I've now visited a majority of the tackle shops in Hong Kong and have found most comfortable with Seven Islands Pro-Shop. This was my second outing to check out the shop and I finally was able
to enter this time. The first time I had missed their opening hours by
exactly 30 minutes. My enjoyment & affinity with their products is perhaps the reason for it. Patriot Designs (PD), & FISHERMAN headline their tidy rod rack.
This shop has a decent catering of BIG game pelagic gear and dedicated jigging & popping tackle. I haven't seen big stickbaits, poppers, and the like within range of what this shop has in all of Kowloon or the Island side, or even outside of Japan. Nature Boy's jigs, Carpenter Gamma, and abalone Patriot Design's is a lovely sight. It truly felt great to see a stocked inshore seabass arsenal as well. My quest of catching the TAIRIKU seabass in Hong Kong waters remains and finding the shop is one stop closer for me to succeed graciously in my goal.
Whats new to me is the shop's own Hong Kong based fishing brand. Seeing the brand Sea Venturex (SVX) made me acknowledge that these guys know their stuff. From what I saw, there was a 8'1" tuna popping rod (which reminded me of Daiko), several models of long (amberjack style) and short jigs (tuna & CBONE style), a 2-piece land based casting rod range, and a telescopic bait rod (like a Kurodai rod) which seemed popular for the local game.
A quite surprising event happened. While looking at the many photos shown around the shop I noticed what looked to be a popular lady angler from Japan. Indeed it was not a personal acquaintance's spouse but nonetheless a pro-angler with television and print popularity in Japan (for over 20 years), Kojima Reiko.
FTW, I'm happy to have found such a dedicated tackle shop with true Japanese inventory accessible to me. I picked up the October 2014 issue of SALT WORLD, that I left in Japan (showcasing my first season for Fall Sagami Bay yellowfin tuna), and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
If you ever make it to Hong Kong and need a suggestion for a tackle shop, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Seven Islands ISO & All Game Lure Pro-Shop.
Voila!
