Chinese tackle and free rod giveaway

[The occasional angler]

Hi guys, I’ve been testing some Chinese tackle on my channel, mainly a rod I bought from Tsurinoya called the Proflex 2.

I’ve been very impressed with the quality so I made a field test video which I thought might interest some of you.

I’m giving this rod away in December for free( details on my channel)

YouTube

 

[103841]

What is the price of this rod and where can I buy it? Some info like this might be helpful.

 

[The occasional angler]

Tsurinoya do have a website, if you go to AliExpress and look up Tsurinoya you will find all their products.

Rods that I think are of interest are
Ajing 0.6 - 7g 7.5ft - these are designed for horse mackerel , solid tip extremely sensitive... perfect twitching small soft plastics for perch

Reel
Kingfisher 800 carbon reel.... superlite weight ideal partner.
In my opinion you will pay way below half price for same equipment in uk

 

[103841]

Opinion isn’t much good, hard facts are much better.

So you recommend buying from China, with shipping and possible customs fees I am sure there are perfectly good equivalent rods to be bought from tackle dealers we should be supporting in the UK.

As for the reel you quote, I can buy a Daiwa Ninja or similar for half the price of your Hong Kong import.

PS BFS stands for Bait Finesse System.

 

[no-one in particular]

I agree with S63, buy British, at the end of the day we all benefit in the long run, taxes paid here, jobs etc.
However, I did buy a Chinese rod of E-Bay once. I had a £10 voucher to spend and I wanted a fly rod. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on one as it was for an experiment in fly fishing for coarse fish which I may have not taken up, I did not want to spend more money for something that might have ended up with all the other stuff I have bought and never get used.. It was £16 with shipping; don’t know how they do that. It was 4 pieces which suited me as I wanted something I could put in a small bag. I was surprised at the quality of it when it arrived, very well made and it suited its purpose very well and for £6 paid - a doddle.
The thing was I couldn’t find anything like that for that price in my local tackle shop; they were all two pieces and more money so this was the only rod I could find that ticked the boxes for what I wanted it for plus I got to use up the voucher. Most of us just buy a rod because we like it and the price without regard to it being British, I have bought an Abu before which I think is Swedish so it’s a bit of a moot point I suppose but given the choice between two where there was not much difference I would opt for British. The other problem is it’s often the case of not knowing what is British, companies can be anything these days unless you do research.

 

[Richox12]

I agree with S63, buy British,at is British,

Define British

 

[The occasional angler]

A lot of tackle is made in China.... then branded. If you want a good comparison look at fishband gh100 and the shimano Aldebaran! £38 and £300+

 

[103841]

I should have added that you may also get clobbered for vat and Royal Mail handling fees, to consistently say that you pay a fraction of the price simply isn’t accurate.

At a time when many of our tackle shops are struggling unable to compete with online, I say again, buy in UK regardless of where your rod/reel was made.

Do I get the free “giveaway” for being patriotic?

 

[The occasional angler]

I have order probably 20 items from China (rods, reels etc). To date I’ve never paid for shipping or been charged vat or any import charges........ but I could have just been lucky.

Point taken on supporting local tackle shops.... for me i buy terminal tackle and bait from my tackle shop, for specialist rods/reels it’s very unlikely my tackle shop would stock it.

 

[103841]

It seems you are getting sucked in by this BFS, JDM fad which has its followers, I flirted with the idea once but soon realised purple and gold anodised super light weight balanced spools, reels with microchips etc etc don’t catch you any more fish, infact on your day out at you didn’t manage to catch a single fish.

But it’s a case of whatever floats your boat as they say and there are a good few retailers in the UK specialising in this ultralight market, The Art of Fishing, The Lure Box, ULspinning to name a few.

Your video comes across as little more than a advertorial to buy from China, it maybe better placed on the lure forum where you may get those “hits” you need.

 

[John Keane]

I agree with S63, buy British, at the end of the day we all benefit in the long run, taxes paid here, jobs etc.
However, I did buy a Chinese rod of E-Bay once. I had a £10 voucher to spend and I wanted a fly rod. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on one as it was for an experiment in fly fishing for coarse fish which I may have not taken up, I did not want to spend more money for something that might have ended up with all the other stuff I have bought and never get used.. It was £16 with shipping; don’t know how they do that. It was 4 pieces which suited me as I wanted something I could put in a small bag. I was surprised at the quality of it when it arrived, very well made and it suited its purpose very well and for £6 paid - a doddle.
The thing was I couldn’t find anything like that for that price in my local tackle shop; they were all two pieces and more money so this was the only rod I could find that ticked the boxes for what I wanted it for plus I got to use up the voucher. Most of us just buy a rod because we like it and the price without regard to it being British, I have bought an Abu before which I think is Swedish so it’s a bit of a moot point I suppose but given the choice between two where there was not much difference I would opt for British. The other problem is it’s often the case of not knowing what is British, companies can be anything these days unless you do research.

Thing about fly rods is, how did your £12 rod cast? Also, and I am a fly fisherman, virtually all fly rods (even cheapos) now come in 4 pieces and 2 and 3 piece fly rods are a relative rarity.

 

[The occasional angler]

Hi s63, my day out fishing was part of a series I do called “1 hour fishing challenge” aimed at working dads, Catching fish in 1 hour can be tough sometimes.
As I’m sure many of the item you use actually are manufactured in China, I guess it’s a choice of how you spend your money.

I have no affiliation with any tackle companies either here or abroad so it nonsensical to suggest it’s an advert to buy from China?

 

[no-one in particular]

Define British

No thanks.

 

[no-one in particular]

Thing about fly rods is, how did your £12 rod cast? Also, and I am a fly fisherman, virtually all fly rods (even cheapos) now come in 4 pieces and 2 and 3 piece fly rods are a relative rarity.

I have only done a little fly fishing so I don't know how it would compare to a top range rod. It cast OK to me and I caught a couple of fish on it, small chub and one about 1lb and a small perch if I remember rightly in about 4 goes. I have not given up on it just my fishing is erratic and comes next summer I will probably give it another go if I am still well enough to fish that is. I did not know they come in 4 pieces, the ones I looked at were generally 3 or 4 but I wanted something that packed up real small for convenience. And at £6 with the voucher, no harm done if I did not like it. It looked very well made to me, light, good seamless ring attachments and it cast well for someone with my abilities and knowledge of fly fishing, maybe I had a little too heavy line on it though, might buy a lighter one sometime. The reel I had was second hand with line already attached and I am not sure what weight it was.
I guess anyone seriously thinking of fly fishing as a full time pursuit would go for something better and more precise and dearer. But as a try out version I could find no fault.

 

[no-one in particular]

Couple of pics of Chinese rod.

 

[The occasional angler]

Certainly looks good, would have to really cast it to see the quality of the blank. That said a lot of these Chinese rods have excellent toray carbon blanks... but would it compare to a £500 sage or g.loomis? Probably not , but pound for pound I would not be surprised if the Chinese one is a much better value for money

 

[no-one in particular]

Certainly looks good, would have to really cast it to see the quality of the blank. That said a lot of these Chinese rods have excellent toray carbon blanks... but would it compare to a £500 sage or g.loomis? Probably not , but pound for pound I would not be surprised if the Chinese one is a much better value for money

As I said I wouldn't know Ocassional how it would compare to a top rod, I would hope nowhere near as good but for £16, I thought it was very good value and I could cast with it well enough for me.

 

[sam vimes]

A lot of tackle is made in China.... then branded. If you want a good comparison look at fishband gh100 and the shimano Aldebaran! £38 and £300+

You are absolutely right, there is an awful lot of stuff made in China and rebranded. However, you might have picked a duff example there. Shimano have their own factories through Asia. However, as yet, I've only seen reels marked up as being made in Japan and Malaysia. In this particular example it's more likely that the Fishband is a Chinese copy rather than it coming from the same factory. Look closely at pictures of the reels and you can see a few differences beyond the merely cosmetic. That's all before any possible internal differences that you can't see. It's not the same reel re-branded. I'm not trying to suggest that the Shimano is really "worth" all of its £300+ price tag, but I very much doubt it's a £38 reel with an inflated price tag based purely on the brand name on the side.

 

[Richox12]

A lot of tackle is made in China.... then branded. If you want a good comparison look at fishband gh100 and the shimano Aldebaran! £38 and £300+

They look nothing like each other. So obviously not the same at all. Can't say whether one is worth almost 8 times the other though

 

[John Keane]

I’ve had Sage and Orvis at silly prices and I’ve had Greys that knock them into a cocked hat. If you could buy a Sage in the States (at pre-Brexit exchange rates) then you’d have a bargain. At £600+ there are plenty of British & Jap rods that are as good or better.