SHIMANO FISHING TACKLE: WHY CAN'T I BUY A TRIBAL TRAVEL ROD IN THE US OF A?

I've railed before about great products that SHOULD but are not available in the US of A. I've railed about guns that should be made or should be made again because they were cool guns (Walther PPK/S .22 LR, HK P7, a slim line *less than an inch* single stack Glock 9mm, the list goes on).

And occasionally, things I've railed about come to pass, although this project I write about now was not my doing. But I said I'd like having a legal handgun version of the chopped down lever action rifle called the Mare's Leg or Mare's Laig made famous by the late, great Steve McQueen in "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and I suggested that gun be made in a .22 LR version priced reasonably and lo and behold, Henry Repeating Arms will soon be out in force with this product. Any day now is the word.

As El Fishing Musicano, I am, therefore, I fish. And I've fished since even before I was making music. I began fishing steadily at the age of 7, and had been on fishing trips since I was 2 and don't remember the trips. I remember fishing at Mr. Fraizer's place in Katy and catching a first fish, and fishing the jetties and surf at Galveston at about 5 years old, and seeing a shark kill at age 5 where either a disease or a freak fast low tide trapped hundreds of sand and hammerhead baby sharks on the beach at Galveston, for miles and miles. There were police around telling folks not to touch the sharks because they thought disease responsible, but since that time other theories involved low tides because the sharks were never tested.

So as a longtime fisherman, and a longtime user of travel rods for fishing, I've discovered a Shimano product I'd like to buy. Unfortunately, the only seller is an online seller with a high price or one dealer in the UK who will ship overseas but the shipping brings the price from a quasi-reasonable amount to almost as bad as the other online seller. About $80 too high.

It's a product called the Shimano Tribal Lite S.T.C. Travel Rod. The STC stands for Shimano Tribal Concept. It sells in the far east and europe, not in America.

I know that America has to be a big market for Shimano fishing tackle. It's everywhere, and the majority of it is great stuff. I own several Shimano reels and rods in the low and medium range. So if I could buy this rod without overseas shipping, it would be just above the upper end of what I'd want to spend on what is a high end fishing rod to me.

I realize this is a cheap fishing rod compared to what some great rods sell for in the thousands, but I'm not in that market demographic.