I saw an article on a fly fishing industry page that American Tackle is setting up a Pro Staff. I just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row here. Aren't they owned by Mudhole? I know Mudhole passes their products on their site without the American tackle name attached to it. And I know that some of their blanks are made by Lamiglas, are all of them made by Lamiglas? Why setup something different for American Tackle Companies products if Mudhole already has the reigns on them? Please correct me, or clarify me on this.

Mudhole & American Tackle are 2 different companies, they just have somewhat common ownership, as I'm told anyway.

matthew jacobs Wrote:
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> Mudhole & American Tackle are 2 different
> companies, they just have somewhat common
> ownership, as I'm told anyway.


This is correct. Unless things have changed, they do share a warehouse facility in Oviedo. IMO, the difference at this point is "brand marketing", not much more. No different than the Proctor and Gamble lineup of detergents ... Tide, Gain, Bold, Cheer, Daz, Dreft and Fairy brands all under the same roof with common ownership/management and yet differing strategies. This is a very common practice among corporate entities. It is up to the consumer to decide if the marketing works or doesn't AND what products to purchase OR vendors to use.

Thanks for the info.

Hi Andrew,

In response to your post, we are indeed going to create a Pro Staff which was just announced in our newsletter yesterday. We will be launching the program Jan. 2012 and are very excited to build participation in creating new & better products as well as building our brand by introducing rod builders to American Tackle components. I’ll post the Press Release here in a few minutes but for questions and further information feel free to contact Lori Cooper at lori@americantackle.us

No, American Tackle is not owned by Mud Hole. Mud Hole is an American Tackle customer as we supply many dealer/distributors branded and private label product. American Tackle is, and always has been its own company and brand focusing on sales to manufacturers and dealer/distributors.

Regarding Lamiglas blanks, some private label blanks have been supplied to American Tackle from Lamiglas but no, not all of our blanks are made by any one factory.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

That is just one of the problems

I IMHO think we should know who is selling and Where they get the Stuff from
If some one does not want to say who makes there blanks --- Maybe They Are Hiding Some thing ???

What is that called -- Transparency ??

Bill - willierods.com

Hi Bill,

I am not sure what you mean by problem. We contract manufacturing out with many factories all over the world for blanks, guides, seats etc. Most factories have most likely never been heard of before and would mean little to nothing to most so I am not sure what purpose disclosure would serve. In fact some factories have agreements of non-disclosure protecting both parties from a variety of issues. Since private label programs exist for many reasons and have been around for a long time with great success, I don’t really see a problem with them.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

I would guess if the Quality is there and a guarantee is given all is well

Bill - willierods.com

No, we shouldn't expect any supplier to necessarily tell us who provides private brands. If you go to the grocery store and see store brand saltine crackers, for instance, do you expect to know who made them? You certainly won't find out. They have them made to certain specs, and that is all that is really important. It's the same with blanks or other components.

I don't mean to sound like Billy -- well, maybe a little -- but who cares who owns what, or what the relationships are? As an end consumer, all I really care about is the product (price, quality, etc.), and the corporate structure of AmTak, or anybody else, really isn't any of my business. Do you really think that if you go to Walmart to buy a TV, and ask about their relationship with the manufacturer of the TVs they sell, they're going to tell you?

I'm a big fan of American Tackle stuff, and seem to be buying more all the time, and I like Mudhole too. But I have warm, fuzzy feelings about other companies, too. The Pro Staff question is a fair one, and has been answered by Darren here. But the other stuff -- just let it go. It doesn't matter to you unless you have an ownership stake in one of the companies involved.

Non-Disclosures are quite common in many different business fields/models. If anything multiple manufacturers drive quality to be higher.

I'm going to use American Tackle as an example here to which this may or may not be true. Darrin I hope you dont mind.

Example: American Tackle (AmTak from here forward) contracts 5 separate factories to all build the same blank for them. Guess who gets the most orders for that blank. Each factory will strive to reach that top spot of producing that top quality blank and attain or retain the top position among the group. By doing this it also allows AmTak to produce very high quality products at a highly reduced cost if just one factory manufactured the product with a set pricing structure as competition forces prices to be competitive. Darrin please do not hesitate to correct me if I am off base here, but that is my general understanding or contracting to multiple manufacturers.

The are down sides, the main one being is that sometimes quality control can be significantly reduced due to not having direct control over the manufacturing process, but I am yet to even remotely see this with American Tackle products and believe that every effort is made to deliver the highest quality products possible and it shows.

So I personally have zero reservations using a quality product from a quality company regardless of how they manufacture that product.