Do you know where your baits are made?

If you've spent any time watching the news lately, you'd have seen the scrapping in Congress over this country's financial situation.  It seems that the only thing Congress can agree on is that we need to create more jobs.   We know that the economy has sucked the last few years, but where did all the jobs go?  They've been out-sourced.  No,  not just the large Fortune 500 companies in the tech industry, but also in the very companies that play such a large role in what we love to do.  What I didn't know was how prevalent this trend had become.

This past weekend I decided to do a little research at the local Gander Mountain store.  What I wanted to find out was how many of the brands on the store shelves were made in the USA and how many were made elsewhere.  What I found was really disheartening.

Let's start with crankbaits and spinnerbaits:

Booyah spinnerbaits                      Mexico
Z-man Chatterbaits                        China and USA
Rapala                                            Estonia
Terminator Spinnerbaits                 China
Excaliber                                        China
Bandit                                             China
Strike King                                     Costa Rica
Bomber                                           China
Spro                                                 China
Rebel                                               China
Heddon                                            China
Storm                                               China
Luck-E- Strike                                 China
Manns                                              USA

Jigs:

Terminator                                      Vietnam
Strike King                                      Costa Rica
VMC                                                Phillipines
Booyah                                             China

Plastics:

Zoom                                                 USA
Reaction Innovations                        USA
Yamamoto                                         USA
Strike King                                        Dominican Republic and USA
Berkley                                              USA
Big Bite Baits                                    USA
Trigger X                                           Taiwan

Line:                          

Berkley                                              USA
Power Pro                                          USA
Suffix                                                 Taiwan
P-Line                                                Japan
Seaguar                                              Japan
Sunline                                               Japan


While these are the products in my local store, I think you'll find this trend in "big box" stores across the country.  Only one USA made crankbait company made it to the store shelves.  Tomorrow we'll talk about why this is so.