BPS Products - Quality or Garbage

[micropterus]

I have several BPS rods and reels. I have a 6' light action Bionic Blade spinning rod and BPS Enticer reel. I like it a lot and it's not so expensive that if/when my kid breaks it I can't replace it.

I have two BPS Pro Qualifier rods, 7' M/F baitcasters, that I use shaky head and light jig fishing. They are well made and extremely sensitive.

I have a Johnny Morris Elite baitcaster on a JM Elite 7' MH/F rod with recoil guids. Quality and performance wise, it gives up nothing to other major brands. I like the reel as well as any of my 8 Revos, and like it better than my former Curado Ds.

 

[FishingBuds]

I have some BPS products along with other stuff, and I have a bad habit of not researching feed back on things I wish to purchase. BPS internet site has some feed back on products that you can read.

For instance I have a NEW Bass Pro Shops XPS i Series On-Board Marine Battery Charger and it has a not so good feed back review history (and I didn't see that untill after) so I hope it hangs in there, it seems they will alawys light up as if they are charging but, the banks will go out on ya but you won't know by site(cause the charge light will still be on)

Now for learning from this
I have a Bass Pro Shop Extreme 7' Rod and Reel Baitcast Combo - Flipping Switch Reel, It has a great review history and I looked at that before deciding to buy :wink: It does work great, I have not been able to fish it alot in brush but so far I'm impressed.

so I guess it pays to look for feed back first :wink:

 

[Mattlures]

Bass pro has their own version of any popular bait. If something gets hot, they make a copy. Sometimes they even put potential products in thier stores/cattalog and if it is succesfull they will have their version out quickly. If it is not a big seller they wont bother. The reels are not made by them. They are contracted out and I believe every major reel manufacturer has made reels for Bass Pro. Shimano Diawa and Okuma are the big 3 but even the smaller brands like Phluguer and and other have made reels for them. I am not possative about Quantum but they probably have to. They bid the job and Bass pro picks the manufacturer. I am sure Cabelas does the same. I buy a lot of terminal tackle from Bass Pro and some of thier products. Their rods have always been good to me and are a good value but I now fish almost all Okuma and they are a very good value. As far as baits go, I like to fish the originals. I try not to buy any knock offs, however at some point that changes. I mean I dont even know who invented the spinnerbait or if they even still make them, and I dont like Creme worms lol. So in a nut shell, the reels are made buy different Co's and some are better then others. The rods are good but I havent and wont use any of the lowere end ones. The baits well that all depends. I am sure some are better then others. You have to figure they probably have thousands of products with their name on it. Anytime you make that much stuss your bound to have some really great stuff and some stuff that sucks

 

[angry Bob]

Love their rods, wouldn't recommend their reels

 

[Mac]

I like their store brand Excel mono. I have a spool of 6 lb that is tough and fairly abrasion resistant....I also think that it doesn't stretch as much as some of the others. I also use their XPS brand hooks, the offset shank worm hooks in particular and have not had any troubles there either. On sale, I got several spinning rods in the graphite series for 19.95 each.....the low end graphite series rods, and they are fine....lightweight, sensative....a bang for the buck. I use their tender tubes and have good results there also, particularly in the shad color, the dark back over a pearl belly.....I tear out every third tentacle and they work very well. I have not tried any of their reels, hard plastics or soft plastics other than the tubes. I do buy their Clamshot split shot and make jigs by crimping the clamshot onto the hook, mashing the shot quite flat.....making a nice minnow head profile for my silicone legged jigs.....can't find them anywhere else and for making attractive jigs, they're great.

 

[bassboy1]

Didn't read all the other posts, but I hate their plastics. My only bass casting reel is a BPS, but I have a Viento coming for Christmas, so lets see where that BPS reel goes. I have heard real bad things about a lot of the Johnny Morris series of BPS reels. Really, the only things with their brand I can ever see myself getting would be some odd little piece of terminal tackle such as a line stripper or something like that.

 

[Jim]

I like their store brand Excel mono. I have a spool of 6 lb that is tough and fairly abrasion resistant....I also think that it doesn't stretch as much as some of the others. I also use their XPS brand hooks, the offset shank worm hooks in particular and have not had any troubles there either. On sale, I got several spinning rods in the graphite series for 19.95 each.....the low end graphite series rods, and they are fine....lightweight, sensative....a bang for the buck. I use their tender tubes and have good results there also, particularly in the shad color, the dark back over a pearl belly.....I tear out every third tentacle and they work very well. I have not tried any of their reels, hard plastics or soft plastics other than the tubes. I do buy their Clamshot split shot and make jigs by crimping the clamshot onto the hook, mashing the shot quite flat.....making a nice minnow head profile for my silicone legged jigs.....can't find them anywhere else and for making attractive jigs, they're great.

Excel mono rules in my book. :beer:

 

[jkbirocz]

My girlfriend uses a BPS Pro Qualifier wide spool spinning reel, I stated this in a previous post on this thread, but thought I would mention it again. This reel is pretty sweet, I used it for a day of shad fishing, catching 88 shad that day and hooking, fighting, and losing atleast that amount. It casts well and has a great drag. It is also very sturdy, she has used it for a little over a year now and it is still going strong.

As for their baits, the only BPS baits I have used are their senkos. I bought a pack of 6" roadkill colored stick baits and I have had great success with them. If I remember correctly I caught four 4-5lb LM on them this summer, and many other solid fish. That gets my approval on a bait, especially for a bag of 20 for under $5.

 

[freezer]

I would agree with many other people. I like the rods and not the reels.

I purchased a Bionic Plus baitcaster (BPS brand), and had to take it back because the brake wouldn't set on it. I swapped it out for another one and it had the exact same problem. I fixed the issue by putting in tiny piece of paper in the cast control knob, it wasn't making contact at all and I couldn't set the reel. Even though I fixed the problem I took it back because nobody wants to pay $60 for something that's already needing repairs.

 

[bass-pro-guy]

As someone who works there part time(hence the user name) i usually will only recommend their rods for two reasons. One is they are actually pretty good rods. I have used them alot before i worked there and never had a problem. Two, when they actually do have a problem or when you do something stupid and break them, we will replace them. I have never seen a person denied a replacement even if they are five years old.

Their reels are pretty much garbage unless you get the blue JM baitcaster. The stick baits are great and the hooks are also really good. But the best thing for me is the %40 discount :beer:

 

[Captain Ahab]

I have never seen a person denied a replacement even if they are five years old.

Welcome aboard

How many five year olds are purchasing and then returning rods? :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

 

[Waterwings]

Welcome Aboard! 8)

 

[Popeye]

As someone who works there part time(hence the user name) i usually will only recommend their rods for two reasons. One is they are actually pretty good rods. I have used them alot before i worked there and never had a problem. Two, when they actually do have a problem or when you do something stupid and break them, we will replace them. I have never seen a person denied a replacement even if they are five years old.

Their reels are pretty much garbage unless you get the blue JM baitcaster. The stick baits are great and the hooks are also really good. But the best thing for me is the %40 discount :beer:

40%!!!, I might have to get a part time job there

 

[bass-pro-guy]

I have never seen a person denied a replacement even if they are five years old.

Welcome aboard

How many five year olds are purchasing and then returning rods? :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

=D> very nice!! I have been a member for a year, i cant believe that was my first post and it had nothing to do with my boat. [-X

 

[Jim]

:WELCOME:

 

[ACarbone624]

Welcome! Your gonna love it here!

 

[YamahaC40Guy]

As far as I know, a "Rapala" at BPS is the same as any other Rapala. I'm 99.9% sure that they don't have say...Minn Kota making cheaper motor for them, and still labeling them "Minn Kota." The only stuff that you need to keep an eye on (the hit & miss stuff) is the BPS-branded stuff. Not all of it is called "Bass Pro" either, but all of their "house brands" are not hard to pick out. (ie. "White River" gear in their fly shops) I look at it this way;

If I buy a BPS-branded rubber tube jig, there is a VERY good chance it's going to be of a similar quality of say...a Berkley. If I'm not sure, then I let the lower price convince me, or am content that at least I'm paying less if I'm getting less. Things like trailer hardware~I'm ALSO convinced that BPS doesn't have it's own manufacturer cranking the stuff out, it's probably the same company that makes brand XYZ selling them volume..only packaged differently. I do feel some reluctance to guy big ticket/BPS-branded stuff like...rods for instance, even IF they might be rolling out of the same company that makes Shimano. Things like monofilament~if I lost the fish of a lifetime because I wanted to save $6 on my line...I'd never forgive myself, so I buy the best when it comes to that. If I still lose that fish, then I take comfort in the fact that that it was probably my mediocre fish-fighting skills and not my crappy fishing line!

Rob

 

[freezer]

The BPS brand casting reels are made in the same factory as Pflueger's are. The only difference is the logo and a bit of quality.

 

[ilinimud]

This is a little off topic, but i was at Gander Mtn. the other day and they had a self branded rod and reel there. The reel was a Pinnacle Vision XLT (13 bearings) not sure what the rod was. If you know what you are looking at, it can save you money. I will probably buy that combo from Gander i know Pinnacle did a VERY good job on their Vision series and i am happy with mine..

I would like to know who makes the Gander Mtn. rods. I have one and it is very sensitive. They seem to have good products. The reels are easy to identify IMO, but the rods are a lot harder.