• We got to the first day of the show at about midday yesterday (Friday) – there's about 20 of us here from the UK and Ireland, and for a few of the guys it's their first time at the show. There is just so much fishing gear to take a look at, plus lots and lots of boats and kayaks etc. in different halls. It seems that there are still lots and lots and lots of anglers into their bass fishing here in France !! Honestly, it makes you feel to alive to come to a show like this and to be able to feel how vibrant a particular fishing “scene” is.
  • Anyway, as I said, there is a lot of gear on show here !! For somebody like me who is not remotely close to being a tackle tart, I find it remarkably easy to stay calm, but I do feel for the guys who have a bit of a problem with the nice shiny gear – they must be suffering with heart palpitations. Not me of course. Never ? I spent most of my time at the show yesterday trying to get to grips with some of the new lure rods, and my own opinion is that some of the best value for money stuff on display was from Sakura, and especially their new Shinjin range. Cian from Absolute Fishing in southern Ireland rang me up early in the week rang me up to say that he had just got them in and that they felt awesome, so it was really good to be able to pick them up yesterday and waggle them around a bit. How Sakura can make that much rod for so little money amazes me – ok, so I have not fished with them yet, but from picking them up I reckon they are something a little bit special. The 7' 10-35g, 7'8'' 10-35g and the 8'6'' 15-50g were the ones that really stood out to me as very applicable to “our” market, and that 7'8'' one especially as a “do it all” modern style lure rod for not much more than £100 felt just incredible. I also messed around with a few other Sakura rods that I reckon are a little bit special for plastics work especially, but so far I have seen nothing at all mentioned about them in the UK. We shall see............
  • The Ultimate Fishing stand was buzzing as per usual, and they have one hell of a lot of far too nice looking gear on display. They have a new Tenryu rod out that is called the “Red House”, and from my understanding of what Mick and Yannick were telling me, it is very specifically designed to fish with minnows and smallish casting jigs. It is 8' long I believe and rated 10-28g, and is meant to cast a country mile with the right lures. I just can't get away from the fact that there is something about these red rods, and I am doing my best to stay away from this new “Red House” as much as I can.................not that it's me with the problem of course.
  • I took a close look at the new Daiwa France Tournament lure rods, and they so seem to be something a little bit special. The Branzino rods are what they are, but these Tournament ones strike me as being a serious amount of rod for under half the price of a Branzino. I will pick them up again today and have a little play, but the two models that really got to me straight away were the 8' 14-42g and the 6'6'' 7-28g. There is also an interesting looking 9'6'' 14-56g version that would suit those guys who really need to fish the larger lures at serious range, but that 8' 14-42g model really stood out to me as one hell of an all round lure rod for our bass fishing.
  • Anyway, there will be plenty more to come – it's early Saturday morning here right now, so I need to go and grab some breakfast and get ready for the second day of the show. I so love coming to France, and this Nantes show is becoming a real highlight weekend of the year – if you have any interest in this bass fishing thing, think about coming down next year. Self-control here we come.........