Rapalero Rods

As promised here's a post of the much awaited Rapalero rods. You saw the red sticks on some of the Rapalero trip photos as used by FG and gang. Now is a chance to own them. Was informed they will reach retail stores as early as this month! I checked out the 6-12lb and 8-14lb rods. Quite strong and beefy. Not your usual noodle stick but definitely one that will yank those Toman from heading towards the snags.

Ratings:
6-12lb
8-14lb
10-17lb
12-20lb

Casting sticks are 6ft and Spin sticks are 6"6ft respectively

Red sticks - Rapalero

Fuji reel seats

Carbon Fibre - sexy

Nice butt

Report: Rapala Asia Pacific 2010 Seminar

The inaugural Rapala VMC Asia Pacific seminar held at Cititel Hotel, Mid-Valley Kuala Lumpur over the weekend drew both avid anglers & retailers to a showcase of its tackle portfolio. Noticeably eye-catching was the new inclusion of Okuma into one of the power brands under its belt, which displayed 3 of its latest reels and range of jigging and casting rods.

The event also saw overseas speakers from Rapala (Aku Valta), Storm (Hiroshi Takashi), Sufix (Miriam Lee), John Bretza (Okuma) & VMC (represented by Mr Loke Swee Leong). Each of the speakers gave insightful information about their respective companies & the product offering/manufacturing processes & features, with the exception of Mr Hiroshi Takashi who elaborated more on the finer tips of lure fishing.

For those who do not know Hiroshi-san, he is a very accomplished lure angler & designer in Japan. Prior to joining Storm Lures, Hiroshi-san was working with a very-well known Japanese lure company as their lure designer. With him in the product development & design for Storm, asian anglers can be assured of more exciting & innovative lure offerings in the future.

10 lucky seminar participants also walked away with a giant Rapala lure replica each for their winning numbers from the lucky draw.

For those who missed the seminar, here's some snaps from the event:

The Rapala booth featuring the range of lures, apparel & the much awaited Rapalero rods

Storm Lures

Williamson metal jigs & skirts

New Okuma sticks - jigging & casting

Plano tackle

Portable tackle storage solutions

VMC booth

Fred & the Rapala VMC Asia Pacific boys (L to R) Chin, Wong & Tan

Latest Okuma reels to hit the market

Big game reels - Makaira

Single, high speed star & lever drag Cedros - sexy!

The Spin Machines - Cedros Spin (Jig) & cutting-edge Trio

These are rugged, strong jig reels

Rapalero rods

Hiroshi-san checking out the sticks - powerful

Seminar participants

Fred Goh opening the event

Hiroshi-san giving the finer points of lure-fishing

Ming J. Liu (Mingmon) was hailed as the winner of the Rapala lure design contest. The prize - a fishing trip to Australia! Well done Ming! Also, his designs have become reality as they will appear on X-Rap 8cm hitting the retail stores very soon. Check out his creations at his Facebook page.

One of the 10 lucky draw winner receiving his giant Rapala lure from Mr Loke Swee Leong - Managing Director of Rapala VMC Asia Pacific

Lucky Draw Winners from Session 1

Hiroshi-san giving a demo cum talk outside the foyer

Retailers checking out the reels

Retailers session on Sun

Tan S.G. who is no stranger to the Malaysian fishing fraternity, was also one of the lucky draw winners. Congrats!

Next posting:

Closeup of the Okuma reels & Rapalero rods

Rapala Seminar - 3 More Days to Go

3 more days to go....

Date: Saturday 1st May 2010

Venue: Cititel Hotel, Mid-Valley (Bintang Ballroom) Kuala Lumpur

Time: 9am - 6pm

Admission is free

Dont forget to bring along any old non-Rapala brand lure to exchange for a Storm lure

Long and Slim

I like long profile, minnow-style lures with short bibs. They have a unique darting & rolling action when twitched on a high-speed retrieve. Short bibs keep the lure shallow running near the surface so its perfect for low-level water fishing.

Rapala MaxRap is such a lure. And since its proven effectiveness in the previous trip, I brought out a similar long, slim minnow in the form of Storm's Slim Thunderstick for a weekend morning 'outing'.

First cast of the day and the Storm Slim Thunderstick got its first quarry, a nice Peacock Bass with a bump on its head. Don't blame me. I was 100% sure I didn't whack it in the head with the lure to result in a swollen head.

FG was swoffing his magic fly wand when suddenly... lo and behold - a striped cichlid which gave an excellent account of itself on 3-weight outfit.

MaxRap did it's magic again... in the form of 2 teenage Temensis which gave good aerial displays and furious initial runs

An over-enthusiastic Toman baby trying to 'smoke' an X-Rap. Sorry dude, its not for smoking...

Fly swoffer YH also yielded his magic in producing several nice sized Temensis too!

A Weekend with MaxRap, Flat Rap & X-Rap

We hit our first spot early 7am.

The bites came lightning fast and strikes aggressive. One particular snag produced 5 fish and countless hookups that did not convert. It was almost pandemonium!

We had brought MaxRaps, Flat-Raps & X-Raps (new Redhead colour) to try out. Although the fishes were not huge, they made up for the quantity in action and visual displays of acrobatic jumps and blazing runs on light tackle.

Double hookup on MaxRap. This was one lure with a really sexy darting/rolling action that made the fishes go crazy!

Poor dude had a Flat Rap hooked onto its gills.

A haruan (snakehead) couldn't resist the X-Rap snack

Check out the beautiful blueish tinge on the tail and fins

MaxRap does it again

While the 'Ultraman' worked his wonders too

Oh yes, and we did hit a few prized trophies too

The natural colour MaxRap AYU worked very well

And at spot 2, we encountered a hungry pack of juveniles who willingly ambushed X-Raps..

... & Flat Raps