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.

Mustang Survival announced the "Rescue Stick™", an innovative throwable Personal Floation Device (PFD). Designed to be compact (14”) and lightweight (just over 1lb) it can be easily stowed. When the unexpected happens, the unique design allows it to be thrown with considerable accuracy and quite a distance.

The Rescue Stick™:

• Can be thrown up to 100 feet – twice the distance of a ring buoy or rope bag
• Provides 35 lb. of flotation in seconds – triple that of a ring buoy
• Automatically inflates in seconds upon contact with the water
• Extremely easy to use – anyone who can throw a stick can use it
• Simple to repack and reuse – insert a new bobbin and screw in the replacement handle containing the CO2 cylinder

With an MSRP of $159.99, the Rescue Stick™is definitely wirth a look. You can also visit the Rescue Stick™ website to see some video and more specs.

The October, 2006 issue of Pacific Coast Fishing had a couple of interesting articles:

"Tracking Pelagics: Understanding Pacific Currents & Migration Paths" by Todd Mansur discussed some of techniques that can be used to help locate offshore fish. Some great points:

courtesy NOAA The author recommends the services offered by Ocean Imaging. Ocean Imaging offers a complete suite of temperature and chlorophyll maps, weather and current services, all tied together by the company's software. Their software makes overlays and comparison of data much easier. It is a bit pricey, however - a year's worth of service will set you back around $1,400.

When offshore, look for salps. These invertebrates look a bit like jellyfish, but are not. They signal an upwelling from deep water, always a good place to look

Petrels (left) feed on the plankton pushed up  from deep water, and are also good indicators of an upwelling area. Terns (right) indicate feeding fish, and should always be checked out.

The article mentioned something we had heard about before, and seems to be true, generally speaking: When you see terms working an area, the height the birds fly above the water is roughly equal to the depth the fish are beneath the surface. Keep in mind that this is not always true, but is a good general rule.

"Betting on Blacks and Blues" by Bob Hoose.
The article covers some of the latest trends in fishing for black and blue marlin of Cabo San Lucas. There were a number of points made, some points worth thinking about:

• More people are moving to stiff single-hook rigs, rather than double-hook rigs. Favorite hook models are the traditional Mustad 7691, and the newer Owner Jobu hook 
  
  
• About 50% of the boats fishing the famous Bisbee's Black and Blue tournament are using hi-visibility mono lines
  
  
• When there are a lot of boats in the area, the more successful crew drop down in leader size - going to 400lb test vs. 500lb.

The September, 2006 issue of Powerboat Reports had a review of inexpensive handheld VHF radios (under $200). The Editor's choice was the Uniden MHS350, "Best Buy" was the Standard Horizon HX270S, which could be found for under $100 on the Internet.

We've been in the market for a new backup handheld. A replacement battery for our old Apelco 510 (now close to 12 years old, battery is over 3 years old) looked like it would cost us around $80, so the Standard Horizon radio looked like a good deal. While it's Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery costs $65 to replace, NiMH batteries have a much better life than the NiCads the Apelco used, and can be recharged at any time without incurring a charge memory. The radio also comes with a battery tray for AA alkaline battiers.

The complete report can be purchased from Powerboat Reports' website: http://www.powerboat-reports.com

There was an incredible story recently of some Mexican panga fishermen lost at sea for 9 months.

It's an amazing story of survival, but one thing hat struck us was that had they done just a few simple things, their entire ordeal probably could have been avoided.

For example, they reported that they had seen ships several times, but could not get their attention. A signal mirror or extra flares would have easily taken care of the situation.

A VHF radio would have helped, of course, but in that part of the world radios are too expensive for the average fisherman. And of course, one radio is useless - you need two to be useful, so until 2 or 3 of the fishermen in their community have radios, a VHF would be of little use.

See our previous articles on Offshore Safety.

It's with great sadness that we learned that Captain Ray Chandler, the subject of our first guide boat profile, passed away on August 18, 2006, after a long fight with cancer.

At the time we interviewed Captain Ray, he was finishing a second round of chemotherapy, and was optimistically looking forward to getting back on the water.

We send our deepest condolences to his wife Carlene, and the other members of his family. Ray will be deeply missed by all who knew him