Tackle Tactics Surfcasting Message Board
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    NZACA Sponsorship Archived Message

    Posted by Mark Roberts on 27/8/2012, 9:40 am

    I'm pleased to see Yoey is the new sponsorship person for the NZACA. He's got the personality for the job and has already established a track record in this area with the Pania SC.

    A problem we have as surfcasters is that most of the people in the business of importing and wholesaling tackle in NZ are boaties. Most of the retail outlets are owned by boaties—they employ the odd token surfcaster. All of the editors and staff writers of the magazines are boaties. The television fishing shows are all about boaties. And a significant proportion of these people live in Auckland.

    If you leaf through a fishing magazine, you'll probably find that less than 1% of the advertising is aimed specifically at surfcasters. Yet I'm sure we account for a much larger percentage of the total spend on fishing tackle and related products.

    If I look at some of the crap that's imported from Asia for the novice surfcaster, I also get the impression that many people in the tackle industry don't know anything about beach fishing and don't particularly want to know. Perhaps they ignore us to their own detriment.

    When I was at a magazine conference a couple of years ago, a well-known Auckland boatie asked me what breaking strain line I used. About 8kg, I said. He told me that he'd use much lighter line than that and get ten times the bites I got. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish the argument. I assume he thought he could somehow strayline a pillie off a beach with very light line as he does from his boat on the Hauraki. I mention this little episode to illustrate the point that boaties are often woefully ignorant about surfcasting. But think they know as much if not more than those who actually do it.

    Against this background, the NZACA has a hard road to hoe. I hesitate to give advice in the area of sponsorship because I don't have much of a track record to boast about, but I'll offer this one little gem: don't go cap in hand for sponsorship to anyone who looks like he does his fishing from a gin palace on the Hauraki.



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