fred hall 2017

ok, guys, it's that time of year again.  yesterday was the start of the fred hall show.  i was able to cruise around all day and not have anyone get mad at me, so i'd say that it was a success!  i'll be back again this afternoon (thursday), then headed home tomorrow (friday), so i'll miss the rest of the show.  got a chance to talk to pretty much everyone - accurate, avet, daiwa, okuma and penn on the reel side, and black hole, cousins, seeker, phenix, rain shadow and united composites on the rod side.  i also spoke to blackwater, finn, and izor.  i missed the guy at yozuri, but i'll try again today.  i tried to see if i could get dealer pricing from segaur, but dale hightower basically said he couldn't help if i don't have a resale license, so segaur is totally out. gonna meet with the guys from okuma later today.  

for most of the day, i'll probably be hanging out with vintage tackle.  yeah, this guy!  the is randy pauly.  lots of great stuff.





unfortunately, this will be randy's last year at fred hall.



lots of nice gear for the collectors!











right across from randy is black hole rods with kil song.  i was playing around with his heavier stuff.  his heaviest rod bottomed out before 45 pounds, but it was fine at 30 pounds.  that would make it a great 100 pound stick!





caught up with darin dohi at the rod building showcase!  i left my custom uc raptor, viper and invictus there for him to show off!  



caught jason at united composites.  i just picked up a centaur blank, and hopefully one more raptor blank!



i swung back a little later to say hi to randy penny.  on my last trip to puerto vallarta, i took randy's raptor, viper and invictus.  the invictus was rigged with a mak 50 and a 130 pound topshot.  my buddy landed a 260 yellowfin  in 20 minutes.  later that same day, i hooked into a 200 pound yellowfin on a raptor and a mak 16 with 80 pound fluoro and landed it in 15 minutes.  with these new rods, you can land these fish quickly.  yes, these rods are that good!



headed over to the okuma booth and saw mike and david.



denny kaneoka was there as well!



met up with tony at soft steel.  we will be using his 60 pound line on our guadalupe charter!



these guys sold 600 blanks yesterday!  no wonder they're all smiling!



i missed the name of these guys, but they're from florida.  my brother fishes bass and he has their reels.  



meet stan from P-Line.  great kid!  in addition to tony's soft steel mono, i am going to try some of the p-line's fluoro for our guadalupe charter.  



seeker!!!  come by and meet the new owners!



calstar!  for those of you who know leon todd, he will be in on saturday.  swing by and say hello!



frank lopreste!



tony andreni and the owners of cousins!



shimano!  yeah, shimano.  there is never anyone there to talk to on the development side, so i just go in, take a look and leave disheartened.  



they do have their little repair area, though.  a friend wanted me to upgrade his tld, so we actually sat down at one of their work stations.  the shimano techs had totally no interest in what we were doing, but i don't blame them.  they have to do what japan tells them to do.  it's the japanese way (and yes, i'm japanese.....).



blackwater!  that is norcal's own pauline on the far right!   it's expensive, but blackwater braid is still the smoothest stuff around.  



no tackle show is complete without frank murata from daiwa!



accurate!  i've had the valiants open and they're really nice!



bloody decks!!!!





squidco, my favorite san diego stop!



phenix!  my 30 to 60 pound rigs are still black diamond hybrids.  great rods!





norcal's best electronic's shop, johnson hicks!



and izor!!!!!



ok, that's it for today!  one more day today, then home friday morning.  i know most of you are coming out this weekend.  you'll have a great time!  alan

Thanks for taking all the pics, Alan! I hardly took any.

I kept my eye out for you, but we never crossed paths. Howard told me he saw you. I did see Tito Ortiz, though...lol. I think he might be sponsored by Okuma.

I also spent a lot of time at Bob Sands talking to Jamie.

I talked to Tony from Soft Steel for awhile, too. He's a cool guy. I'm seriously considering snatching up the last spot on his Intrepid 8 day charter in August.

Alan, your Shimano comment was hilarious. Good to see you.

Thanks for the update Alan! Bummed i had to miss it this year...

Thanks for bringing the Fred Hall show to us Alan.