What happend to Storm?
Sunday, June 17th, 2007Ever wonder what happend to some of the Storm lures? Well several years ago, about 5 I think it was, Storm Lures out of Oklahoma was bought out by Normark. Sometimes better known as Rapala.
In probably one of the greatest marketing blunders since the Coca-Cola company came out with “New Coke”, Normark decided to revamp and redesign some of this areas most treasured lures. Everyone remember the plastic lip fiasco on the Hot-n-Tot a few years ago? That was an attempt to improve upon an already established lure, as a rep me this spring that the goal was to make it track better in the water. Guess they didn’t realize that the action it had prior to the tinkering made it the effective lure that it was.
What they did to the color patterns was enough to make an angler cry. What they did to the Thunderstick line of cranks was borderline insane. The elimination of entire product lines and sizes was enough to open the doors for other companies.
Who jumped through the door first is probably up for a little bit of discussion. One of the first was, “The Producers”. A small company out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, already makers of a popular lure called the “Willy’s Worm”, they came out with the “Double Downer”. A fair and effective copy of the Tot. Then there was Brad’s Lures, who made the Wigglers, a good job of making up for the Wiggle Wart changes. The Thin Fish, to take the place of the Thinfins which were eleminated from the Storm/Normark line. This lure is a favorite of steelhead fisherman.
Dave Storm, yep a real Storm, started making lures again. Winning Streaks, and the Mean Streak, a jointed Tot! Under the name of “Dave’s Ka-Boom! Baits, you will find many of the old Storm baits once again.
By far the best place to find these lures and many more when it comes to walleye, steelhead and bass fishing is Franks Great Outdoors, located in Linwood, Michigan up on Saginaw Bay. Not only do they have what you need, but they have the best collection of custom ordered paint jobs than anyone else in the state for the lures.