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The report of the International Sport Fishing Show, Japan Fishing Festival 2015 in Yokohama, Japan

Jan 30-Feb 1, 2015

Yokohama, Japan

Reporter: Jun Sonoda, Kayo Sonoda

Dear anglers, we are reporting the 2015 Japan Fishing Festival ( International Sport Fishing Show,) held in Yokohama, Japan. This is the largest fishing tackle show in Japan to reveal new models of fishing tackle to Japanese market. 2015 show is held about one month faster than usual, just after we received new catalogs, and I had to study new catalogs all night before the show. I made it on Friday, Jan 30  morning, at industry time slot. Show premise was not much crowded by public, and I had a lot time to talk with reps there.

Vast show floor is packed with manufacturer's booths. I found a few tourist bureau booths, like Miyake island, Malaysia, Palau and etc. Fishing trip to Palau sounds exotic.

  Is this one to welcome ladies or just to attract male? Recent years, I noticed industry is welcoming ladies into sport fishing, and put a lot of effort in it. Manufacturers are offering nice looking lady rain ware, pink painted fishing rods, cooler box in pink and etc. Now many TV fishing programs are hosted by lady anglers like Ms. Akari Fukuda. As soon as I entered the show, I found the Angler's Idol campaign poster. These contenders will make final presentations on Sunday, oh I miss it. I chose number 5 in my mind, without showing any interest on my face, to prevent any trouble with my wife next to me. Yes, one male was attracted.

  Let's get started with Daiwa. 2015 seemed a bit quiet year for Daiwa Japan at first, but it is not. Daiwa Ryoga Shrapnel will be a smash hit among large game anglers. Its size, sturdy construction, simple solid metal components are well balanced for big game fishing. Snakehead anglers and swim bait anglers should not miss it. New Zillion is now equipped with the innovative TWS level winder system. Alphas SV is the revival of Alphas with SV spool. TWS level winder system and SV spool are the two key engine to drive Daiwa bait casting reel division.

	Daiwa rep holds Ryoga Shrapnel C3000. Yes this is the final weapon for snakehead fishing. Swim bait anglers should also find it great.
	Alphas SV and a Daiwa tester. The reel is quite highly praised among testers, as good as SS SV. Alphas SV is great enough, unless you want to cast the longest or lightest. He says.

2015 NEW Daiwa reels

	Daiwa Zillion TW Very solid bait casting reel, succeeding the goods of previous Team Daiwa Zillion.
	Daiwa Alphas SV Thank you Daiwa, now I may upgrade my obsolescing Alphas with the SV spool of this reel.
	Daiwa Ryoga Shrapnel Big fish killer. Great for fishing with swim baits.
	Daiwa Tatula HLC Hyper Long Casting version Tatula, with finely tuned MagforceZ brake, a little deeper spool than Tatula Japan.
	Daiwa Saltiga Small sized 10, 15 models are released. Finesse in offshore jigging?

  Daiwa is replacing its spinning reels rapidly with Magsealed models. High-end spinning reels, Saltiga and Exist are released with more Magsealed components to protect mechanicals from saltwater damage.

Daiwa Saltiga with magsealed components at line roller, main shaft and handle shaft. Exist (right) is also renewed by the model with more magsealed components.

  Fishing reel modification is now a popular hobby, and many colorful tuning parts are released. Daiwa separates tuning parts division as Daiwa SLP.

Daiwa SPL works rep holds colored sway back long star drag. They look much better than current drags. It releases pink knobs, and why pink? Because a designer likes the color. Alright, I will teach you how to read market research report next time. Or, tell you why you need to read a market research report. Pink is not the color of fishing reel modification,,,

  Quite a few numbers of trophies are exhibited at Jackall Bros. booth. The brand is famous among bream tournament anglers in Australia. It is also sponsoring bass fishing angers in Japan, and these are from Japanese tournaments.

Two Jackall bass boats are on the booth. They look gorgeous. It releases quite attractive bait made of circuit board, Keeburn vibration baits 2015, and I expect it sells great. Bare bait without paint looks like this.

  It's time to go for Shimano Japan. It releases a lot of new bait casting reels this year, and it's hot.

	The 2015 hottest Shimano bait caster is Conquest 300/400. Shimano reps smiles with Conquest 400. It is a quite compact reel. It holds the same as previous 400, but the palming cup felt like in the size of 200. 300 felt the same in size as previous 200. The 300/400 has dis-engaging level winder and should cast much better. I asked the rep to develop a little larger Conquest, like 600 with wider spool, and it should also sell well for big game anglers for snakehead and for anglers using swim baits.
	New Metanium DC and a Shimano rep. New DC system has Automatic mode and it is easy to use. He is the man taught me how Shimano DC reels are different, and why Antares DC is the longest casting in market, even after 9 years have passed from its debut in 2006. The major key stays at the diameter of spool, and distance between spool and level winder.
	Amazed by Aldebaran light weight. Its front cover and level winder should have been designed by someone who loves Gundam. See the elaborated reel foot as well.

 2015 NEW models

	Shimano all new Metanium DC Quite solid bait caster with improved DC brake system.
	Shimano all new Aldebaran May cast from 3.5g rigs without any effort.
	Aldebaran BFS XG Ltd Extreme light rig caster. Its spool has some reinforcement inside spool wall, and you don't have to worry about its strength.	do you see the rib inside spool wall?
	Curado 200PG/201 Is this exact the same reel as US Curado?
	Shimano Conquest 300, 400 size models Oh, great quality, and this is what I've been waiting for. Reel body is compact, and solid.

Shimano offers new TwinPower, the second high-end spinning reels in its product line.

Shimano Twin Power SW, saltwater heavy duty model. It replaces 2009 year model, with more efficient gearing system X-SHIP.

  At Owner hooks, new line of treble hooks attracted my eyes. STX series hooks employ stronger wire material to serve better for braided lines. Most of hooks in market are developed for nylon lines, and they do not stand for hard shock from braided lines. And Owner hooks develops the STX new line of hooks for the braided lines. Materials are 5-10% stronger, rep explains.

Owner hooks rep holds new STX68 2/O treble hook. STX has 38 ,48 ,58 , and 68, from thin to thick wire. I will definitely deal with the latest, strongest hook from Owner hooks.

At Avail booth, old friend Mr. Takahiro Midorikawa welcomes me. He is living in Niigata, northern snowy city and he expected Yokohama sunny, but instead he brought snow where I live. Oh, no. He is displaying a lot of machined tuning spools and reels with tuning spools. 

Mr. Midorikawa holds tuned reels with Avail tuning products. It will release tuning spools for export Shimano Curado soon. He is quite eager for the reproduction of classic ABU2501C and ABU2500C, and we promised to work together for classic ABUs later.

Traditional bamboo rods are displayed. Sao-yoshi, bamboo rod craftman, holds his art for Kisu fishing. He explained there is a stable market size for the traditional bamboo rods. Customers are wealthy anglers, as well not-much wealthy anglers, who source every money into those rods. Oh, I know how anglers behave before what we want.

Below is the art by a legend, Sao-chu, in the class of national treasure, he explains. 1.5ft rod for bitterling. The tiny rod grip is made of exotic bamboo.

I am quite excited to introduce these new tackles on web, and soon some of these will be ready in hands. Hope you learned some about what is coming out in 2015, and how the show looks like. Please come to Yokohama show some time, and I will guide you along. There are many booth I didn't mention but offering interesting fishing tackle.

Hope you have great fishing seasons.

Jun and Kayo Sonoda