Afteraction report Chinafish
What a trip. First off the country. It is a mind boggling experience to see the juxtapostion of third world conditions with state of the art technology. At a stop light you could see a mule drawn wagon next to a three-wheeled pedal cart next to a Mao era vehicle next to a new Peterbuilt cabover next to a brand new 600 series Mercedes. The driving is strictly NASCAR rules. If your bumper is ahead you have the right-of-way. The lack of ego in the vehicles is astounding. Nobody gets mad when they get cut-off or feels remorse when cutting someone else off. Honking or flipping the lights off and on is done as communication and taken that way. Drive on the shoulder, across the center line, straddle the dotted line it is all good to them. In 9 days I saw ONE accident and we averaged 4 hours a day in cars. I only saw one guy flip the universal middle finger salute and that was me as we passed a statue of Chairman Mao. The food was horrible, everything has the head on so you can check freshness(the eyes). I had some jellyfish that was ok, but turned alot of food down. I learned how to say "I dont eat guts" in chinese, unfortunately my wife learned it also, as I found out tonight at dinner. As everyone should know I dislike radical environmentalists, but I think they may have a place in this world and that would be China. The smog is indescribeable, as is the garbage everywhere. In all the time I was there I did not see one body of water I would WADE in let alone swim or drink. Say what you will about the condition of Americas outdoors, but it is Eden compared to what I saw of China. The people as individuals were awesome, one guy closed his shop and dragged me around to find someone who spoke english so he could give me directions to where I wanted to go. Cost him about two hours of his working day and he would not accept anything for his time. That sort of thing happened regularly with the people, I just wish for them that they would smile more often and be happier. As for the show. There were tons of booths that all did the same thing. Soft plastics (clones, swim baits, and the like) were the most numerous, followed be those extendable rods. By and large it seemed to be one booth after another that all had the same things on the wall. I met with a reel manufacturer that is just starting his own company. All he does is offshore stuff. The reels seemed to be extremely high quality. His C&C work was flawless. German bearings, Japenese drag material, solid gears. He is sending me 20 of the two speeds in sizes that looked good for what we do here to loan out and get feedback. If guys like them we can order factory direct in small (12-15) quantities. I will have them at some of the TA meetings and certainly at the Newport thing. The price is really good it looks like they will come in at less than 200.00 for the 12s, 20s, and 30s. I was really impressed with these reels and it takes a lot to get me fired up over reels. I met with a shop and designed two new tuna plugs/baits. I plan to win the Classic with them this summer. I should have ten or so of each by June and will want some feedback from those as well. I also made up a salmon/steelhead plug that I think will be killer as well, but will have to wait until next year to test them. I found some good fiberglass rods for freshwater fishing and may have a few of those sent over as well. I learned a lot about doing business in china and got some clues as to what to look for. The company that builds our flashers did not know I was coming over and still did not have my product out or in their catelogue. So it is good to know that not everyone over there is a knockoff artist. They are the people building the plugs as well, so I should have some protection there. All in all it was a great trip. I tried to post as I went along but could only get one small post to come through. I am sure I forgot a bunch that I will want to post later.
Last edited by Deeman; 02-25-2008 at 05:40 PM.
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Robalo Bill
Re: Afteraction report Chinafish
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