New Contributor Article – Japanese Tackle Shops

Congratulations to Craig Thomasian on being the first new contributor to Fishing Fury for 2007. After reading about Craig’s adventures in Japan, specifically shopping at various tackle shops, something I have always dreamed of doing, I asked if he would like to write a short experience for us and he did! Craig also contributed an amazing set of unboxing photos of his high-end gear, behold the EverGreen Opus-1.

I recently took a much needed vacation to Tokyo, Japan. Being an angler and import tackle enthusiast in the land of the rising sun turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing: an inside look at Japanese tackle that we don’t see stateside and the wonderful stores that sell it. The curse: my uncontrollable spending on some very cool but expensive tackle items.

The first tackle shop I hit was Sansui. This is a small chain of stores in Tokyo. They deal in nice high-end tackle for all fishing disciplines. I went to the Shibuya location which was a little strange. They’re essentially 2 locations not far from one another, each with 2 stores. They have a saltwater store, fly fishing store, shore saltwater/main store, and a largemouth bass store. I went to them all and of course made a few purchases including an EverGreen Opus-1 spinning reel. This reel is very hard to get here in the US since there is no EverGreen presence in the States. In Japan they are one of the top, if not the top, bass fishing rod manufacturer. You can check out the unboxing photos in the galleries.

Read more about Japanese Tackle Shops by Craig Thomasian.

There is also the case of the mysterious long spoons, one I’m sure Adam can solve for us.

Craig also recently visited the Bass Pro Shops in Las Vegas and snapped some great photos. Craig’s blog is a great place to keep track of his latest adventures and see some cool ass cars.

I’m very happy to say that even though we don’t get many comments here, there is a growing number of readers out there that really enjoy the site and want to help it grow. We’ve posted before saying how much we love it when you contribute your fishing pictures and stories, and to show our appreciation we even printed out some stickers to send out to contributors. I’ve even heard a rumour about more t-shirts..

Good job Craig!