Still No Gear

It's been weeks upon months since I have put my order through with this guy T.J. Tackle. (Not the company logo shown to the right.)

I met up with this guy months ago at Bass Pro and he showed me some custom spinnerbaits that he made. Nice stuff really. Well made you could tell and he made a lot of really nice colors that you don't normally see. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and jigs any configuration of color and size you can think of.

I ended up buying one off him on the spot. He handed me a card and assured me that anything could be done. He basically had no limitations on the options you can choose from. He had one particular base-line color that interested me. It had the shad type head with a brown copper color. I contacted this guy later on and gave him what I wanted... ten spinnerbaits all with the copper brown head with some different blade and skirt styles. I think he charged me like $30.00 total. Now, I know red flags are starting to pop up with some of you. Well minded consumers know when they see load of crap. Something seemed fishy to me with this guy, so I made him agree to a "special" deal. I made it very clear that I needed them at the very least by the last week in March first of all. That having long passed. I also told the guy "Look, I have never dealt with you before, so I would like to receive half of the order up front and I will pay you, and then you send me the next half after you get the money". He said that was cool, being I was a first time customer.

As I stated before, I never got the initial shipment. The guy never returns e mails or my phone calls. What if I was relying on these lures for a tournament? I would be in bad shape. This whole ordeal taught me a valuable lesson. If you happen upon one of these small venture type businesses; don't rely on them right off the bat. Do a couple transactions with them in a non time sensitive setting so you may get the feel of how they do business. Is their product consistent? How long from order to door do they usually take? Can they overnight to you if need? These are questions that can only be truly answered to you with the business's actions. Do not take their word for it! You may end up falling victim to the possible turn out that I was able to haphazardly avoid... on a tournament... maybe. It's just not worth it.

The logo above happens to be a company owned by a good friend of mine. A quality lure, that is priced accordingly. What he does, fits what I look for mostly and most importantly, I know what his capabilities are. I know what he can do by way of delivering the product to me. I know what I am going to get every time and there are no misunderstood expectations. Mind you this fella has a demanding occupation so I don't expect to be able to call him from Virginia on a Friday night and have lures at my hotel on Saturday morning. That's just fine as long as that is the inclination from day one.

So with that said, you can tell, I'm sure, what and who I will be going with in the future. Once you find a good one, keep 'em.