Useless fishing related items you have bought

[disorderly]

I had a mantra of never NEVER EVER buying Chinese made fishing accessories, line, reels, tackle...... and that still holds true.

LP

Just on that Chinese topic I see that Alvey have expanded into more mainstream Fishing Reels and are now selling their own brand of Overheads, spin and baitcast reels which they are having made in China....

https://alvey.com.au/shop/alvey-offshore-os300-2022/

Has anyone had any experience with them..?.

Scott

[Lucky_Phill]

Just on that Chinese topic I see that Alvey have expanded into more mainstream Fishing Reels and are now selling their own brand of Overheads, spin and baitcast reels which they are having made in China....

https://alvey.com.au/shop/alvey-offshore-os300-2022/

Has anyone had any experience with them..?.







Scott

Not yet. There needs to be a quality control system in place from go to whoa on these reels.

The Chinese do good engineering, but the integrity of their materials let them down.

If the factory has a Alvey rep there on quality control ( full time ) this may work. But again, materials used needs to be of an Australian standard that will allow for warranty certificates to be issued and honored.

Quick story. Building rods. I used Fuji guides and would sandpaper down the edges of the feet on the guides to make a smooth transition for the thread.. Some time later I noticed cracking in the resin. Turned out the feet rusted. WTF ? Fugi guides I used were 316 stainless steel.

Long term investigation found Fuji graded their own steel and Australian 316 standard was never reached and in fact the Fuji S/S was well below 300 grade, way lower. This is the problem with overseas materials, branding, naming and construction.

I am a long term Alvey fan and know the family well. It must have taken an awful lot of convincing for Bruce to allow one of their products to be manufactured O/S. Particularly China. Pretty sure they tried this with the Zebco reel many years ago.

Fingers crossed this new reel range from Alvey works...................................

LP

[NAGG]

5/0 and 6/0 Circle hooks off eBay that were thinner than the braid I was using

BBK s ?????

[NAGG]

Not yet. There needs to be a quality control system in place from go to whoa on these reels.

The Chinese do good engineering, but the integrity of their materials let them down.

If the factory has a Alvey rep there on quality control ( full time ) this may work. But again, materials used needs to be of an Australian standard that will allow for warranty certificates to be issued and honored.

Quick story. Building rods. I used Fuji guides and would sandpaper down the edges of the feet on the guides to make a smooth transition for the thread.. Some time later I noticed cracking in the resin. Turned out the feet rusted. WTF ? Fugi guides I used were 316 stainless steel.

Long term investigation found Fuji graded their own steel and Australian 316 standard was never reached and in fact the Fuji S/S was well below 300 grade, way lower. This is the problem with overseas materials, branding, naming and construction.

I am a long term Alvey fan and know the family well. It must have taken an awful lot of convincing for Bruce to allow one of their products to be manufactured O/S. Particularly China. Pretty sure they tried this with the Zebco reel many years ago.

Fingers crossed this new reel range from Alvey works...................................

LP

Isn't Alvey owned by someone else these days ?

[stevej]

All depends on how you manage it
daiwai make reels in Japan Taiwan and China the luvias were Japanese now made in China

[disorderly]

Not yet. There needs to be a quality control system in place from go to whoa on these reels.

The Chinese do good engineering, but the integrity of their materials let them down.

If the factory has a Alvey rep there on quality control ( full time ) this may work. But again, materials used needs to be of an Australian standard that will allow for warranty certificates to be issued and honored.

Quick story. Building rods. I used Fuji guides and would sandpaper down the edges of the feet on the guides to make a smooth transition for the thread.. Some time later I noticed cracking in the resin. Turned out the feet rusted. WTF ? Fugi guides I used were 316 stainless steel.

Long term investigation found Fuji graded their own steel and Australian 316 standard was never reached and in fact the Fuji S/S was well below 300 grade, way lower. This is the problem with overseas materials, branding, naming and construction.

I am a long term Alvey fan and know the family well. It must have taken an awful lot of convincing for Bruce to allow one of their products to be manufactured O/S. Particularly China. Pretty sure they tried this with the Zebco reel many years ago.

Fingers crossed this new reel range from Alvey works...................................

LP

Phil on top of all that, even with all those factors in place to produce a quality reel, I reckon Alvey will still have to overcome the "stigma" of Chinese made...particularly if they are selling mid to high end reels...I hope they can overcome those obstacles on top of QC and end up with some good products...

Isn't Alvey owned by someone else these days ?

I got some correspondence from Bruce Alvey recently and as far as I know the Alvey family still controls the company but went through a "restructure" 4 or 5 years back...whatever that means.

All depends on how you manage it
daiwai make reels in Japan Taiwan and China the luvias were Japanese now made in China

I think its just the lower end Diawa gear thats currently made in China though isnt ..?....

[Dirtyfuzz]

BBK s ?????

The Fake mutsu type I think, you could snap them with your fingers

[NAGG]

OK ..... the crown jewels arrived today - aka HPA Ulkut ceramic braid scissors

These are quite different to the Ecoda ceramic braid scissors that I've tried before - They cut so well

Now to rig the chain & set up the GPS tracking on them

Time will tell if it was money well spent

Chris

[Ducksnutz]

OK ..... the crown jewels arrived today - aka HPA Ulkut ceramic braid scissors

These are quite different to the Ecoda ceramic braid scissors that I've tried before - They cut so well

Now to rig the chain & set up the GPS tracking on them

Time will tell if it was money well spent

Chris

Now you need a second set Chris…it’s the OCD in me that requires a second set of everything that I don’t want to be without……

[NAGG]

Chris

[NAGG]

New drone arrived today - DJI Mini 2 ..... not necessarily fishing but fishing photography - will this be a lemon ?

Chris

[Dignity]

New drone arrived today - DJI Mini 2 ..... not necessarily fishing but fishing photography - will this be a lemon ?

Chris

Nearly bought one but it didn't have Follow Me capabilities and knowing that I would drift off I would probably drown it. Let us know how it goes.

[NAGG]

Nearly bought one but it didn't have Follow Me capabilities and knowing that I would drift off I would probably drown it. Let us know how it goes.

It does have limited capability to lock on a target - but yeh you need to spend double plus if you want that capability.

I already have a big drone (3DR Solo) - but it hardly gets used now - it's big , bulky , needs 240 volt to charge & you have to fit a go pro to it ....... Not ideal when you go away & boat base camp - the carry case would just pass to get onto a plane it's that big.

These things are so small & yet pretty capable - 30 mins flying time , 4K video ..... USB charging & fold away to nothing in a few seconds - Awesome , just the kind of thing to have up at the Whitsundays at Christmas.

I had a heap of Telstra plus points which pretty well paid for the drone ..... So in the end I just bought the extra battery , tablet holder , filters & a carry case ..... so I got out of it pretty cheaply.

I'll certainly let you know how I go with it ...... but there is a tonne of cool stuff on you tube which pretty well highlights just how good the Mini 2 is - particularly for a sub $1K drone (fly more kit) & weighing in at less than 250 grams

Chris

[Dignity]

Telstra points must be better than QANTAS points, the most useless of them all. I've looked up consumables on their website and either you need the full number of points or if not then you can only use 2000 points and the balance in $'s, but the balance is usually greater than full retail price. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

But staying on topic, cheap imitation Go Pro cameras, bought the odd one and they just languish about as generally not the easiest to use and quality relatively poor. Just looking at my desk here at home and I can see one lying there, I think I'll toss it nut better heck for SD cards first.

Another useless item but not fishing related, I think it's Bing, I keep getting this bloody pop up in the bottom RH cnr that gives me suggestions on things I might want to look at, thought I'd gotten rid of it once but it has reappeared.

[NAGG]

Telstra points must be better than QANTAS points, the most useless of them all. I've looked up consumables on their website and either you need the full number of points or if not then you can only use 2000 points and the balance in $'s, but the balance is usually greater than full retail price. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

But staying on topic, cheap imitation Go Pro cameras, bought the odd one and they just languish about as generally not the easiest to use and quality relatively poor. Just looking at my desk here at home and I can see one lying there, I think I'll toss it nut better heck for SD cards first.

Another useless item but not fishing related, I think it's Bing, I keep getting this bloody pop up in the bottom RH cnr that gives me suggestions on things I might want to look at, thought I'd gotten rid of it once but it has reappeared.

I didn't really know much about Telstra plus "rewards" till it was pointed out 18 months ago when I went with 5G wireless ...... I'd accumulated a shipload of points over the previous years & just kept building on them ........ been eyeing off what to use them on - nothing outside of the drones but they never seemed to be in stock . Anyhow they showed up the other day - bingo

I've stuck with go pro cameras ....... even though I know that 4 or 5 years down the track you'd need to buy another - think Im on my 5th ( 4 still work) ..... 2 , 3, 4 , 6 & 9 . I think the quality of the video these days is pretty exceptional & from all the comparison testing against other brands - the go pro is still the benchmark.

Chris