[Henry Gilbey]

To the guys on this forum who came along to the Nantes bass show - great to see all of you, what a fantastic weekend.........here is looking forward to the 2011 show.

I am going to be writing a couple of articles (for Sea Angler) on the experience and I really wanted to get your thoughts on the show - in the manner of quotes that I can drop into the features.

I am going to take it that if you give me some quotes here then you are happy to potentially have them published in the articles. So please do not post here if this does not work for you.

Just simple one or two line things, something like this for example : "The experience blew my mind, I could not believe the amount of different lures and techniques on display" or "Of particular interest were the huge number of finesse lures and soft plastics" etc. Really simple, be honest.

My thanks in advance for doing this - anything we can do to push this stuff forward has to be a good thing in my book.......

 

[Mike Kennard]

Here are a few, one or two may stir up the UK tackle industry a bit.

Excellent show. Very interesting to see how forward thinking the French angling companies are either in importing Japanese cutting edge equipment or in producing their own. In lure angling terms they are years ahead of their UK equivalents.

A great weekend from start to finish. The group of anglers from The Lure Forum numbered 17 in the end. We all had a great time swapping stories, techniques and just general chat over a few beers in the evening. when it comes to lure fishing it doesn't matter how good anybody in the UK thinks they are, like it or not, the French are years ahead of us in both tackle and technique.

It is one thing to look through catalogues and try and understand what a particular item of tackle looks or behaves like, but to go there and see it, touch it and in some cases watch it being demonstrated is just something else.

In lure fishing terms, Daiwa France put their UK equivalents in the shade, The rods are literally decades ahead of what see in this country. The UK tackle is an embarrassment by comparisom and somebody in that company should question why.

 

[Alex Jordan]

Good to catchup again Henry - with regards to the show wowzers!

The French have a reputation for being passionate about food coupled with Le Attitude and cafe culture - after my Nantes experience add to that a deep understanding and fondness of lure fishing across many spectrums; domestic freshwater, saltwater and tropical. Although the Nantes show is a narrow cross sction of fishing in general the show was awash with bleeding edge lure gear - we can only hope the UK has an appetite to follow our Gallic cousins and progress over time. I met some fantastic anglers willing to help, discuss and show a small handful of crusading anglers thirsty for knowledge - a highly recommended trip of you are serious about your lure fishing!

*edit as appropriate!!!!

 

[Retired]

Loads more quality soft plastics this year, way outnumbering the hard baits.

Ultimate, Sakura, Pezon & Michel, Illex, AMS Fishing, HPA.......there is nothing to match them in the UK in terms of forward thinking manufacturing and distribution.

LRF and HRF have firmly arrived in France. Next stop the UK?

 

[Keith White]

Loads more quality soft plastics this year, way outnumbering the hard baits.

Ultimate, Sakura, Pezon & Michel, Illex, AMS Fishing, HPA.......there is nothing to match them in the UK in terms of forward thinking manufacturing and distribution.

LRF and HRF have firmly arrived in France. Next stop the UK?

I know I didn't go but considering the buzz with LRF/HRF right now.....

I think it important to remember France had no bearing on the emergence of LRF/HRF here within these forum walls initially.
I think it is great that they too have embraced it but it was via the enthusiasm of the posters here, and the guys (Jersey, Guernsey, IOM, Ireland, UK) doing what essentially and collectively amounts to hundred's of hours of actual fishing, refining it etc.
Add that to the input of the Aussie bream stuff, Paul B's contributions, Liam H and Gaz and others nailing some fantastic winter Wrasse way before Nantes and you'll see that we 'independently' discovered LRF/HRF as one further direction to move in.

Just in case it gets mentioned in any magazine articles, it is so new here in Europe that it would be nice for everyone to realise we aren't all 'miles' behind anyone at all.
All the gear doesn't make anyone a better angler but it can help an already good one get better results.

I'll leave the topic now to those who went to Nantes.

 

[Ben Field]

A real eye opener, this show comes highly recommended to anybody with an interest in any type of lure fishing - boat or shore. The amount of seriously well designed tackle blows anything the UK has out of the water and the demonstrates nicely what we could be doing over here if we could get our hands on the right kit. Hopefully it won't be long before more UK retailers sit up and take notice of what's really out there. This is the future of UK lure fishing.

 

[Ben Field]

The good thing about being behind at the moment is that our learning curve will be steeper than the French. It won't take us so long to get to where they are today.

 

[Andy Mason]

The whole place was simply buzzing with enthusiasm.
Lure addicts beware, this place is not for the weak willed.
Tomorrows tackle, today.
The French passion for lure angling definately rubbed off on a few Brits.
If my leather wallet was still alive it would have died of a heart attack.
We walked, talked, slept and almost breathed lure angling for 3 whole days, and all we wanted to do when we got home was go fishing with our news toys.

And I'm not sure you can use these Henry but...

Ben, you've got a f****** problem mate.
Vidar, you've got a f****** problem too.

 

[Ben Field]

:muttley:

 

[Luke Fox]

Let's hope all Uk tackleshop owners read you're article and the lure forum and act on it soon!

 

[Mick Ward]

If any angler reading this has the slightest interest in lure fishing, and has a weekend spare in February next year, then do yourself the biggest favour and get down to the Salon Des Peches. It is simply outstanding, the French anglers and exibitors are more than happy to give you their time and full attention to explain anything you have to ask, they are gentlemen and true ambassadours to our sport. Oh, and what a way to wet your appertite for the new season, it just charges your batteries and makes you crave for getting back out there. On most if not all the stands there is someone on the staff that can speak english, and if you are struggling there are enough of us brits there that can translate for you.

I long for the day the UK has something along these lines, it is breathtaking what tackle is out there and what the French have managed to achieve with it all.

It seems to me the interest in modern lure fishing just grows and grows every year in France, they are now at a level that the anglers can dictate to the companies what they require and it is available in no time at all. Forward thinking and passionate, a remember I time when the UK tackle trade was like that......

Make new friends and meet some old ones, see new tackle, see it being used, touch it, have a go with it and let the guys that have designed it tell you exactly how it should be used, its lure angling heaven.

 

[Henry Gilbey]

Outstanding guys, many thanks for doing this - keep them coming if you can.

Hugely appreciated. Seems that we are all thinking along the same lines about lure fishing in the UK.

 

[Mike Hayes]

Henry, all I would like to add is OMG!

 

[Steve Lewis]

Henry,

"I felt I left the show a better angler than when I went in" as others have said the French are light years ahead of us, but no reasons why we can't catch up in a couple of years. The other thing that struck me was how helpful the guides were and willing to share their knowledge to help promote the sport.

 

[Rob F]

Gutted I couldn't make it. I will be there next time!

 

[Mick Ward]

Gutted I couldn't make it. I will be there next time!

Start saving, and I mean that, your wallet will get a serious pounding if your not careful, I got off lightly with just one rod and a small bag of lures.

 

[Mike Kennard]

Start saving, and I mean that, your wallet will get a serious pounding if your not careful, I got off lightly with just one rod and a small bag of lures.

Lucky it was a 'cheap' rod too......

 

[Retired]

Start saving, and I mean that, your wallet will get a serious pounding if your not careful, I got off lightly with just one rod and a small bag of lures.

For sure.

Find a few bits on Friday.
Sod the budget on Saturday.
Spot some more bits on Sunday.

Works for me.

The worst thing that happened to me all weekend was the hotel receptionist telling me on Friday night that my credit cards weren't working. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Silly vache, I nearly had a heart attack and I was mega worried until I called the issuer (thank the tackle tart gods she was wrong) - she didn't know how to use her own blinkin machine.

Otherwise I didn't hear a proper cross word all weekend.

 

[Mick Ward]

Henry, there is only one word needed for a quote,

"Formidable"

 

[Retired]

Closely followed by "Floooooooterbait"?