism at work.  

I don't fish conventional that often but when I do I stick to name brands simply because I am not as up on the current manufacturers of products that are house brand so if i need something, I want consistency.  I haven't bought but maybe 5-6 cranks in the last 3-4 years and they were all spro or rapala.

I get what you're saying, and I support capitalism. It's what keeps many of our jobs intact and our investments growing.

 

That being said,.... I don't classify "Make the products we want for us or we'll remove your product from our shelves" as straight capitalism.

 

Had a friend who worked for a company that sold products to Walmart. They did the same thing, saying "you'll sell this product to us for this price, or we will no longer carry any of your products".

[Stratocat_Joe]

8 hours ago, rangerjockey said:

Lew's moved out of Springfield years ago. Some of the guys that worked at the tackle shop there went to Bait Wrx and Boat Wrx.  Boat Wrx just closed it's doors a month or so back.

When Strike king or, I guess whatever the parent company is bought Lew's they closed the shop on Hwy 65

I don't think the reason your seeing a lot of returned Lew's stuff is because of the fact that they used to have a warehouse/office here.

I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure the most recent Lews reel I purchased earlier this year had a Republic address for returns, which might explain why the warehouse on the other side of town was closed.  And, I wasn't saying that the reason you see Lews stuff at the outlet store is because they have/had a warehouse in the area.  I'm saying that BPS and Strike King/Lews have a partnership and I wouldn't be surprised if the BPS house brand for some of their tackle/reels is manufactured by the same company that manufactures Strike King/Lews products.  I know BPS works in conjunction with Z-Man for their house brand Chatterbait.  I was fortunate enough to Marshal for Gussy (who is sponsored by Z-Man) last year and he told me about the BPS model and highly recommended it.

[rangerjockey]

9 hours ago, Stratocat_Joe said:

I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure the most recent Lews reel I purchased earlier this year had a Republic address for returns, which might explain why the warehouse on the other side of town was closed.  And, I wasn't saying that the reason you see Lews stuff at the outlet store is because they have/had a warehouse in the area.  I'm saying that BPS and Strike King/Lews have a partnership and I wouldn't be surprised if the BPS house brand for some of their tackle/reels is manufactured by the same company that manufactures Strike King/Lews products.  I know BPS works in conjunction with Z-Man for their house brand Chatterbait.  I was fortunate enough to Marshal for Gussy (who is sponsored by Z-Man) last year and he told me about the BPS model and highly recommended it.

Iynn Reeves worked for BPS for years. If memory serves, he quit when he was able to obtain the rights to use the Lew's name from Lew Childres family and bring back the brand.

That didn't make Ol' Johnny very happy and I don't think BPS ever had a Lew's product in the stores until after the buyout.

I will say that when Lews was still on HWY 65 they had a great tournament rewards program and if you had an issue with a reel, you could just drop it in the trash and pick up a new one. That and they gave away a bunch of stuff to local guys.