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The report of the International Sport Fishing Show 2007 in Yokohama

Feb 9-11 2007

Yokohama, Japan

Reporter: Jun Sonoda, Kayo Sonoda

The annual Tackle Show is held in both Tokyo area and Osaka every year to release the newest tackle offerings, and to accommodate talk shows by professional anglers, and to share the problems of the industry with wide range of participants. Yokohama show was held first time in the history to follow the Osaka show.

And, overall, from the show 2007, I felt that the fishing tackle industry in Japan has overcome the vicious political movement around imported Bass and the long down turn of economy since the end of 90's. The industry now targets wider range of fishing, not only bass fishing, like trout fishing, squid fishing, offshore, and etc. It is now ready to harvest the fruit from the aggressive economic change which is supported by both world-wide boosting economy and the start of retirement of baby-boomers. Manufacturers have been diligent to release new products every year, and the effort will surely bring them fortune in long term.

Let me start introducing new tackle with Shimano.

Shimano

Shimano is introducing new Stella spinning reels this year, and will dump the 2005 SR model. The Stella reels after 2002 year model has been reported to have a lot of line troubles, line twist, and Shimano engineering team now admit the fact to improve the flagship spinning reel model only in 2 years. The New Stella felt like feather, with ultra smooth gears.

Metanium MG7 right hand model

The most exciting news for me is the debut of new Metanium MG (Chronarch MG). It weighs only at 170g or 6.1oz, 0.7oz lighter than the previous Mentiaum MG reels. This new model will have 7.0 fast gear models as well. I am sure this MG will become the new standard. This year right hand models will be released in April.

Antares DC will add long handle version, Antares DC7-LV.

As you see in the first photo, Shimano booth is dominated by new Stella. Hope the new model gain the customer's support, as well as mine. I used to have Stella reels, but now use Daiwa Exist reels for freshwater use.

Daiwa

Steez 100H	Zillion 100P-CC

Steez, the high-end in bait casting reels from Daiwa will have flat bottom spool model, Steez 100H and 100LH in April. The 100model will have about 30% more line capacity than 103 models. The handles of 100 model are at 90mm long power handles. Zillion welcomes 4.9 low geared cranking model, 100P-CC.

Morethan Branzino 3000	Certate Hyper Custom	Exist 1003

Among new spinning reels, Morethan Brazino 3000 attracted my eyes first. It is a custom version of Certate Hyper Custom 3000, in black paintings and with the carbon layer hybrid spool. Body is from Certate, gears are from Saltiga Z, the Branzino is targeting for inshore and surfcasting with 8-10ft light powered rods. Coming in April.

Certate Hyper Custom is an upgrade version of Certate with reinforced gears. The gear material is the same as that of Saltiga Z. The model has selections from 2005R to 4000, all great for inshore and surfcasting use.

Exist will have 1003 model, the smallest in the Daiwa line. The size has been sought after by trout anglers. The new 1003 will accept 1500 and 2000 size RCS spools as well.

Ito Monoblock 100, Daiwa-Metabass collaboration reels are coming with rods, and they are fastened by screws or rivetts, Daiwa rep explained to my surprise. The prototype in the first photo had normal reel feet, but other protos had riveted rods. Hope Daiwa upper level allow the reel to be sold separately. Release date is not yet set.

I found a interesting parts, special colored custom body for Certate 3000. It is missing spool and handle. Will you buy the red body? I am not sure.

Tiemco

Tiemco has released colorful fish grip, all made of stainless steel and anodized aluminum plates.

Others

Lure and line industries have steady advancements, and I am very happy to see a lot of wide range of lures are offered. I noticed some manufacturers are now mainly targeting export market, and they do not much promote their products at home Japan. Those are Lucky Craft, Jackal Bros, Sunline and etc. It is strategically collect to venture the new market, because bass fishing market in Japan has shrunk about 1/2 of that of 1997. However, other manufacturers have chosen to fight in Japan and they are promoting to widen the targets from bass to all fish, including seabass, squids, sea breams, sand bass, tuna, yellow tail, trout, red snappers and etc. Those fish were caught only by live baits, and Japanese have established certain technique for each target. Now I see the birth of sport fishing in Japan, not the import of a western culture.

Jun and Kayo Sonoda