OVER 2000 HOURS OF TROLLING WITH THE SAME SHARKS

Juha Merila is one of the most avid fisherman I know; Juha loves to fish; I mean he really loves to fish!. Juha travels all over the world to engage in his great passion in life: downrigger sports fishing. I got the contact from my great pal Don Stanton at Walker Downriggers; Juha was testing the Walker riggers in Finland at the time. Don referred to "the Professor" as one of the top fishermen in Scandinavia; lucky for us, Juha agreed to test our Sharks. Juha does not like his academic credentials to get in the way of his reputation as a competition fisherman.

It was a cold winter day when we sent the wooden crate to Finland; it was the beginning of the incredible journey announcing the arrival of Sharks in the land of the Vikings. Juha was the first Shark Pro Staffer in Scandinavia, many years later thousands of Vikings love their Sharks, and use them just like Juha whenever they go fishing. It was stories like this that kept us going through the tough times.

Hi Ed
I am still running the four sharks - and sharks only - you provided me years back in time. It is unbelievable that I still have them. I have not used any other balls since then, and given that I have put some 2000 hours of trolling with them, one might think my wires are made of kryptonite. But they are not. I guess I am lucky and careful, and I bet the Sharks are partly to thank - trailing is minimized. My sharks are not as shiny as they were (bouncing loose in the fish well during transportations), but they are still good to go. Perhaps they start to be the oldest Sharks in (ab)use in the world? Whatever, I will always remain thankful and loyal to you guys. It was truly amazing to receive the heavy parcel from Canada for free. I still have the box on the top my study shelf reminding me about the ocassion

Few images of my fishing: First one is from Russia: Lake Onega. Great big lake packed with landlocked atlantic salmon. We fished last August 6 days: we had some 230 strikes. Mostly small fish (minimum size 60 cm) but a whole lot of takers too. I am going again this August. My friend Mike from Germany made a DVD out this trip - there is an English version available. I will get you one. The other guy in the picture Jan Svenstrup, my friend from Denmark (he works in a fishing shops specialized on trolling gear). I am playing a fish and Jan is about the cut the other. Look at color of those salmons - they are so black!

This picture is from this spring: I was fishing Rügen in Germany with my firedn Mike Luner in his boat. What you see there is our days catch: average size +10 kg. Mike has desgned some rods and lures to Zebco Sports Europe - a real pro

Finally, a closer snap of in winter of 2009 in Simris. It was bloody cold and miserable, but we killed some salmon. In matter fact, we ate one in the boat fresh from water: sliced and spiced up with soya, ginger and wasabi

It would be great to try the extreme sharks. The Norwegian connection would surely work out somehow because people move with boats in between Norway and Sweden. But no worries- I hope to have my sharks to last for at least another 7 years.
More soon - tell my best regards to your family!

Cheers
Juha

.........................................................................
Juha Merilä
Ecological Genetics Research Unit
Department of Biosciences
PO Box 65 (Biocenter 3, Viikinkaari 1)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
E-mail: juha.merila@helsinki.fi
http://www.helsinki.fi/biosci/egru/
Gsm: +358-40-8374165
Fax: +358-9-19157694