Trip in september...

[RyanS]

[SAGA]

Ryan S is right, Yes alot of them are still there, not near as many as before and a lot of my favorite patterns have disappeared, like black back sliver scale. . I didn't get into/find that original T-Stick screen.
Rapala changed up the hot-n-tot (plastic lip) after they bought out Storm a while back. Lots of companies do this after take-over, they just keep the best sellers, admititly Storm may have had too many patterens to begin with. What I really don't like is when they curtail an entire series or the number of sizes they offer. Try to find a smaller Hellbender, they only make that in the monster trolling version which is about impossible to reel in. Pradco does a real hatchet job on companies they aquire.

[RyanS]

the worst part of the whole storm crap fest, to me at least, is what they did with the wiggle wart series and the hot'n'tot series. they offer nothing for patterns compared to the old storm, and they discontinued the most productive lures they made in my eyes, the wee warts and pee wee warts. i caught more steelhead on wee warts than any other plug i have fished. they now sell on eBay anywhere from $10 to $30 depending on pattern and year they were made. they discontinued the rattlin hot'n'tots, which were much better plugs than the standard tot, IMO. they screwed up the thinfins, which used to be awesome pier casting and trolling plugs for cohos and kings, they dont make them with rattles, and their finishes are angler catchers, not fish catchers.

when storm crapped out on us, i was pretty much a plug(90% of the time) and spinner only steelheader, so when they discontinued so many of my top plugs, and i started losing them to logs and snags, i was pretty much devastated! then a few years back, during a winter tournament her in indiana, my plug box and all my spinners were stolen. all my old storms, hotshots, fireplugs, and others were gone, every single salmon and steelhead plug i owned, gone! thats when i became a full time float angler. i have collected some plugs since, ordered some old school storm plugs and painted and doctored them up, but nothin compared to what i used to have. i also cant believe luhr jensen discontinued the fireplug too, i dont know what these companies are doing anymore, its all about catching fisherman, not fish.

im still a plug guy at heart, even though i spend more time with my float gear nowadays, there is nothing like wading in the middle of an icy snowy river hot-shotting a hole for an hour and about losing your rod when a steelhead finally decides to inhale that hand painted wee wart thats been wiggling in front of him for a half hour. nothing like that out-of-nowhere smash, nothing, well... probably similar to the spey guys "the tug is the drug"