Worst Tackle buys

[chevin4]

Years ago I replaced an Interpid Elite which was an ok reel for the times which another Intrepid reel namely the Super Twin which was awful.

The John Wilson 11ft/13ft Avon which was hopeless at 13ft so unbalanced it was ok at 11ft though.

The Map 18/20 float rod very tippy and unbalanced

 

[xenon]

The worse item I ever bought has to be also the one that had the very worst after sales service (and that word is used advisedly) . . .

It was a 15' rod by MAP that also had the option of a separate butt section that made the rod into 20 feet for Bolognese fishing. The 15' and extra butt section cost over £300 and that was at 1993 prices. . . .

The very first time I put it together and threaded line through the rings the top 6 inches of the tip section broke off in my hands, rendering the rod useless.

I had the devil's own job getting in touch with MAP who at first refused to replace the section even though I offered to pay for a new secion; then they tried telling me that they no longer imported that model and flatly refused to even talk about the problem any futher.

I mentioned this to an old friend who worked in Forster's in Birmingham who said he'd look around and see what he could do. He actually found that the tip section of a Tri Cast 15' rod fitted my MAP perfectly, and even gave it to me for free . . . .

Needless to say I have never bought another item from MAP but then used Foster's for the next few years alost exclusively.

Had a similar experience with the MAP 15 ft. Top section broke when i was giving it a hard stare. Replaced free of charge (got the impression over the phone this was a common problem) same thing happened with the replacement. Never bought another thing from them.

 

[Kevin Perkins]

Couple of bad buys here. 1st the multiplier from a John Wilson 'Sharpshooter' lure combo. This insisted on throwing out small loops of line which then disappeared behind a gaping gap beteeen the spool and backplate with the enevitable results. I took the combo down to my local tackle dealers and swapped it for a small tub of pellets and I think I got the better deal



And here we have a blatant breach of the Trade Descriptions Act' because this Daiwa reel is advertised as having a 'Twistbuster' feature. Really.....!

 

[steve2]

Beginning to look like that John Wilson 11-13 is the winner of the worst.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Beginning to look like that John Wilson 11-13 is the winner of the worst.

I remeber taking someone fishing who had one of these and they asked me what I thought; 'Rubbish!' - it was neither fish nor fowl, a poor quiver tip rod and a heavy horrible float rod.

 

[nottskev]

Worst of the worst? With the Wilson 11/13, I got what I paid for. junking the extension, I got a functional workhorse Avon and quiver, that caught lots and is still catching fish in another country after 20 odd years. Those who bought the MAP 15' didn't even get a usable rod.

 

[rich66]

Bought a rod pod once, long since sold it on. Just didn’t like using it. I’ve gone through a few cheap reels like linaffee when I first started back up.
I’ve got some knot tying gadget one of my kids bought that’s never been used.
A cheap carp rod that I’ve only used once and that was for piking, 2.5lb test curve and it’s as stiff as aboard and weighs a ton. Probably more bits if I thought about it

 

[John Keane]

I remeber taking someone fishing who had one of these and they asked me what I thought; 'Rubbish!' - it was neither fish nor fowl, a poor quiver tip rod and a heavy horrible float rod.

But at 11ft with the Avon top (the original Masterline model) on it was a good chub and barbel rod. It was what i started off with on the Ribble and used for 3 years. Had loads of barbel to 8lbs on it and it was fine.

 

[chevin4]

Another "pup" was the Fox Stratos reel. It had some good features ie it was supplied with two handles and spool reducers. It was slightly larger than a Shimano 5010 but this is where any similarity ended. In use it was clunky and the bait runner would break being made of cheap metal which was not fit for purpose. In the end I sold the pair off for a loss and brought some Shimano 6000GTE to replace them.

 

[markcw]

Not bought by me but relation for me--
A Lesney bread press !
Bought by me-- a packet of Ai lion dor hooks, both total - - - P !!!

Lesney bread pressed are now going for stupid money on ebay, Wish I had kept the ones I had.
My worse buys were a Daiwa 120m cf reel. And a drennan IM8 I think it was 13' waggler rod, about 30 years ago. Brilliant on large waters chucking good wagglers out, useless on a canal.

 

[Keith M]

Just about the worst thing I ever bought was a Craddock Combination rod that I bought from my mums catalogue back in the early 70s. It could be made up into five different rods from a short pier rod through to a light??? float rod. What a complete load of rubbish that was, even my Bob Nudd Maggapult was marginally better than that

Keith

 

[nottskev]

Just about the worst thing I ever bought was a Craddock Combination rod that I bought from my mums catalogue back in the early 70s. It could be made up into five different rods from a short pier rod through to a light??? float rod. What a complete load of rubbish that was, even my Bob Nudd Maggapult was marginally better than that

Keith

My mum must have had the same catalogue - I fancied one of those - like a cross between a fishing rod and a Swiss Army knife - but it remained a dream. Good job, too, by the sound of it.

 

[chevin4]

Lesney bread pressed are now going for stupid money on ebay, Wish I had kept the ones I had.
My worse buys were a Daiwa 120m cf reel. And a drennan IM8 I think it was 13' waggler rod, about 30 years ago. Brilliant on large waters chucking good wagglers out, useless on a canal.

I had an IM8 Superstick which was a very nice rod particularly for trotting would have kept it if I did more gloat fishing it became superfluous when I got hold of an Acolyte and 14ft IM9. Although I never used the Supetstick on a canal I believe it would not have been the best for silverfish

 

[Philip]

I purchased some buffer beads once, they were made of a brittle plastic and shattered as anything slid down the line to buffer against them. I cant think of a better example of something so obviously not fit for purpose.

I kept some kicking round my tackle box for ages as a little reminder of how bad something could be made to be.

 

[fishcatcher60]

Another one for the drennan fd 3000 reels.
Even winding back in a 3AA waggler it sounded like a bag of spanners.

 

[John Keane]

Another one for the drennan fd 3000 reels.
Even winding back in a 3AA waggler it sounded like a bag of spanners.

Ditto, spools only held 100m and it threw most of that in coils into the butt ring!

 

[108831]

The worst buy I had was a Graham Phillips trotting rod,it simply didn't have the action,either for playing fish or fishing a float,it bent like Geoff Boycott's stick of rhubarb,lagged on striking and was top heavy...

 

[S-Kippy]

I have struggled to think of anything stand out awful though I have bought the odd pup along the way.....like rods bought for a certain job that proved useless at it. Decent enough rods just no good for what I bought them for.

I remember a particularly nasty Mitchell baitrunner called ( I think) a "Predator" which was an impulse buy and an impulse chuck in the bin and a JRC holdall that had to be pretty well filled before it would sit right yet once filled was almost impossible to lift. The mice had that I'm delighted to say.

 

[Paste paul]

I’m struggling to think of anything I’ve bought that’s been absolutely rubbish.........
But I have made quite a few pointless buys......
They say fishing tackle catches more Angler’s than fish .......
Floats are all too easy to buy and never use.
I did buy some carp pro hooks which were dire I ended up binning them.....
Many years ago when the lead shot ban came in I bought some shot that clipped together this was bad as it was double size of normal shot......

 

[Keith M]

I very rarely use my Drennan FD 4000 reel because I’m fed up with it spilling loose coils of line into the but ring.

Keith