Abu Garcia and Berkley announce partnership with Predator Tour!
Ask the average predator angler to name a well-known predator tournament in Europe and chances are that the answer will be the ‘Predator Tour’. In order to have such an event reach an even higher level, serious partnerships are a must. It is therefore with great pride that we can announce that ‘Abu Garcia’ and ‘Berkley’ have chosen the Predator Tour as their main partner for predator tournaments in Europe. With this sponsorship, Abu Garcia will mainly focus on spinning and baitcaster reels, while Berkley enters this partnership as a sponsor for lines and braid.
Higher level
We can’t elaborate on what Berkley and Abu Garcisa have in store for the Predator Tour yet, but we can already tell you that in both cases it won’t end with merely a logo during the award ceremony. Both Abu Garcia and Berkley have indicated a common desire to take our event to an even higher level on all fronts. Something that we of course welcome with open arms.
Although neither Abu Garcia nor Berkley need any introduction at all, we did leave a short company profile of these giants within the world of fishing below.
About Abu Garcia
In 1921, by the river of Mörrum in Svängsta, Sweden, Carl August Borgström founded AB Urfabriken. The company manufactured pocket watches, telephone timers and taxi meters. Borgström was a brilliant craftsman with a talent for light precision engineering; skills he had acquired during his years in the Halda watchmaking factory. Unfortunately, World War II caused a sharp decline in the demand for taxi meters. Undaunted, ABU redirected its skills toward the development of precision fishing reels used by anglers the world over. That’s why Abu Garcia later received the honor of being chosen “Purveyor To The Royal Swedish Court,” a distinction bestowed upon a select group of manufacturers for consistently exceeding its highest standards of quality and craftsmanship. Abu Garcia’s influence on the sportfishing community is unmatched. The company remains firmly committed to maintaining its industry leadership position by providing anglers everywhere with the highest quality, most innovative products.
About Berkley
Berkley’s story is deeply rooted in the idea of ‘The American Dream’. It’s about a humble beginning and unexpected success. It’s about hard work, struggle and difficult times. But it’s also about building partnerships to achieve goals, as is the case with the Predator Tour. It all started in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in June 1937, when 16-year-old Berkley Bedell took $50.00 from his paper route earnings to start a business selling his hand-tied flies to fishing tackle shops and vacationing anglers. In his upstairs bedroom, with hair clipped from the family dog, Stubby, and feathers from the backyard chickens, young Berkley crafted flies to entice local bluegill and bass from their underwater cover. The Berkley Fly Co. was founded. Today, more than 80 years later, Berkley managed to become one of the largest companies in the fishing industry, and committed significant resources to research and development – a continuing strategy that has resulted in countless product innovations, including Berkley Trilene, PowerBait, FireLine and, more recently, the x9 braid, which is rapidly gaining in popularity due to its enormous flexibility and high pulling power.
Predator Tour in 2019 lead-free!
In May 2018 the Green Deal “Angling lead-free” was executed. This agreement among several Departments of State, the Union of Waterboards, Natuurmonumenten, a nature preservation organization, DIBEVO, the trade organisation for pet shops and the Dutch Angling Association “Sportvisserij Nederland” aim to gradually reduce and later ban the use of lead for angling purposes. During the next three years it is intended to reduce use of lead by 30% and after that period we will ban the use of lead completely, in the seven following years.
Lead is mostly used by anglers who need to cast their baits in order to keep it at a certain, stable place under water. At times lead is lost and waisted in waters. Lead is an environmentally undesired material, and in some circumstances poisonous for people and animals. That’s why for certain other purposes the use of lead is already prohibited, like in gasoline, paint, water pipes and hunting. In angling the use of lead sofar has not been prohibited.
A better environment starts with yourself
The Dutch Angling Association promotes a clean water environment for quite some time. In that effort it is fair to say that lead does not belong in our waters. Sportvisserij Nederland and the associated regional angling associations have decided as a next step to find alternatives and to commence reduction of the use of lead. A widly known: a better environment starts with yourself! “Sportvisserij Zuidwest Nederland” (an angling federation in the South West of the Netherlands (South Holland, Zealand, and North Brabant with 220 angling associations and 160.000 anglers) decided to stimulate angling competitions on a lead-free basis. Earlier, last October 2018, the World Crank Cup (an international predatory fish angling competition with cranks only), which is held in the waters around National Park “De Biesbosch”, was already organised on a lead-free basis.
Social responsibility
Good examples will be followed. That is why we agreed with Evert Oostdam, director of Pike Master Lures B.V., as another good example with exposure, that the Predator Tour 2019-edition will be organised lead free as well. The Predator Tour is the biggest competition of Western Europe of its kind and the event lasts for three days. This Predator Tour, aiming for fish like Zander, Pike and Perch – with more than 120 boats in competition – is held every year. Sportvisserij Zuidwest Nederland is proud that people like Evert Oostdam (a pioneer and ambassador in Dutch angling) is committed to this social responsibility. We hope that also other tournaments and competitions will follow this example, either in predatory angling, angling at sea, along canals, lakes and ponds.
Change of culture at all levels
Our goal is to achieve another mindset among anglers, not only at the highly esteemed competitions (like the Predator Tour) but also at other levels. That is why it is of importance that the ambassadors of angling advocate lead-free angling. Of course Sportvisserij Zuidwest Nederland,our sister federations, Sportvisserij Nederland and partners of the Green Deal will work together with producers, distributors, and other companies to produce, distribute and sell lead-free angling materials to achieve this change of culture. It is our intention to achieve this in a friendly manner; e.g. by informing, stimulating and reaching agreements instead of enforcement. It takes time to change culture but we are convinced that it will be gradually embraced. Evert Oostdam already contributes his stake by organising a lead-free Predator Tour. This serves as a great example for other competitions and tournaments.
Björn Schutz
Director of Sportvisserij Zuidwest Nederland
Johnson Outdoors Supports European Fishing Tournament
Premium Partner of Elite Predator Tour Events in The Netherlands & Sweden
Johnson Outdoors is pleased to announce support for the Predator Tour fishing tournaments held annually in the Netherlands and Sweden.
As a Premium Partner, key fishing brands Humminbird, Minn Kota & Talon will sponsor events and the exclusive Phone App used by every competitor to log fish caught in real time.
The Phone app is also a free download (iPhone and Android) for anyone who wishes to follow the events on the live leader board.
The 2019 European Predator Tour will take place May 30 – 1st June at Biesbosch Park, The Netherlands, where 110 teams from across Europe will compete for the title.
The 2019 Swedish edition of the Tour will take place April 25 – 27th at lake Vanern, Amal, Sweden, again with teams from across Scandinavia and Europe taking part.
“Sponsorship of these events is in close partnership with our Dutch & Swedish distributors. The tournaments bring together the best fishing teams from right across Europe, many of whom use our equipment day in day out on their boats. It’s great to give something back, and we look forward to supporting this event for 2019 and beyond” says Rob Crowe of Johnson Outdoors.
The agreement was reached during the annual METSTRADE show in Amsterdam.
Picture (attached)
METSTRADE November 2018
(Left to right)
Pelle Hjertman, Jan Comstedt Ab – Johnson Outdoors distributor, Sweden.
Rob Crowe, Johnson Outdoors Europe
Evert Oostdam, Predator Tour Tournaments.
Cees Kopper, Technautic bv – Johnson Outdoors distributor, The Netherlands.
Tournament details:
Phone App:
Welcome to the new Predatortour website!
On our website we will give you the latest news and updates about our fishing competition. New on our website is a direct link with our leaderboard. The leaderboard is in direct contact with our Web App. So you can follow the event live on the Web App or on our website! You don’t have our Web App yet? You can download the Predatortour Web app (Apple or Android) for free!