I'll be taking off for ICAST this week, show begins 7/12. So, like in years past, we'll post images and brief descriptions of the top new gear shown. Stay tuned...

Day one of the show, lots of folks in attendance. What else would you expect from the largest fishing tradeshow in the world! Visited with Daiwa, Okuma, Accurate and Penn today, plus a few others...

Spent quite a bit of time with the folks that bought Braid, Play Action Sports. Seems they looked closely about what I had to say about the lures, noting the problems reported and using that as a guide for improvement. They took my words the right way, constructively. What I'd written was intended to warn clients, so they could have taken things as an insult. Upon their testing they confirmed what was mentioned on our site: The Marauders were not holding up. The firms owner did his own testing, confirming that the lures would fail at under 50 lbs pull. We're talking trolling lures, pulled at fairly fast speeds on heavy line. Roy Rose of the RP mentioned to me that they were all failing, and he was right. Build had changed over the few years prior to Dennis Braid selling the firm. WIth new ownership, what was failing at 50 lbs now can hold up to over 200! We'll be bringing in more of this firms products.

So, back to reels, and I'll apologize first by saying it may take me until tomorrow to post pics properly.

Penn: some things good, some things downright stupid. In all honesty, I may give up on this manufacturer this year. I'll say it on the frontside, and I may provide more background. There are some good people working at Penn, and some absolute idiots who are making some decisions which are both bad for the firm and for the tackle industry. They may be going in the wrong direction (subjective personal opinion, but others certainly do share the evaluation). What they are doing wrong is primarily on the marketing side, and that can overshadow some of the good that's being done.

On the good side, here's Steve Carson, one of the nicest human beings I know. Steve has been helpful to me since the beginning of CharkBait. He's an excellent product guy, fishes more than most, helps get things right with Penn...and that's been tough given three or four different owners of the firm over the past 15 years time.

Penn showed off their new Internationals, now models for the light line East Coast guys and West Coast oriented fishermen who fish heavier lines and drags on Internationals. The new models will be lighter, claim to have significantly higher line capacities (proof is in the pudd'n and one should NEVER trust Penn's capacity figures).

Penn attempts to fracture their market into more small segments rather than focus on providing the BEST products at their respective price points that appeal to everyone. (Sounds like the DNC a bit with how they split voters into separate groups defined by gender or color or sexual orientation) Instead of focusing on what works for all of us, they go to gender based marketing. Yes, Penn will produce pink spinners. Oh Boy!

For a name??? Let's not use such strong masculine words like Conflict, Clash, Torque, Senator. Let's call this new one PASSION. I'll say to Penn, to Seaguar and other firms: Good gear doesn't need gimmicks, and women aren't necessarily stupid. If a gal likes to fish, chances are she likes good gear more than the color pink. Is Penn contributing to the complete woosification of fishing? Hmmm, I don't think we'll carry this one... Penn can sell all they want of these on their own website or thru amazon.

NGS<
MS

p.s. And, just to carry on a bit like a grumpy old fisherman..., I'm still seeing too many high gear ratio reels. Gear ratios are tools for a taSK, you can always wind a bit faster on a lower geared reel, but you can never slow down a super fast spinning reel (or conventional) and gain back the power of a lower geared fishing reel.

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I agree: Penn should never have done this. But gee Chark, you carried the pink Newells a few years back...

I did I did, it's true...and the blue ones too and we even gobbled up the lions share of the clear ones! And, I even had some rods made up by Wade Cunningham in matching pink and blue. So, yes, I too have contributed to the woosification of fishing! Damnit I'm trying to reform... I've seen the light... Really, I think my sense of humor just faded with some of the marketing stuff. YEIKES!

Okay, next for rousing successes. Accurate's Valiant series now has a 600 sized reel, and even better a 600N (and an NN which is darn skinny and tippy). I was slow to warm on these super light reels. But, I am coming around and see that Accurate has indeed come up with a unique design which allows them some serious capability. Worth taking apart and seeing how they've been able to gain drag area and improve spool strength... The trick thing is their weight, the whole series - with the 600 sizes making a statement. The boys at Accurate really did some "out of the box" type thinking. I need to fish one of these things... heck, I just need to go fishing!

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Okuma. Powerhouse of a company, demonstrating merits of having top product people who fish coupled with a factory that listens, innovates, competes aggressively and has capable factories. Visiting with the Okuma folks, I get the notion that there's a lot of talent performing well on all fronts, factory, USA staff, Taiwan staff, strong firm.

Two new reels of particular note: Tesoro - star drag and their Coronado CDX - popularly priced spinning reels.

The Tesoro could be considered a replacement of the old Cedros star drags. I liked those reels a lot, and was sad to see them go. Had I only known then that this would be the result of killing off the Cedros. Two sizes 10 & 12, figure 450-500 yds 50# braid on the 10. The 12 will hold 450-500 of 65# braid. Machined, of course, call 'em a Makaira star drag, dual anti-reverse, helical cut gears, 6.2:1, no handle slop (AR bearing at work), big stainless steel gears... should be nice ~$320

Coronado CDX - lots of buzzwords and such. But honest impression is $200 spinner capable of competing with Penn or Daiwa or etc. Except this darn thing is $100 for a darn good baitfeeder! Damn, sorry thing is most SoCal guys won't see this reel coming until the albacore are already here...and the reel is in perpetual back order. Really, you need to feel this darn reel, has the same nice family look more Okuma reels share. Frankly it looks like a lighter build Makaira - and that's quite a compliment.
ridiculous drag numbers 28-37 lbs!
Dual force drag stystem
Carbonite drags
CRC Corrosion resistant coating
Graphite body & rotor
Water tight drag
$99-119!

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Side show or commercial or ain't that cute...

LiveTarget always seems to show off some unique, high quality lures. Always pretty much too expensive to expect much sell thru type lures, mostly freashwater. But, boy they make some neat freshwater lures. There was one that got my interest. Wanna catch a big crappie or maybe an 8 lb bass?

More...

Daiwa is doing some good things, too. They got the New Product award for their new backpack...we have them on order... Also, new Lexa series reels, many making use of the new Winn grips, and one of our favorite inshore reels, the Balistic has been updated - really a tremendous piece. Mag seals of course... One of the managers of our HB shop was kicking himself because he didn't buy one of the old series before they dissapeared. Now he'll be a happy corb catcher.

New Daiwa backpack - its nicer than it looks in the pic.

New Lexa baitcasters with Winn Grips

Winn grip