I attended AFTA 2010 on the weekend that was being held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. It was actually a larger trade show than I thought it would be. It looked to me like all the big names from the industry in Australia were there. Shimano had the biggest display there (by a fair margin too!), Daiwa also put on a good show, Sebile (Nomad Sportfishing) had a rather interesting display with a tank in which the were displaying the action of the Sebile lures. I kept wondering what would happen if the tank sprung a leak!
From a GT perspective, there isn't much to report at all. I think about the only things I'd say in this regard is that Yamaga (Ripple Fisher) are finally releasing some new models. They're still prototypes at the moment but it looks like a new offering in the PE6-8 range and two new offerings in the PE8-10 range. The rods felt very impressive - light with very nice actions. The other thing I saw of interest were the new saltigas but they were only in the 4500 range. I understand the 6500s won't be out till late next year. The reels look very sharp indeed (I actually loved the look of them!) but if you remove the cosmetic changes, the reel is clearly just an evolution of the current Saltiga. Mind you, I could say the same about the 2008 Stella!
The shape remains the same as does the spool. The bail arm also looks the same although the whole assembly around the bail arm look very flash indeed. The new handle also looks like a big improvement. To be honest, the current reel is already a damn good reel so I'm nto sure how much improvement you can actually make (again, I could have said the same about the 2008 Stella!). I am pretty certain they will have addressed some ofthe more annoying characteristics now like the handle and the drag.
What isn't so nice is that Daiwa advised that there was going to be a 20% price rise on the reels. When you look at the price of the current Saltigas, boy..........
Other observations
I saw the cutest fishing device I've ever seen at the show. It is a little device that ties a uni knot for you. What you do is click a hook or swivel onto a metal pin, poke the leader into a hole (which has a funnel on it), click the handle five times or so and presto, uni knot!! Quite brilliant actually.
Shimano also had a squid lure I had a read a bit about - a pure white squid jig. Apparently, this thing has been killing the squid over in Japan so if you're an egi angler, watch out for this one being released.
I finally got to check out one of the new Daiwa baitcasters, the Z2020. I have to get one of these ..........
On top of the new GT rods, Yamaga had some really impressive lighter rods ranging from barra to egi rods. I've ordered two of the barra rods myself already although the rod that most impressed me was one I haven't ordered yet. I think I will in the end even though I'm not sure what I would do with it! It's a short rod about 6'5", PE4 and comes in both spinning and baitcater models. Clearly, it is a stump puller for big barra or black bass or solid reefies. Of course, trying to stop a decent reefie on PE4 is likely to see you get wasted anyway.
For anyone else who attended, please feel free to add any of your own observations.
