# BPS Products - Quality or Garbage



## FishingCop (Mar 18, 2008)

Whether in the catelog or on line, BPS products are prevelant and first in the list of items. Whether rods, reels, lues, hooks or line, BPS has a model(s) which either copy or simulate a brand name similar product.

So, what's the deal here? If I'm looking for a certain Rapala lure, would I be getting the same quality in the BPS brand of the same exact thing? Are the BPS copies made by the brand name companies and only have a BPS name? or, are they cheap copies?

Can I buy a BPS reel for say $75 when it looks and has the same features as a brand name which sells for much more and get the same quality? or, is it a cheap copy?

Does anyone know the inside scoop on BPS brand products? Worth it or not?????


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## Waterwings (Mar 18, 2008)

Haven't purchased too much BPS branded stuff, except for a 7' Extreme XPS spinning rod, and a BPS Qualifier rod & reel combo (almost 4 yrs ago), and everything is still working great (except for a previous dog we had chewing the rubber knob off the reel).


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## slim357 (Mar 18, 2008)

as far as I can tell its hit and miss, some of there products have done well for me and others haven't. I have a few of there rods, only one of there reels, and very few of there lures/baits. a few years ago i picked up some toury special rods and I like them. I just bought my first bps reel last month when it went on sale, and as far as I can tell i got what i paid for, would I buy another probably not, at least not the model i got.


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## redbug (Mar 18, 2008)

I will agree with slim on the hit or miss thing I really don't care for their baits either plastic or hard baits... I have had a few rods that i like and the same with the reels you can't beat the price on the terminal tackle and i buy that all the time

Wayne


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## Jim (Mar 18, 2008)

Love the extreme series of rods. I dont care for there reels. I like some of there lures (dog walking bait) and the BPS mono is not bad either.


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## Nickk (Mar 18, 2008)

I've only used their XPS rods(a spinning and a casting) both were very good but I've since retired them(for no apparent reason). Their Senko bait(Stik-O) is very good but I haven't used other baits. Their reels are made by different manufacturers depending on the model, I had heard that the Extreme and the Johnny Morris are made but Diawa but I'm not certain, either way I've heard good things about those and the Prolite Finesse. Stay at the top end of their stuff any you'll get good stuff. I also have a Cabelas Gold Label casting rod, 2-piece for the car, that was an excellent value. I think I got it on close out for about $30.00 and I stuck several bass with it using a finesse jig and could detect the bite easily.


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## kentuckybassman (Mar 18, 2008)

Iv'e bought 4 or 5 of the XPS rods and I love em!! As far as reels go I bought a baitcaster that was ok for the $ but a few items like plastics,hard baits,and especially the BPS red 3/0 hooks I don't care for too much.
I wonder who actually makes their stuff though? 
I guess just do what I do and if you see something you like and it's a really good deal,then go for it. :wink:


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## FishingCop (Mar 18, 2008)

Jim said:


> Love the extreme series of rods. I dont care for there reels. I like some of there lures (dog walking bait) and the BPS mono is not bad either.



Some of the mono is extremely cheap!! Which type do you like? For the price, I could try out a bulk amount and, if I don't like it, use it for a base on the reel with the last 50 or so yards of Trilene XL or another quality brand....


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## Waterwings (Mar 18, 2008)

Jumping back in here. I'm pretty sure the Extreme rods are made somewhere other than in the USA.........but what the hell isn't these days!  

You can't go wrong with the Extreme XPS's.


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## Bubba (Mar 18, 2008)

I can't speak for much of their stuff, but I do have two of their Bionic Blades and I really like them. I've got a 6' M spinning rod that is all I use in the rivers and I love it....The Bionic Blades I believe do tend to have a stiffer feel to them compared to some rods, but I like the feel of a little stiffer rod(depending on what i'm throwing of course). And I've got a 6'6 M casting rod that I have been using for cranks, jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits and i'm really happy with it as well. For the money, and if you like the feel of these rods, I don't think you can beat these for the price either. Also heard alot of good things about the Extreme Rods, but haven't got one of them yet.


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## Popeye (Mar 18, 2008)

As with many other places that have a store brand, some are made by big names to lesser standards, have less options or because they don't have their name on them they are cheaper. Other times the store contracts out to have similar products manufactured specifically for them. Can't tell you about their rods and reels but look at the storage boxes. Obviously the BPS 3700 storage box is made by Plano. And I saw that BPS had an ice fishing shelter made by Clam, just didn't have the optional seats so it was cheaper.


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## cjensen (Mar 23, 2008)

I have 3 of the BPS extreme rods and I like them. Plus when the extreme rods are on sale you cant beat the price. Regularly they are around $120, but when they go on sale they can be had for $50-60. One of these days, when I have a couple hundred laying around burning a hole in my pocket, I'll bite the bullet and try my hand at a Loomis or St. Croix. Until then I'll stick with the extreme rods. 
I tend to shy away from their reels and stick to Shimano since thats what I'm familiar with and like. 
Cant say anything about their lures. Again I stick to a handful of brands that I'm familiar with and I tend to stick with em.


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## BlueWaterLED (Mar 23, 2008)

My wife has a temp position at BPS so I get a huge discount which has made me try lots of their stuff. Excel line is excellent. I will spend $20 on a spool of Seaguar Invizx fluorocarbon because it is great stuff but for mono, excel is as good as any.

Reels: They are made by Pflueger. I don't like Pflueger and I don't like BPS reels.

Rods: If you are cranking or using a moving bait, go for it. If you are fishing a slow bait that you want a little feel with, buy a good rod.

Clothing, good stuff. They have some of the best factories out there making clothing for them.

Baits, EXCELLENT. Look at their brand baits next to a Lucky Craft. Jiggin Spoons are the best, Hooks, weights, why pay extra.

Just my opinion.


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## Nickk (Mar 23, 2008)

Oh, if nobody has mentioned it, the XPS Flurocarbon ranks very high. Tackletour has rated it above several other brands.


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## BIG_DAVE_E (May 4, 2008)

I have 5 of the the johnny morris baitcasting reels (they regularly sell for $179 but you can get them at the spring classic for around $120 with the reel trade in and sale), they are very easy to get adjusted to, very few back lashes and are super smooth I really like them and recomend them to anyone. 
I buy their sinker slides, swivels and other terminal tackle and have no complaints. I use their XPS brand bulk pack hooks, I do prefer the gamakatsu hooks and will buy them in bulk packs when they go on sale, but I use the XPS hooks if I have to pay regular price.
I also use some of the BPS brand jigs, plastics and some of their crankbaits and have been pleased with their products and service.


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## jkbirocz (May 4, 2008)

The only BPS product I can speak for is the BPS Pro Qualifier wide spool spinning reel. My girlfriend bought it for her rod, but I have used it a fair amount. I have a US reel wide spool spinning reel, but it is broken, this reel campares closely to my US reel. The spool is not quite as wide, but still wider than a normal sized bass reel. The BPS reel has 8 bearing while my US reel only has 4. The BPS is a little heavier, but feels much more sturdy when fighting big fish. It definatley cast farther and has a great drag. I would buy one for myself in a heartbeat.


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## bhorlings (May 25, 2008)

I have 3 Johnny Morris rods, 2 Extreme Rods, and a Crankin' Stick. I love them all. The Extreme rods a little on the heavy side but work great. 

I too love the XPS flourocarbon. It's on all of my reels except for my topwater rod.

One thing to remember is that a majority of the items are private labeled. Meaning... same product from a major manufacturer with different packaging. They may be different colors also but the point is the same.

If it's made by a manufacturer that makes junk it's probably going to be junk. If it's made by a manufacturer that makes a quality product then it's probably going to be good.


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## GatorTom (Jun 3, 2008)

Clothing is great. So is Excel mono and the flurocarbon. Some of the rods are okay. I've got a nitro reel and love it. cast smooth and very few backlashes. Baits are great. I only use BPS stick baits (senko knock-off). They come like 20 to a pack and are way cheaper.


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## Waterwings (Jun 4, 2008)

GatorTom said:


> Clothing is great...



yep, their RedHead brand of clothing is pretty durable!


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## Shimanoman (Jun 29, 2008)

I have used BPS products many times over the years. Some products have more than exceeded my expectations, some have disappointed me, I believe, like bhorlings, "if it's made by a manufacturer that makes good product, it's probably going to be good, if, on the other hand, it's made by a manufacturer that makes junk...........". Choose wisely. Regards;- Shimanoman


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## micropterus (Jul 5, 2008)

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.


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## FishingBuds (Jul 5, 2008)

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:


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## Mattlures (Jul 20, 2008)

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


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## angry Bob (Sep 28, 2008)

Love their rods, wouldn't recommend their reels


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## Mac (Oct 6, 2008)

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.


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## bassboy1 (Oct 11, 2008)

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.


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## Jim (Oct 11, 2008)

Mac said:


> 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:


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## jkbirocz (Oct 11, 2008)

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.


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## freezer (Nov 20, 2008)

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.


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## bass-pro-guy (Jan 6, 2009)

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:


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 6, 2009)

bass-pro-guy said:


> 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:


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## Waterwings (Jan 6, 2009)

Welcome Aboard! 8)


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## Popeye (Jan 6, 2009)

bass-pro-guy said:


> 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


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## bass-pro-guy (Jan 7, 2009)

Captain Ahab said:


> bass-pro-guy said:
> 
> 
> > I have never seen a person denied a replacement even if they are five years old.
> ...



=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


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## Jim (Jan 7, 2009)

:WELCOME:


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## ACarbone624 (Jan 7, 2009)

Welcome! Your gonna love it here!


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## YamahaC40Guy (Jan 9, 2009)

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


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## freezer (Feb 19, 2009)

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.


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## ilinimud (Feb 20, 2009)

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.


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