I hate to admit it, but I don't care much for consumer trade shows. There's never enough time to see everything, and to be honest, sometimes the personnel manning the booths don't know the products that well.

But in our home area of Southern California, the Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Shows (one in Long Beach, and one in Del Mar) traditionally mark the start of the new "fishing season", so I feel obligated to walk the aisles and take a look. I usually collect catalogs, look for interesting products, chat with people I know, and follow up later on the interesting stuff.

So...here are some items that caught my eye as having some particular appeal to Ocean Skiff Journal readers, that may not have caught the eye of the regular Press:

Boating Products

Keep an eye on Honda's line of mid-range outboards. Their revamped 90 HP (actually released late last year) looks to be a real winner. It is light (only 35lb heavier than the Evinrude E-TEC 90), and has all of the trademark Honda features that have garnered the Japanese giant a loyal following. Conversations with the Honda factory personnel revealed that their 115 HP outboard is due for a similar facelift this summer. That could be the hot ticket for a Toy Boat 2 repower story.

Torqeedo electric motors - Advanced electronics, state-of-the-art propeller technology and improved battery technologies have made it possible for Torqeedo to design 24- and 48-volt electric motors that are rated in horsepower, rather than pounds of thrust (yeah, yeah, I know HP and pounds of thrust do not represent the same thing, but that's how the products are marketed). Torqeedo electric motors generate 2 - 8 HORSEPOWER on 24-48 volt systems. Yowza!

Evinrude's E-TEC 15 HO is an interesting purpose-built engine. At first blush, it's a mistake - a 15 HP engine that weighs 180 lbs?? But as you might expect, there's a reason for it. The E-TEC 15HP HO looks like it was built to be the ultimate slow/back trolling engine. Precise RPM and speed control, heavy duty brackets (for when the engine is used as an auxilliary motor on large high-speed boats), a special prop that enhances backtrolling performance, and a tiller handle that can adjust horizontally +/- 20 degrees (to make it easier to use when mounted off-center on a bracket).

Fishing Products

Shimano has revamped it's popular Baitrunner spinning reels. The models have been renumbered to match the other Shimano spinning reels (i.e. 4000, 6000, 8000, 12000), and now feature a number of upgraded components to make the reels much more effective tools for handling heavier Spectra line (Editor's note: don't forget that Shimano recently purchased PowerPro, maker of one of the more popular Spectra fishing line brands). Beefed up gears, cold-forged instead of stamped aluminum spools with improved lip and skirt designs, enhanced bail/bail roller, improved spool oscillation, smoother baitrunner feature with lighter drag settings, and machined rather than cast handles.

Why do we care? Now that spinning outfits have the line capacity and drag capability to handle 20 - 50lb line, coffee grinders have become viable solutions for offshore fishermen. In fact, it seems like a properly configured spinning outfit like this could be very close to that one "all around" outfit that could do almost everyting you need to do offshore, from fly-ling small baits to deep-jigging to throwing heavy jigs and poppers.

And lest we forget, other companies offer similar products: the Okuma Bait Feeders, Diawa Bite'N Runs, and Penn Slammers have similar features. Be sure to check them out.

PowerPro has added downrigger replacement lines to their product lineup. Spectra in 150, 200 or 250lb test makes a perfect replacement for braided metal downrigger cables. Spectra does not generate electric currents when dragged through salt water, the ultra-small diameter causes minimal blowback, and PowerPro's dark color will not spook fish. Downrigger cable replacement line comes in short (300 or 450 foot) spools.