During my short 15 year time in the fishing tackle industry, I have learned and discovered a tremendous amount. Most if not all of my preconceived notions of how, where, why and by who in terms of tackle manufacturing have been relearned and grounded in today's modern reality where is not factory with a giant Shimano, daiwa or Meps sign for that matter, nearly 80 percent of the goods you buy under any brand name, fancy or low budget are made by 3rd party contract manufacturers, mega factories that are often like little cities with apartments for workers, daycare, medical care, cafeterias and even leisure activings like fish / prawn lakes and basketball courts. It's a different way of doing things that seems to work in the far East. Apple is not made by Apple but rather Foxconn, Shimano is not made by Shimano - more than 80% of their rods are made by an OEM in Weihai and another in Southern China that they have a very close relationship with and extremely tight QC process.
For those working day to day building the rods, It's the norm to not go "home" after work and the workers live for 6 or 10 months of the year only seeing family and loved ones during long national holidays that support the often long journeys to the small towns or cities the workers come from. Weihai City China, a beautiful and remarkably clean and safe city, where 95% of today's fishing tackle including 70% of Shimano's rods are manufactured is a manufacturing and more recently tourisium city, not too many people are born in Weihai City they come to Weihai City to make money whether its fishing rods or a spot in the new Apple Silicon plant where making chips and components for Foxconn to later assemble in the new $2800 USD iPhones.
So that probably brings me to a good time to introduce Handing Materials one of the three largest fishing rod factories in the world and Fuji's second largest customer and Toray Carbon Fiber's third largest customer in China. That's some serious numbers folks. So who is Handing and how did they get so big ? Mr. Lui the owner of Handing comes from the simplest, most humble origins he is the most grounded and kind "Rich Person" I know and in terms of wealth he went from literally the Son of peasants with only enough money for a one way bus ticket to Weihai some 30 years ago to being extremely wealthy even by Chinese Uber Standards. Mr. Lui started in the rod business at the age of 16, now 46, he took the first job he was offered sweeping the warehouse of a large rod factory.
Mr. Lui worked his way up from janitorial duties to eventually working on the production lines wrapping and producing rods, an extremely labor intensive product that was always hand work. Eventually Mr. Lui decided that factory work was not his final destiny and he asked the plant manager if he could use the factory's capabilities to create a new mail order brand of fishing tackles, he called his brand Handing, and he started in the company provided domartory apartment he starred with 3 other workers at the factory.
Utilizing the Internet and having access to China's vast market - which is
7X larger than the US Fishing market, he successfully created a brand that today sells more than 1.7 Million fishing rods annually and is the OEM for many household brands like Shimano, Daiwa, Nomad and countless others.
Moreover and perhaps more importantly than making rods, Handing makes the machines that make the rods - Mr. Lui's vision for the rod business is on of autonomous production - rods produced largely by robots not humans. Handing produces the machines that roll the blank, a machine that finds and marks the spline of the blank, machines that stress the blank to detect weakness for the industry in addition to their work as an OEM.
So then how does that bring us to the literal deal of the century on these fine quality Handing rods we are selling at less than $100 each ? How did Cruiser Rods get their name ?
Business is done differently in China. First you become friends, then you earn the trust then you get invited to do business. Each factory I use does NOT need my business we are small we don't move the dial for a manufacturer that has thousands of employees to keep working - we are invited to these factories as I am able to bond with the owners and recognize the drive and passion I have for the fishing industry.
The Biggest honor is for your host to "cook for you" it would be same as me inviting you to my house and telling you to sit, enjoy a beer or glass of lemonade while I fried up the BBQ and steared you a steak
So of all the 5 star hotel and restaurant meals I'm treated to each time in China, this "home cooked" or actually office cooked dinner is my absolute favorite and one of the trip highlights. Here we have the owners of three of the top companies in Weihai and the fellow far left is the CCP Party Leader for Transportation in Weihai, a high school friend of the group. As they say in Panama tell me who you know and I'll tell you who you are, I love that saying. I've worked incredibly hard in place far far from home in a language I cannot seem to master so I'm of course proud of the results and the network I've build over there. I call these guys Brother and I mean it they will do just about anything for me over there.
The host hefted all the crabs to find me a nice "heavy" one - loaded with meat. Weihai is a city on and about the sea. Each year the Govt closes fishing and shellfishing entirely for 4 months, that ban ends Sept and I typically arrive late September to do business, see the venders and attend the annual CGC Fishing Trade Show.
So what does knowing these guys and eating crabs together in the kitchen of their offices have to do with Cruiser Fishing Rods ??
You see Mr. Lui is already making blanks, testing the blank, finding and marking the spline of the blank totally autonomously. Now he sharred he's taking it to the next step, robotic placement of the guides and wrapping of the guides! For this he needs more room at the plant and has solved the room using by converting one floor of warehousing to production. In order to do that all inventory needed to be cleared out regardless of price.
I was in the right place, at the right time, eating crabs with a guy who makes 1.7 Million fishing rods a year largely for Shimano, Daiwa down to Nomad and smaller guys like me. The rods are actually fantastic we took four of them down to the Maldives last week they caught alot of fish, I liked them alot the Captain and Mate loved them so much that in luei of a tip I left the rods behind for them!
So Junk or worthy of a spot on the boat ? We say worthy - they fish WAY WAY above their price point. Handing sold some of these on Amazon back in the day for under $200 a rod I think that is what they are worth. Your paying for the quality of the product from the largest rod manufacturer you never heard of as your not supposed to. Your supposed to buy "Big Names" that are nowadays largely owned by Hedge Funds and VC Capitalists - the families that made the names we grew up are unfortunately long gone. So buy for quality not for marketing and six layers of fat and advertising grab a few of these rods not one but a few, you'll love them and you won't cry if your Brother in Law snaps one on an Bluefish or AJ.
