[Music]
If you yearn to go back to a simpler age, where you dangle a pin on a strand of horsehair
tied to a willow wand you have cut from yonder copse, forget it.
Today's angler can reach the parts that others have only dreamed of, thanks to new rods,
new reels and even an innovative method of mending waders.
Somewhere, deep in the heart of the Sportfish open weekend, I find the Simms guys.
Things do wear out.
Lots of things while you are fishing.
Could be a barbed wire fence, could be thorns or things like that, or general wear.
Obviously these are gortex, with a gortex membrane in them and what we have done today,
part of the whole thing with Simms gear is that they can easily be repaired.
Tom is our repair expert here from Oslo.
So we have a little demonstration where we use something called isopropyl alcohol which
does a little bit of magic and it shows up any pinholes in the waders.
It is really quite clever.
If you have any punctures it will show up a little black spot.
It is so easy to find and so easy to repair.
So you can just use a bit of aquaseal and repair the waders very easily.
While the Sportfish shop is getting the bite into customers, cramming into it, admiring
and buying tackle, on the grass outside is a large marquee stuffed with the great and
the good from the angling industry, showing off products old fashioned and new-fangled.
This is where to find out what's catching the eye of the modern fisherman.
A lot of this need for technology comes down to where we are fishing - and some of that
is the fault of agencies such as Frontiers.
Frontiers has been around since 1969 and we invented the idea of fishing travel.
When we started with the exception of a little bit of salmon fishing abroad, which Russia
was beginning to create, it was a new thing to do.
That is what is called a GT, Giant Trevally.
You catch it in the Seychelles most famously, but other places as well.
That is a sea trout from Rio Grande ... Fuego.
The green and yellow fish down the bottom is a dorado from Bolivia.
There is a good showing from one of the UK's foremost tackle companies, Hardy Greys, based
in the North-East.
Howard Croston, head of product development, is bringing a new range of technology to ignorant
southerners like me.
We produce fishing equipment which you can use basically all globe.
We do everything from big game fly fishing equipment.
Right through course fishing, carp fishing, sea fishing.
Technology is very much part of our business.
Heritage is also a very big part.
Still manufacturing cane rods right from the start.
At the other end of the scale we are working with very advanced nano loaded resins and
new fibre types.
So really it is one of those things it is really a quirky company, we have got the history
of being one of the oldest fishing tacklers of the world, yet we are right on the cutting
edge of modern technology as well.
The flytying here has a modern twist and if you are watching this on Youtube you can click
on these films to see them in full.
The mayfly hatch on southern English chalkstreams is worryingly late this year, so Chris Reeves
of FishingClass.co.uk is tying an all-purpose nymph on the Parkridge of Redditch stand.
Meanwhile, for those who have given up on freshwater altogether, Jo Stephenson on the
UKBass.com stand is tying an all-purpose fry fly.
Also at the show is one of the biggest names in flyfishing, Charles Jardine, who seems
to be confusing himself with his distant cousin Douglas.
It might be May but it's not perfect weather for either flyfishing or cricket.
It is jolly cold in here.
Do you want a hanky.
I would love a hanky.
I just haven't made a hanky to go with this.
Basically the idea Charlie was to get a bunch of fly lines.
I did exactly what they said on the tin to dispel myth.
To give people coming into the sport especially a degree of confidence and also a line that
is eminently fishable.
There is one over there which was just under that was the line of choice of the fishers
at Grafham because it met exactly the requirements at the back end of last year.
If you are talking about bass fishing, or fishing for Pollack, gold fish or anything
really that swims in the sea that we can fish with a fly, because that is, I was going to
say battle ground, which it is sometimes, but that is a new era for us, a new way of
looking at the sport.
Taking it out of the confines of just purely, what we would expect, trout fishing on rivers
and reservoirs and saying look you can do this.
Go on holiday go mackerel fishing, bass fishing.
Here is a nice little line to take with you and do it.
Fishing tackle design has taken a leap forward in the last few years.
People are taking their rods to new heights, which is why manufacturers have been to talk
to the aerospace industry.
Carbon fibre technology is not developed for the fishing rods it is developed for the aerospace
industry and the airbus which you will know about.
There are 300 odd airbuses being made in the world at the minute.
That is what the materialist develops to be lighter and stronger and the fishing rod industry
rides piggy back on the back of that, but the range of materials now that are available
for making fishing rods is huge.
So the skill is a marriage of art and science, the skill is knowing which types of carbon
fibre materials to match up.
Because you don't have just one type in a rod, you might have three or four different
types positioned in different places down the blank.
Another US rod manufacturer, Sage, is based in the same town as aircraft manufacturer
Boeing.
We get a lot of research out of Boeing.
They bring it to us we bring a little to them and we have a great relationship with a number
of the engineers who are fishermen.
They love to come over for the little break it gives them and we have a great time with
Boeing.
It is very important because they are one of the leaders in aerospace and that is where
all the great material comes from.
We are always interested in making goods lighter and stronger and literally what they are doing
with the new 7/87 Airliner is really in this rod to a degree.
So it really works out pretty nicely for us.
Sportfish has run this show over a May weekend every year for a dozen years.
It is a long time, a long time.
But it is what our customers expect of us now and we love putting it on.
It is great.
Entry is free, parking is free.
We have got guys coming from all over the world.
Got guys from the United States, Scandinavia and even Scotland.
Exotic locations like that.
All the retailers in there are showing their new products and all the new exciting things
they have brought with them and it is a great opportunity for our customers to have a look
at those and come back and give us the feed back of what they have seen and really like
and that gives us a good head start on a bit later in the year to bring in those products
they have seen.
Really importantly because it is showcase for that technology people can see the rods,
but the experts from the companies that have designed them will chat to you and they will
go out and cast the rods with you on the water.
So you hear the full story of the rod's development and actually see the guy who has designed
it casting it which I think is amazing.
Absolutely wonderful.
So you have got all this kit, all this technology and all these people here.
How many fish have you caught today?
Ah, one.
Actually fishing has been hard today.
This is a great fishery so I don't know the answer to that.
But it is cold for the fish as the same as it is for us.
You know we have had a run up, the last few days there have been big flocks of swallows
over the lake and they have been eating buzzers which have been hatching and that is not going
on today.
They are not playing.
So it is not a fishing day, but a great day for a show.