Recently Jay, Dad, and I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet with the men who are directly responsible for designing, producing, and marketing Daiwa fishing reels. We met at the boat a couple of weekends ago and spent a very productive morning talking about rod & reel design with Miki Kobayashi - Fishing Reel Research & Development Manager, Toru Takahashi - Manager of Overseas Marketing & Customer Specific Products, Kenny Kaneko - Executive Officer of Marketing & Sales Worldwide, and Rob Birchler - President of RJ Birchler & Associates. 
We had the opportunity to show them how we use Daiwa products on the Great Lakes and to tell them what we'd like to see improved and what we already like with the existing lineup.  But perhaps most importantly, we had the chance to ask them to produce a few new products that we've wanted for quite some time.  I can't go into too many details about what we're hoping they'll produce, but think "big copper"! 
I'd like to thank Miki, Toru, and Kenny for making time in their trip from Japan to meet with us, and Rob Birchler for setting the meeting up.  We're looking forward to working with the Daiwa design team in the coming months as we discuss the possibilities of some new and improved Great Lakes rods and reels, and of course we'll keep you posted about the progress of those discussions right here.







Pictured L-R are Toru Takahashi, Miki Kobayashi, Jay Harmon, Bill Ruth, Jim Ruth, and Kenny Kaneko.

That's about it for now!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill