Product Shortages

[Corvus Lacus]

The shelves of both brick & mortar and on-line stores seem empty of a lot of fishing products this summer. Can't find any of my favourite Z-Man and MaxScent plastics...tungsten weights...certain Gamagatsu and Mustad hooks...SunLine FC line...etc, etc.
I was in Bass Pro last week, and whole sections of fishing gear were completely wiped out.

Is this a Covid related thing ? Shipments from the US being held up ? Manufacturers (US and China) shut down production for a while ? A lot more people fishing because they can't travel ?

Any of the retailers out there have any comments ?

[toobinator]

The reasons for the shortages are all of the above. A lot of the manufacturers were shut down for a time during the peak of the virus. Even now they are working short staffed. Along with that, even though a product is US or Canada made, certain components are coming from overseas. Examples would be guides for rods, hooks for lures, circuit boards for electronics. Couple that with a HUGE upswing in people fishing, and you have shortages. The cost of shipping from overseas has gone through the roof as well.

At Paddletales,we got a very large order in from Z Man about 3 weeks ago that we had waited 6-7 weeks for. We got the order into inventory and immediately reordered. That was 3 weeks ago and nothing shipped as yet. That is just one of many examples.

At Paddletales we were closed for 7 weeks. During that time we kept accepting orders. The drivers all know where we live and just dropped everything off at the house. Every 2 or 3 days we would take everything down to the store and inventory it. A lot of the stores cancelled all their orders. Consequently were were in much better shape stock wise than most. Even now, we have a ton of empty pegs and spaces in the reel cases and rod racks, but we can still find something that works for you. Inventory is starting to move a little better now as well. Not a huge amount but there is improvement.

Ed
Paddletales