Googan Bait Pricing
One of the most popular set of fishing YouTube channels is a group of men in their late 20s early 30s called the “Googan Squad.” They’re pretty distasteful to me to be honest, half because of their politics (there’s a mix but they lean toward the gun-toting, casual bigotry/misogyny types), and half because I’ve heard they have questionable business practices, like ripping off other companies’ innovations and treating business partners poorly. Because “Googan Baits” mostly copy existing products, I got the idea of building a comparison table to understand whether their products are actually a good deal. In doing so I actually developed a better understanding of premiums you pay for brand name plastics in general, not specifically for the Googan brand.
Here’s a little table I whipped up with most of their product catalog (hard + soft baits). For some of the soft plastics with multiple sizes, I just picked the most common size (e.g 5” senko). Hard plastics have a lot of parameters, so finding exact matches with the same combination of weight, dive depth, rattle, etc is difficult. Instead, I opted to compare a handful that have very similar popular competitors. Prices are mostly from the Googans’ main website and tackle warehouse.
I didn’t include jigs, spinnerbait, line, hooks, tools, etc because I just wanted to get a sample of their products and prices. I went to their website and looked at every product under hard and soft baits.
| Bait Type | Googan Bait (Unit Price) | Alternative 1 (Unit Price) | Alternative 2 (Unit Price) | Alternative 3 (Unit Price) | Alternative 4 (Unit Price) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bug/Beaver | Bandito Bug 4” ($0.86) | Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver ($0.78) | Strike King Rage Bug ($0.86) | ||
| Craw | Krackin Craw 4” ($0.86) | Berkley Chigger Craw 4” ($0.56) | Strike King Rage Tail Craw ($0.86) | ||
| Lizard/Creature | Trench Hawg 6” ($0.86) | Zoom Brush Hog 6” ($0.69) | |||
| Chunk | Rattlin Chunk 3” ($0.86) | Netbait Paca Chunk ($0.48) | Strike King Rage Tail Chunk ($0.86) | ||
| Senko | Lunker Log 5” ($0.75) | Yamamoto Senko 5” ($0.76) | Berkley General Worm ($0.63) | YUM Dinger 5” ($0.41) | Z-Man Zinkerz ($0.67) |
| Ned | Rattlin’ Ned 2.75” ($0.75) | Zoom Yum Dinger 3” ($0.38) | Z-Man Finesse TRD 2.75” ($0.50) | ||
| Ribbon Tail Worm | Mondo Worm 7.25” ($0.75) | Zoom Magnum Ultravibe 7” ($0.79) | Berkley 7” Power Worm ($0.38) | YUM Ribbon Tail Worm ($0.25) | |
| Finesse Worm | Slim Shake Worm 6” ($0.67) | Zoom Trick Worm 6” ($0.28) | Roboworm Straight Tail 6” ($0.44) | ||
| Mini Finesse Worm | Drag N Drop ($0.67) | Big Bite Baits Smallie Smasher ($0.42) | |||
| Paddletail | Saucy Swimmer 3.3” ($0.75) | Keitech Swing Impact FAT 3.3” ($0.86) | Strike King Rage Swimmer 3.3 ($0.75) | Berkley Power Swimmer 3.3 ($0.69) | |
| Paddletail | Saucy Swimmer 3.8” ($0.86) | Keitech Swing Impact FAT 3.8” ($1) | Strike King Rage Swimmer 3.8” ($0.86) | Berkley Power Swimmer 3.8 ($0.91) | Zoom Z-Swim 3.8” ($1.03) |
| Paddletail | Saucy Swimmer 4.8” ($1) | Keitech Swing Impact FAT 4.8 ($1.40) | Strike King Rage Swimmer 4.8” ($1) | ||
| Fluke | Dart 5” ($0.60) | Zoom Super Fluke ($0.46) | Bass Assassin Vapor Shad ($0.40) | ||
| Fluke | Dart 7” ($1.00) | Zoom Magnum Fluke 7” ($1.12) | |||
| Toad | Explode Toad ($1.20) | Keitech Noisy Flapper Frog ($1.20) | Strike King Super Toad ($0.86) | ||
| Lipless Crankbait | Klutch 3/8oz ($8) | Eurotackle Z-Viber 3/8 ($7) | |||
| Lipless Crankbait | Klutch 1/2oz ($8) | Strike King Red Eye Shad 1/2oz ($6.29) | Rat-L-Trap 1/2 oz ($6.49) | ||
| Lipless Crankbait | Klutch 5/8oz ($8) | Eurotackle Z-Viber 5/8 ($8) | |||
| Squarebill Crankbait | Banger 3/8oz ($8) | Lucky Craft LC DRS 1.5 ($12) | |||
| Micro Diving Crankbait | Recon Micro ($8) | Eurotackle Z-Cranker 1.5” ($7) | |||
| Medium Diving Jerkbait | Scout 4.3” ($10) | Lunkerhunt Impact Slash 6S 4.3” ($5.49) | Megabass Vision 110 ($25) | ||
| Finesse Jerkbait | Jr. Scout 3.5” ($9) | Rapala F11 ($9.19) | Rapala Ripstop #9 ($9) |
The executive summary is: they have a mix of overpriced and competitively priced baits. If you must buy from this (in my opinion, morally questionable) company, stay far away from the soft plastics because they are not competitively priced. They are both softer (less durable) and more expensive than competitor baits. You end up using more plastic (this is eco unfriendly) and having to restock their baits more often. So it’s expensive on two ends. The additional action from softer plastic is real – but as someone who’s fished all of these baits, I can tell you that Zoom’s baits are total killers and cost far less in general than Googan plastics across the board (the comparable ribbontail is the only slightly more expensive bait, and even then Zoom sells a 6” ribbontail worm that is way cheaper than the Googan one).
There’s an operating curve on which you can select durability vs action, and you just don’t need super soft craw baits! You do need a very soft and salt-laden senko-style bait to get the characteristic side-to-side falling action – so that’s a case where it can be worth it to get the OG senko. But also if you are trying to save money, the Berkley and YUM products are great too, they just look a little less alive underwater without rod twitches. And if you don’t throw a weightless senko, the salt (which adds weight at the cost of durability) is superfluous.
Other observations
- Googan tracks Strike King product prices pretty hard and try to offer things at similar prices in many cases. Strike King has a similar product strategy of trying to cover the bass line well, and has fishing celebrity Kevin VanDam (KVD) as the face of their marketing.
- Keitech charges a premium for their industry-leading swimbaits. Strike King and Googan try to undercut, and might actually be worth it depending on durability, color choices, and action. I haven’t investigated this much, and personally I still buy Keitechs because they slay in every environment. I’ve poured my own imitations using a mold from the internet, but in doing so I found that it’s not quite worth my time. The squid scent is an important part of the package at least for me.
- The soft jerkbait / flukes offered by Googan are not super duper comparable to the other flukes, because they have a unique profile that is long and skinny. Odd that Googan’s new bait is more expensive than its comps. The 7” Zoom is more expensive, but that makes sense because they’re using a lot more plastic since the profile is bigger.
Looking at their prices, expensive soft plastics are definitely part of their revenue strategy.
Manufacturers likely don’t make as much off hard baits since folks are incentivized to take care of them and they aren’t default disposable.
Furthermore pouring plastics is pretty easy (roboworm even automated the pouring process with machines – thus the name roboworm).
Soft plastics on the other hand get ripped, get dirty, can melt, people might throw them out after 1 trip, etc. So they jack up prices on
soft plastics and have some competitively priced hardbaits (that is not to say they are that competitively priced or well made – they could be,
I don’t really know).
Of all the products I looked at, basically every one has a very well known competitor in the industry and is not an original creation. The only baits that seem unique to me from Googan are their jerkbait and crankbaits. But I don’t think that’s so much an indicator of innovation as it is that these sorts of hardbaits are highly parameterized and have too many possible depth/size/weight/color combinations.