Sharkman Blog

Darryl Choronzey: Honorary Shark Pro Staff In recognition of the support Darryl Cronzy has provided to our project over the past nine years, we are appointing Darryl as an honorary member of the Shark Cannonballs International Pro Staff Team. As a small family business operating out of Northern Ontario, we could not afford mainstream advertising. Right from the beginning, Darryl liked the Shark and took it upon himself to help our project. He featured the Shark on his TV show “Going Fishing” countless times over the years. The exposure on the show and the support from Canada's top fishing personality has enabled us to survive in a very competitive fishing equipment market among international corporate giants. Darryl did this out of the goodness of his heart and asked nothing in return. Once in a while we were able to supply him with a few samples. We would like to mention at the same time, Darryl was the only Canadian TV personality that ever stepped up to help us out. We...

We congratulate 3 norwegian teams with salmon today. A-team caught the biggest 10,32 kg and they used Sharks weights, Fiskeglede with a salmon on 9kg+ altso Sharks weights. A team caught the biggest 10.32 kg and they used weights Sharks, Fish Joy with a salmon Wednesday 9kg + altso Sharks weights. And the last norwegian boat with a salmon on 3 kg. And the last boat with a norwegian salmon on 3 kg. The leading fish is now 18kg, but we have plans of beating that record tomorrow. The leading fish is now 18kg, but we have plans of beating that record tomorrow. Best boat are now a different swedish boat, but my guess is that Johan Abelson gonna steal back that green flag tomorrow. Best boat are now a different swedish boat, but my guess is that Johan Abelson gonna steal back that green flag tomorrow.

Summary for the week: Viking Fishermen : Looks like the Mega Sharks are going to arrive in the land of the Vikings in time for the Masters Trolling Tournament in Denmark this week: just barely. I thought we were going to have to do an emergency shipment by air. We will be cheering for our favorite Scandinavian Teams. Team Hooked : Speaking of Vikings, we are proud to announce the appointment to one of the top teams from Sweden; second place in the National Championship behind Team Extreme. Shark Spoons: Interesting development. When we published the story on our site of how we were going to use the "lost wax method" to cast our spoon because none of the stamping companies were up to the task, apparently. A couple of these companies took issue with this claim. It certainly will not be the usual high speed stamping process used by all the other spoon companies; apparently we will have to go to a 200 ton press at slow speed to get the detail right. But a couple of these stampin...

A good friend of mine read the blog and told me it seems like the pressures of business are getting to me and affecting my attitude. He may be right, but that's the way it has been behind the scenes for years. This is just the first time I have gone public with it. So, why am I doing it? The story needs to be told for a lot of reasons; for starts, it's what happened, and this is the Shark story after all, including all the lumps and bumps. It's important for anybody thinking about getting into business for themselves, so they know what to expect when they become successful; especially the fishing business. It is important to correct a lot of the misconceptions floating around out there about our product, our family, and what it took to get here. Apparently those two clowns are still spreading rumors about our company; desperate measures by desperate people. Silly boys; don't you know nothing can stop the Shark! So, to answer my friends concerns; yes I have attitude, I h...

Every fall for the past 12 years, Suzanne and I go into the bush for about a month to cut wood. We do it for a lot of reasons; we need the wood to heat the house and burn in the foundry to make Sharks. That one month of exercise is the only thing that has kept me alive over the years, next to fishing cutting wood is my most favorite thing to do in the world. The spectacular fall scenery, the escape from reality, we see it as our vacation every year, I wouldn't trade it for a month on the beach. My neighbour Ernie gave me his old Husqueverna chainsaw after he dropped a tree on it, and he also gave me his old farm truck; an 1983 Ford pick up with a straight six block. I welded up some chains (mud grips) and have hauled over 300 cords of wood from deep in the bush over the years. I hooked up a home made trailer with a five ton axle on it and would load that rig to the "nines" a ton and a half on the truck, three tons on the trailer. That's a good day's work....

We started the business in the spring of 2001 bright eyed and very naive thinking we have a winner here with the Shark and let's just go for it, simple; right? My son Carl often says: " if he knew then what he knows now, there is not chance he would have committed to this project". A world without Sharks, it just about happened. We figured the first thing we need is a good distributor; got in touch with the folks at Triple S in New York. The package of sample Sharks was sitting on the kitchen counter ready to be delivered to New York, when we got a call from the neighbor; "turn on your TV! We just caught a live glimpse of the second plane slamming into the World Trade Center. The world changed forever that day, and at times it seems like it has been going on a downward spiral ever since. The samples didn't go out to New York for about two months. We thought about packing it in, it seemed like there was no point continuing. We were wrong, fishing took on a whole...

Downrigger Companies: I used to do the rounds at fishing shows, in store events etc. Generally I was invited to attend by a local dealer. The reps from Big Jon, Scotty, Walker, and Cannon were there most of the time. I tried to get along with everybody; most of you can remember seeing Sharks hanging off all the riggers at the shows. The Shark had a way of making all their products look better; it was definitely a show stopper. In an attempt to ingratiate ourselves with the "big" tackle companies, we made it a point to return the favor for them displaying our product at their booths; we would often give away a few Sharks with downriggers that were sold by the dealer that invited us. Big mistake! Found out about six months after one of these shows, one of the big 4 got their noses out of joint by this seemingly innocent gesture. This company got their butts kicked by another rigger company, and we became the scapegoat. Apparently, we “stabbed them in the back” after all ...