TronixFishing/Seaview Roadshow

I am recently back from our TronixFishing Roadshow event held at Seaview Angling in Plymouth and what a great event it was. 

It was the first time I had met both George and my pro staff team mates, I was really quite excited about that. 

I had also heard very good things about Seaview Angling which turned out to be massively justified, the place is wall to wall lures! The amount of work Andy and Pam had put in was outstanding, there was even a hand built lure tank for demonstrating our products which Jake and Pete used to great effect, demonstrating the new light game lures and Artic Eel.

Pete Cook talking about his Artic Eel.

Many local anglers turned out too and it was great to converse with those guys, all were clearly passionate about lure angling. There was quite a buzz around the place and a nice scene in Plymouth. 

What impressed me most though was the turn out for the actual fishing sessions, they were really well attended by people wanting to share, learn and catch some fish. 

LRF meet in full swing

                              

Jake and Ben on the hunt

                                 

Callum Graham - World Champion Angler!

                                  

The fishing was a little slow with small tides and a pressured mark in the mix but everyone caught fish and had fun. It was a great time to demonstrate the HTO Leethal and Flail which caught me some fish alongside the ever dependable Mini Stick.

Wrasse on the new Leethal

Pollock on the Flail

The ever faithful Mini Stick

Back at Seaview there was a rotation of talks and demonstrations where we tried to be on hand to give advice and aid sales. Personally I was very impressed with the way the Kayak team conducted themselves and promoted their fishing discipline.

               

These guys are super passionate and quality anglers, as I was travelling down on Friday, Mark and Martin were catching Red Band fish which we were all quite jealous about. Their passion is surely infectious and I admit now coveting a Kayak!

Sunday was quite an eventful day kicking off with a fish down at Rame which saw another good turnout. I think everyone landed a fish or two, the best ones falling to Jake and Pete. Pete's fish were mainly caught on his own design; The Artic Eel which has already taken a huge number of good fish around the country. Jakes fish were taken on Gulp Sandworm and light rock tackle!

Artic Eel in Aji

Pete's nice lump!

Jake and myself with fish taken after a move.

Mini Shad in Ayu, Wrasse love them!

George Cunningham MD of Tronix Fishing.

After the fish, we spent ages trying to get into Petes car as he'd locked his keys in the boot! George showed great patience and skill as he got in with his cunning(ham) ways!

After such an eventful morning I was surely glad to get back to Seaview for barbecued burgers!

Again we conversed with customers and anglers, advising and selling was the name of the game. It certainly makes a nice change selling gear that you actually had a hand in, I've always found its much easier to sell things you are passionate about!

I had some great conversations with a few people though and those I spoke to seemed very appreciative of the advise given, which is quite rewarding in itself.

Before long though it was time to wrap it up and say goodbye to everyone, it was so good I didn't really want it to end. I met so many good people and had such good laughs over the weekend, it really is great to be part of such a cool sport.

Rockfish by Design.

As some of you know, since summertime last year I have been a Light Game ProStaff member for Tronix Fishing, a new facet to my angling that has been quite enjoyable.

As part of my role within the team I am encouraged to make suggestions for new products within the sphere of Light Game and Rockfishing. George (the Director) is passionate about Lure fishing in general and is keen to supply the UK and Europe with new, quality products at competitive prices and I have found that is an ethos where we both see 'eye to eye' very much.

I have long had some ideas about what I would like to see added to Tronix Fishings HTO brand and decided to share some ideas with the team. I started off with not much more than scrawls on paper and at that point I did not know quite how involved I would become!

The above just represent some of the ideas which I had for lure designs and when presented to the team, engagement was good. We started to whittle down and decide what we liked and wanted to see as part of the HTO range. At this point George started looking into contracting a Cad expert to turn some designs into 3D images.

However, as it would happen George found a piece of free software online where, with a bit of perseverance and practice, we could turn some of the designs into files that in turn, could be sent to our factories and samples produced.

Late nights, trials and tantrums ensued while I tried to get my head around the software and its basic functions, until I started getting some of my ideas ready for production.

Refinements and changes were then made until I was happy enough with the end results to get them sent off for samples.

The HTO Mace

The HTO Flail

I was incredibly excited by the whole process and I already felt as though it was a good experience and achievement, but to see the samples and test them was something new for me entirely. 

The Mace was really quite experimental and the idea behind it was inspired by the Sandeel I see shoaling in the margins on some of my marks (as was the Excalibur actually). With the Mace I thought to create a body that would displace water in a way that would hopefully attract predators to investigate further and as such features a more angular body than perhaps people are accustomed to. Furthermore I wanted a thin tail, so when a fish "inhales" the lure, the tail would fold and the jig would be set easily in the fishes mouth. I was absolutely delighted when this experiment paid off and I caught a Bass in exactly the scenario I had wanted it for!

This lure proved further successful when George and Adam Kirby tested it in freshwater, both scoring Pike and Perch. I cannot tell you what satisfaction that gave!

I have designed and had introduced to the HTO range two more lures in addition to the Flail and Mace; The Leethal and the Excalibur. I will maybe go into more depth about the design thought at a later stage, but for now I shall just leave you with a couple more pictures.

Lesser Weever on the Excalibur

Ornate Wrasse on the Excalibur

Leethal by Design

At HTO we have a whole range of new and exciting products coming out this year, most available from May. Check out the new lure catalogue here which includes the already, very exciting Arctic Eel, designed by our very own Pete Cook.
Its also well worth subscribing to the HTO Facebook page in order to keep up to date with news, catches and to post your own catches on our lures.

While fishing opportunities have been scarce so far for me this year I remain optimistic and excited for 2015 and I hope we have a good one all-round!

Tight lines.

Rockfish Madeira.

Myself and Scott have been on another Light Game jolly of late, this time to Madeira.

I'll admit that I do not have the first clue how to write up a blog based on my adventure there. Much of the time I found the fishing hard going due to huge swells on the North coast met with stiff winds, the sea in the south coast was also quite cloudy at times and not the best conditions for lure fishing.

Of course we still caught plenty of fish albeit many of them too small to fight much.

With the help of Angelo Abreu; Madeira's first Rock-fisherman, we did get into a few better fish later in the week.

Here are some of the fish we caught;

Ornate Wrasse on an AquaWave Ami

Ornate Wrasse are actually referred to as "poo" on the Island, there are so many of them and they ruin your soft lures and steal your baits. I admit to getting very fed up with catching them despite being so pretty.

Canary Damsel Fish

Another fish very prominent on the Madeira coast is the Canary Damsel, these actually fetch a premium price in restaurants, though all ours went back alive.

Puffer fish

The puffers are absolutely brutal on your lures and will readily take chunks out of everything tried. I gave up using vinyls for this reason. One lure that does stand up is the Aquawave Ami and they will handle several fish before being halved.

Madeira Rockfish

 The Madeira Rockfish is also very common but I don't mind catching many of these because they are both poisonous and good looking.

Atlantic Lizard fish

Bastard Grunt

 Yes you heard that right; this fish is called a Bastard Grunt. Scott caught much better ones than I and I found them quite infuriating. They are bastards and the do grunt at you when caught!

An Atlantic Lizard for myself.

Black Tailed Comber

 These combers are called Garouper in Portuguese and are indeed a pretty fish. They can grow much larger and are apparently very good to eat.

Derbio or Palometa

 The Derbio was definitely a specie I wanted to catch, they are really a summer species but I managed to get a small one anyhow, they fight like mad too!

Another "Poo", this time on Gulp Angleworm.

Scott with a Madeira Rockfish.

A little Wrasse

The Wrasse above is not 100% identified yet, at first Scott suspected it to be a Grey Wrasse but now we think it may be an Emerald or Atlantic Wrasse. I caught it in Canical.

Scott with a lovely Emerald Wrasse.

Scott with a Pandora.

Diamond Lizard fish.

This Lizardfish snaffled my Hart RSF Mebaru Blade after it was hit by a nice Triggerfish no less than four times! Definitely a consolation prize, I have wanted a Trigger for ages.

White Trevally

 After taking tips from Angelo on a night out, I caught theis White Trevally on a 7g Reins Palpuntin jig.

Pargo

 Scott was first into a "Pargo" but I followed suit with a slightly larger one.

My Pargo

 The Pargo in English is actually a Pink Dentex or Lumphead Seabream. it has unbelievably strong jaws and a serious set of teeth, they fight well to boot!

PB Striped Bream

I was so chuffed with my Striped bream, I actually caught it within a minute or two of being on the mark. I went for only a few casts before meeting Scott in Ponta Da Sol. It is a PB for me and fought very well.

Angelo Abreau and his skilfully caught Pandora

I so enjoyed meeting Angelo and his wife, this was definitely a highlight for me. Angelo Caught this Pandora working one of his self designed and homemade jigs worked across the sea bed. Angelo gave us one of his jigs each and also showed me other lures he had made on a homemade lathe nonetheless! I have to say the skill and workmanship in Anglos lures really tell that he loves what he does. A truly humble and skilled angler and a pleasure to call friend.

Lesser Weever

I guess no trip would be complete for me without a Lesser Weever! Much darker than I am used to here in Wales because of the Black volcanic sand of the Island, but a Weever nonetheless! I swear if they are there, I will find them or they me!!

If you would like a more detailed look at out trip, check out Scotts series of reports on www.something-fishy-going-on.blogspot.co.uk

Tight lines <><