Kuma Eging & Fishing: 2014 Eging Summit

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Apologies for the late entries - catch up time!!

This was the day I was waiting for, I was blown away to receive an invite but to actually be there was another thing altogether.

The gathering of all the good manufactures of squid fishing tackle in Japan for discussions on various topics and techniques on catching squid. This year the even was held in Tanabe the home of Gan Craft in Wakayama and area known for its cracking squid fishing, attendees included, Gan Craft, Yamashita, Valley Hill, Evergreen, Daiwa, Draw4 (Cultiva), Kanji (Clicks) and Sumizoku. Squid tackle as far as the eye can see. The presentations from each company were amazing with so much to learn from each group.

The day started before 0600 with the registration for the Eging Summit Tournament that accompanied the event. more than 300 people lined up to ensure the were registered to compete. This was all happening while I continued sleeping in my hotel room about 2 km away. It was an awesome day weather wise with temps predicted to go higher than 30 degrees.

I arrived at approx 0930 to find the place all set up and ready to go, a stage was prepared for presentations and booths set up for each company I was called to the stage for a preparation of my on stage presentation with 6 other pro staff from other companies. I did my best Japanese which to be honest was very bad broken English, as we sorted out the days activity.

We all then went our separate ways until the conference started. The first thing that drew my attention was 2 small shallow pools containing small fish, they call these fish Medica, they are carnivorous fish that can be caught on small pieces of worm. I went to investigate further. This could be one of the very reasons why fishing is so popular in Japan. They start the kids off catching these hardy little fish that they can take home and keep as pets, they are simple to catch but they teach the important lesson of fishing is good rather than the constant western message of fishing is bad. Mums and dad would be at the edge of the pool with their kids making it a family activity from a very young age. This is the start of a fishing foundation that ensure years of participation in a sport that has its biggest competition in the form of a playstation. It was exciting to see such keen participation.

I then spent the next couple of hours walking around the various stands meeting with some of the worlds greatest squid fisho's and lure designers. Some that I was very excited to meet again after meeting at the Osaka Fishing Shows from previous years. I was able to take part in many forums and discussions though out the day and bringing many new idea's back to Australia with me. The best info I was able to get was about the squid reef work that many tackle companies and anglers invest so much time, money and resources into to ensure that there is breeding populations of squid that are not accessible to anglers to allow productive breeding with low angler pressure, but more on that another day. Best of all there were heaps of food vendors there with heaps of traditional food including the team from Shyraku my fave izakaya house in Japan. Also local tackle vendors dotted between with the newest and greatest squid fishing tackle available.

Throughout the day the folks who had entered the tournament returned to weigh in squid in the hope of winning the biggest event of the year. Although not many squid were weighed in it was amazing to see how many folks returned to the arena for the rest of the event.

It came time for me to take the stage, our session was MC'd by Daiwa front man Yukinori Miyazawa who was very patient with my language differences. I was lucky to have Kotaro standing behind me to interpret a lot of what was being said and then turn my poor Japanese and broken Engrish into Japanese to the amusement of many. I spoke about area's in Australia that hold squid and how the coast line and locations chosen by anglers to target squid are very similar to the folks in Japan. We also spoke about the numbers of squid in Australia and how we are fortunate enough to have squid all year round and not just during small windows of season. The people in Japan are very envious of our squid fishing and the opportunity for fishing tourism is high with low cost flights to and from Japan now days.

We then had the Tournament presentation where the winners were grinners as they collect the accolade and the prizes. You did not have to win to receive a prize there was plenty of giveaway's and also random draws including a Gan Craft Violence Jerk that I had the pleasure of presenting to a winner.

The day came to an end and all event staff and pro staff gathered for a group photo, it will give you an idea of the size of the event. All in all it was something I am glad I made the trip for, I had a great time and met some awesome folks and caught up with some great people I had met in the past. Looking forward to the next Summit when it comes around again.

A big day had left a fair impression on my appetite so it was good to get out for a feed with the Gan Craft team before they had to leave for the various corners of Japan that they all hail from. During our good byes I managed to get in a bit of a street sumo session in with the leader of the Sharcrazy team. Now that's a memory, sumo in the street outside the restaurant, we even stopped traffic for a second.