2011 Int. Sailfish Tournament Zihuatanejo Mexico

Dear Shimano,

Im writing  to tell you about the 2011 International Sailfish Tournament that was held in Zihuatanejo this last April 29,30 and 1st. The event had a record breaking 210 boats entered to fish the 3 day tourney. There are boats coming from all parts of Mexico to fish this tournament solely because of the prize money and vehicles that are given away.

My father in law had been fishing this event for 26 years and had never won or placed in it. I told him that I would come down with some of my equiptment to try out and give him a hand to see if we could put a checkmark on his bucket list. It worked and now he’s a happy man. 

Team Final Round which is our name finished in 2nd place to take 13,000.00 dollars for largest fish for saturday and a new Ford F150 pickup for placing 2nd overall. We gave the truck to the captain and it was a wonderful feeling to see the expression on that mans face. He deserved it for all the hard work that he did . There was a total of 13 fish caught during the 3days out of the 210 boats, so needless to say it was tough fishing and he who had the best eyes was rewarded. Our Shimano Tiagras made the job effortless along with matching rods that took the load with ease.  I cant say enough about how comfortable I felt knowing that my angler had the best equiptment in his hands to tackle the job. Team Final Round will never fish with anything other than Shimano Products.

Thank You again for making such an incredibly well balanced fishing product.  

Sincerly,

Joe Russo..Team Final Round

G.Loomis Factory Visit

May 9th

Arrived at the G.Loomis factory today to go over new products with Steve and make sure things were coming out of the paint room as I had hoped for.  They have exceeded my expectations for the colors we have chosen on these new rods. Rich deep alive color is what I wanted and it’s absolutely what we got here with this new one.  Very very cool!
 

The Guys from Shimano Australia arrived a couple hours after I did.  They were a bit jet lagged but to be expected after being over the pond for 15 hours plus.  This trip they brought their best G. loomis dealers for a factory tour and meet and greet.  The Aussies are a laugh a minute and they never seem to take themselves too seriously.  They definitely are able to lighten the mood.  We went to a seafood dinner with the boys.  We set Fred up good with a very small dessert.  Turns out he didn’t understand what Mile High mud Pie meant!!  The whole conversion to Kilometers and all had him stumped.

May 3 2011 – Kentucky Lake Field Testing

Fished with the dynamic duo of Backwater outfitters today.  John and Brad.  Interesting day to say the least man it was a good time!  With the lake 10 feet higher than it has ever been before it was a little tough.  We managed to make a few cross eyed with Brush hogs and whatever we could pin up against the trees that are usually high and dry!!  A little sobering to fish the back porches of people properties but the fish didn’t know any better.  We talked most of the day about business and their dedication to the tackle business and how much they love it.  John is an ex County Judge and Brad a decorated Police officer.  Seems they got tired of bad news and took full time to selling enjoyment through time on the water!  Every once in a while the fish would bite and surprise us.  We had 30 + fish best one was about 3.5 on a Green Pumpkin blue flake.  On a oh wait I’m not allowed to tell you which rod and reel yet.  Ha Ha Ha.  Just a great time with the guys and the new tackle.  They loved the tackle and picked my brain all day as to why we built it.  They see the methods to our madness.  Every time I fish with guys like this it just solidifies why we do what we do!!

 Cheers,

JPOE

WAXWING FISHING REPORT FOR PESCA PANAMA

My brother Drew and I had a great trip to Panama. The inshore fishing (amberjack, cubera, roosterfish, grouper, etc.) was way off, but even though the water was off-color (it started off clean green and got worse every day), but the yellowfin were everywhere and hungry too. There were not very many toads around (my biggest was 180 lbs.), but the fish averaged 50 – 80 lbs., so it was still a lot of fun on the spinning gear, and the Waxwings were the stars of the whole show. The Stellas performed flawlessly, as usual, but I dropped down to the Sustain 8000 and 65 lb. Power Pro, which was perfect for tuna in this size range.

The Waxwings were absolutely amazing. They cast like bullets, the hooks never foul the line, they don’t spin, and they always stay in the water on the retrieve. All that you have to do is cast, put the reel in gear, the rod tip down, and reel fast. This is a major relief for an old goat like me who is close to whipped after a few hours of heaving those huge poppers and having to jerk them all of the way back to the boat. The Waxwings were running 6″ to 12″ below the surface, so the strike was just as exciting as with a popper, and they swim so naturally that even the birds were going nuts for them, which really got the tuna into a competitive mood. It was not uncommon to get two, three or four strikes on one retrieve, until a fish finally stuck, sometimes right next to the boat. The captain and deckhand (who would normally out fish me 2-1) were throwing Yo-Zuri Surface Bull GTs, which have always been their go-to lure. The large Waxwings out fished the Bull GTs by at least a 3-1 margin.

I’m not sure that the upward-facing double hooks are the ideal set up for tuna. The strike/hook-up ratio seemed to be a bit higher than you would expect. After the double hooks were destroyed on our last large Waxwing, I attached a single hook with a split ring, which did not work because it caused the jig to come out of the water. I then found an open eye Siwash hook that I put on with the point down, and the jig swam fine. The hook-up ratio seemed slightly better with the downward facing single hook than with the upward-facing double hook. I do understand the weed-resistant benefit of having the hooks face upward, but for blue water use, I’d rather have the better hook-up ratio.

Many of the fish completely inhaled the jig (see photos), and as a result, we very quickly lost the first two jigs to chew-offs. Not wanting to risk our last two Waxwings unnecessarily, we leadered up with doubled 100 lb. fluorocarbon, which reduced our casting distance and dampened down the swimming action a tad, but even with the leaders, the Waxwings still swam better than any other jig that I have ever seen, and the tuna did not seem to mind at all. Unless the fish are extremely picky, I would recommend using leaders for medium-size or larger tuna.

I would guess that up to 7 kts. or so (I forgot to do a speed test), the medium-sized Waxwing would be a dynamite albacore boat-line jig with about 3 lbs. of weight in front of it, like we used to run the Baldy’s. I’m not any kind of expert, but I would bet that if you could design a Waxwing with some weight and a flat, sloped forehead to make it dig down (but still retain the swimming action) like a Yo-Zuri Bonita or Braid Marauder, I think that you could take the Wahoo trolling business away from both of them, because the Waxwing actually swims, while the Marauder and Bonita just wobble.

I would also bet that a good (but not great) fisherman throwing Waxwings with quality spinning gear will out fish even the best guys throwing surface iron for local yellowtail. It might take a while to overcome the stigma that sometimes attaches to spinning gear users on So. Cal. Sport boats, but when people see the results, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could convert a significant number of current conventional tackle devotees in a very short period of time, and it would help level the playing field for novice anglers too. Imagine how much more fun it would be for a new angler to be able to confidently flyline sardines or even anchovies on their first albacore trip with no worries about backlashes on the cast or pick-up. More first-timers would come back, which means more returning customers for the boat owners, so hopefully, you could expect the captains and crews to be supportive.

The whole crew at Pesca Panama is dying to get their hands on more, and I think that they might be a good way to get some great publicity quickly, since they have customers come from Asia, South America and Europe who are primarily serious fishermen who are not afraid to spend the bucks and who prefer to fish surface lures.