A Journey To Japan

[Nick Bowles]

Station for Pro Shop Mogi

The famous shop!

To many nice toyz!

Uuuummmmm

Big GT mounted!
 
I was booked into a very nice hotel right close to the show and the hotel for the after party. The hotel rooms are not the biggest but they are comfortable and have everything that you need including internet, strong showers and comfortable beds! Plus my room had a view overlooking Tokyo Bay! Minami san President of Hots made all the arrangements for the hotel which was fantastic and I really appreciated all of the help, as Tokyo is a big place and you need some local help sometimes! I met up with Minami san, Chris, Sami and the rest of the Hots team on the Friday night and we went and had a very nice meal at one of the local restaurants. One thing which was great is that we ordered a set menu and food kept on arriving which we all shared and it was very social and relaxing and great to catch up with everyone!


Great Hotel

Hotel rooms not really built for me but were very comfortable with internet, clean linen, AC etc.

Room with a view over Tokyo Bay, wish I had a bit more time to fish!!

Sportfishing Show venue

Show poster

Mogi-san and Sami from Saltywater Tackle.

Mogi-san testing the drag on the Pro Shop Mogi fighting machine!

Sami and myself with Sano-san

Picture with the famous Captain Fukui-san of the Big Dipper. Very excited to fish on the Big Dipper in May 12.

Mauro-san from Shout and Sami

Team hots

Chris the Field Tester for Hots showing us his modeling skills!

Two of the best in the business outside Japan, Sami and Luke testing a CB One prototype!

Abdel was a huge help at the show and really great to spend time with him and discuss new fishing techniques for us.

Famous Captain Tashiro-san of the Sunrise.
 
The show had a stage and there were interviews throughout the show. I wish I could speak Japanese but Chris and Abdel did some translating as some of the biggest names in the sports were talking like Mogi-san, Konishi-san, Fukui-san, Tashiro-san, Sato-san, Sano-san but to name a few. It was quite something as all the International Captains and Pro Shop owners got called up onto stage and we all told the crowd a bit about our areas and what we do. Really great to be able to say a few words and also listen to whats happening around the world in the Popping and Jigging industry.


Fantastic speakers, Konishi-san President of Carpenter and Fukai-san Captain of the Big Dipper

Mogi-san recounting passed trips and fish caught! Wish I could understand everything said would be a bucket of advise and information!

Sami and myself listening with the help of Abdel translating.

We got called up to discuss our operations, Pro Shops and general information, was really great.

Abdel again doing all the translation.
 
The legendary party was held in a great venue right across the street from our hotel and as usual it was a very festive event with a lot of stories told and some really good company. Although the next day I did not feel my strongest!


Party time!

Great venue

A few more speeches and we were included, which was fantastic to discuss our operations and fishing.


 

[Nick Bowles]

There were some serious guys taking on the machine!

The fighting machine pulling in the crowds!

Sami putting it to the machine!! Hit It!!

Getting ready to take on the machine! Not the best look I;ve ever had but worked for safety!

With Konishi-san

To many nice products!! Ummmmmm big wish list!

The beast WV80XH! Been using this for many years and very happy to see we can still get it and in custom!

No comment!

Beauty!

-       Ocean Active becoming the exclusive dealer for Hots in the Middle East and South Africa.


With Minami-san

To many nice rods! I took a few to test in Southern Oman! And I can now say awesome!

Fantastic jigs, belts, gloves and accessories, look forward to getting them into the shop.

Awabi, works of art!

-       Ocean Active becoming the exclusive dealer for Race Point in Middle East and South Africa.

-       Seeing the new Stella 4000SW, 6000SW and 10000PG. All amazing reels which I will be hopefully using in the near future!


Shimano

Full range of Stellas, shear power and no better reel for what we use them for!

Small slice of heaven the new Stella 6000SW, it is on my Christmas list!

-       Mogi-san and group coming to fish with us in Musandam in May 12

-       Minami-san and Chris from Hots coming to fish with us in Hallaniyat Islands Oman March 12.

-       New products from Shout that we have ordered for the shop including the new range of jigs and stickbaits.


With Mauro-san from Shout

Shout stand

These Engras are going to be killers for our waters on the smaller gamefish! I took one to Southern Oman and got smoked and reefed!

Jigs

-       Getting a personal lesson from Ono-san from Shout on making a PR knot.


A lesson from the Master, Ono-san

-       Plus there were many more highlights.
 
Unfortunately the show came to and end quickly but I think it was a really good show and I learnt a lot more about our sport and new products coming into the market. It is also great to be able to meet up with all the people you always hear about on the forums or reports. I look forward to next years show and will hopefully be able to have used some of the new products we have seen and get a few more good stories for next year.
The final evening and day I spent with Sami, Abdel and Luke having a few meals and beers while discussing catching tuna, GTs, techniques and products. They are all very knowledgeable and it was really interesting to spend the time with them and I now have a few new tricks to try in our waters!


Lunch with Chris and Sami

Lunch with Abdel

Dinner with Luke and Abdel, awesome guys and very knowledgeable! I learnt alot and got to discuss a wide range of GT and Tuna tactics which have already helped me in Southern Oman!

Korean BBQ, very tassssssty!

We met up with a few guys from the show, great party!

Tuna is a religion in Japan, even got mounts outside restaurants!

German beer bar!

Final meal! Katsu Curry!!

Cheers,
Nick

[Mark Harris]

Brilliantly put together Nick.  Your passion comes through so well.

After being with all those wonderful Japanese anglers and their extremely responsible attitudes, it must be sobering to realise that it is also the Japanese who are the biggest culprits in the demise of the various tuna species with their evil factory ships fuelling an insatiable appetite. Don't mean to post a downer, but it is hard to ignore that irony I think.

And, do I spy examples of the new design large Sea Frogs on the Carpenter board there?

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Mark, It was a great trip and amazing to meet everyone and get first hand accounts on products, fish caught (AJ World record on PE3 at 71kgs!) and understand a bit more about my field of work.

Most of the people that I met are sportsfisherman and respect the sea as much if not more than us and I have a great respect for their passion and love of the sea and everything surrounding it. As for the commercial side this is not something I have a great deal of knowledge about and I personally think every country over harvests waters due to demand and financial gain, just the Japanese are upfront about it rather than trying to keep it quite. Demand will not go away and the Japanese are the foremost experts on breeding and farming fish species for consumption, so at the end of the day they might be the ones to save the fish stocks?? Just a thought.

Cheers,
Nick

[Rob Langridge]

Thanks for sharing Nick.

Cheers Rob

[Mark Harris]

Yep, no doubt that Japanese anglers have enormous respect for the oceans and things that live in them, and I would never suggest otherwise.

As for the commercial side of things, it is probably best not to prolong that debate here. A bit of internet searching will provide you with the facts though and they are truly scary. There is even scarier video footage around of those ships in action.

[Simon Bomholt]

Looks like a really cool trip.
Going a bit offtopic on the commercial stuff, the americans are not much better with their fishing for swordfish on smaller populations.

[David Hallifax]

Nick

Thanks for sharing such a great insight into this conference.  For a novice like myself this is great stuff and really appreciated. 

Hope you indulged in some of the local Saki while you were there ?

Cheers
Dave
 

[Nick Bowles]

Hi Mark, Totally agree we could go round in circles on the overfishing, very sad state of affairs, I think as long as we try do our bit on the water everyday when we are out then it all helps! But moving on swiftly! The show was awesome and I look forward to next year!

Hi Simon, I think it happens in every part of the World.

Hi Dave, glad it gave you a bit of insight, it is an amazing sport popping and jigging with history and innovation. Hopefully if we can all impart a bit of information through reports it will help the community grow and enable us to catch better and bigger fish! Or at least give us a brief respite from our daily routines.

Cheers,
Nick

[Luke Wyrsta]

Nice to see you over there Nick, along with a whole host of others! It's a real shame I got the fever and couldn't attend the party and part of the show 

[Luke Wyrsta]

Great to hear that the trip was such a benefit and progression for your businesses and fishing development. Me too! See you soon my friend!

[Andy Rowe]

Nick, did you say something about 'new' stellas?

[Nick Bowles]

Howzit Luke! Was great to catch up! Look forward to seeing you this side!

Hi Andy, There are a couple of new Stellas out in the SW range, I saw the 4000SW, 6000SW and 10000PG. I have heard a few rumours of a new Stella been launched but not sure how true this is if they are extending the present range. I'm getting the 4000SW and 6000SW to try out as they are fitting into sizes that I've been missing on some of my rods! Love new toyz!!

Cheers,
Nick

[Charles Cintron]

Howzit Nick,

I just saw this thread hahaha !

That was me standing next to you in the picture with fukui san and sami!!! Awesome!

Was nice to meet you and sami I did not know Luke was there too I must have just missed that guy or did not really recognize him would have been cool to run into him too! Luke I hope the offer for some beers is still on the table as I will be heading down to OZ sooner than expected and prob quite frequently would be cool to shoot the sh1t and talk fishing. Luke do you speak Japanese? I do recall someone there that may have looked like you working a booth speaking Japanese with a hat and glasses holding pamphlets.

That was an awesome show and I lucked out being in town while it was going on.  i've got some of the same pics with Konishi san and his rods lol. That boost machine was awesome as I gave it a go too. My buddy that I was there with tried to hook up with the fishing model girl working the show it was pretty funny!  Im in tokyo quite frequently and pro shop mogi is 20min from the hotel where I stay at i'm actually headed there today. I picked up a coral viper not too long ago along with some other goodies. My wife is starting to search my bags for reciepts every time I come home from Japan  .

One of these days Ive got to head out to your neck of the woods to do some fishing, i've actually got some friends out there working for emirates. If you ever find yourself out in Hawaii look me up i'll take you out to our grounds and hopefully put you on some fish.

Aloha,

Charles

[taniy]

Hi Nick,

It was nice to see you at the show, but you did not know who is me.
I was almost with Luke for translation.
Next time, I will help you!

Cheers!!