Do You Miss ??

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Nov 7, 2014

I don't know about other members of the forum, but i do miss the Old Tackle Shops.

The days of going into the shop and picking out bits for making your own floats.

Buying a blank, reel seat, (Reel Rings) cork for the handles, ring guides, ( Eyes as we used to call them ).

I miss all that in the shops now.

I don't know of any of the new generation that can whip an eye on a rod, let alone make one up from a blank. As for making floats, most don't even own one. Its all alarms, bivvys, and barrows.

sam vimes · Nov 7, 2014

I can't miss what I never had. That I know of, there's not been that kind of tackle shop in my loal area since at least the early eighties.
However, I suspect you underestimate and generalize a bit. I know quite a few of a similar vintage to me, and younger, that are perfectly capable of whipping on an eye and even building a rod. However, I rather suspect that for many it's not worth the time, money and effort.

I've looked into the prospect of building a rod or two. I often found that I could barely buy the rings and reel seats for less than a ready made rod with the exact same fittings. The only good reason (other than enjoying it) I could find to build a rod would be if I wanted something specific that wasn't commercially available. With the absolutely huge choice available these days, I doubt there's anything I might need that couldn't be catered for.

In a similar vein, not that many years ago, I used to build my own PCs. I got exactly what I wanted with a cost saving that was well worthwhile. Unless you actually enjoy building PCs, it's no longer worth it. In most cases, buying the component parts will cost you significantly more than a ready built item. You have to really enjoy building PCs or have very specific requirements, uncatered for by the consumer market, for it to be worth doing.

terry m · Nov 7, 2014

To the original post, yes, I agree, there was a lot of satisfaction in stripping, re-whipping and re-varnishing a tired rod. I did it many times. But as has also been said the cost of rods today means it is far less practical than it once was. Time is the one thing that I am always short of, I would sooner spend available time fishing than fixing up rods.

nicepix · Nov 7, 2014

There is such a shop in Sheffield, Dawsons on Holmes Lane. He has stocks of rod and float making materials and if you want an 8' 3" three-piece, 2 oz quiver rod with Duplon handle and Fuji reel seat, he'll build you one to your exact spec'.

I took my cane Avon in for re-varnishing a couple of years ago and he did it in double quick time at a very reasonable price. Proper old-fashioned shop with all the atmosphere us old 'uns remember

trotter2 · Nov 7, 2014

The last Coarse rod I built up from a blank was in the 80s a century Excalibur 13ft match rod. Its just not cost effective these days , pity really as its an enjoyable thing to do in the dark nights.

smudger172 · Nov 7, 2014

There was a fishing shop in Aylesbury called the Coarse angler. In it you could find all manner of exotic things. Well exotic to a ten year old. It was owned and run by Mr cobold and his wife if my memory serves me correct (we are going back nearly 50 years) Anyway i would always try to get Mrs cobold to get me my maggots as she always gave you more for your 6/- than the old boy.. Happy days.............

Paul Boote · Nov 7, 2014

http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/general-fishing/354118-if-you-had-specialise-6.html#post1319715

Ended up making rods, eventually professionally for half-a-dozen successful years. Still making floats and flies, many of the latter my own dreamed-up creations, with as good or better ones not be found for any money. Don't miss that time of DIY and make do and mend; glad that I saw its last years though.

lureed · Nov 7, 2014

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieaG4tkZG-o

This was the shop in Enfield where I bought my tackle as a kid (RDC may even have known it). I did buy a few things there when I started fishing again about four years ago, but they didn't seem to have the things I wanted (the usual problem of competing with large stores with an online presence). I only learned of their closing as I was walking past during the close down. I went in to commiserate and say how sad it was that they were going, but he (rightly) rather admonished me for not supporting them when they were open!

You will never get these sort of shops back - they had a "patina" built up over years that gave them soul (and I can still recall the particular smell developed from all the different products and activities); you'll never get that with cavernous warehouses (though you will get the latest rod pod system, if that is your want).

They never had a till when I was a kid. If you bought a number of small items they were all put into a brown paper bag and the prices totted up on the bag with a pencil; if it was a few pence over the pound they would always round it down.

When I moved house in 2007 I realised I still had the air rifle I had bought from them in about 1974. It cost £20, reduced from £22.50 as it had flecks of whitewash on the butt (they were decorating). I know this because I still had the original receipt. I took the rifle, now with some minor damage, into the shop and got £30 for it!

Its a shame that we cannot find a place for such shops in the present day economy.

(Takes off rose-tinted specs)

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Nov 7, 2014

I remember that shop in Enfield and another just like it in Broxbourne, both closed down now.

I use to go to Leslie's in St Albans ( long before they moved to Luton). Great little shop, had all the float and rod making materials.

I know it may be more cost effective to just buy a rod made and ready to go, but it's not as good as making a rod and catching fish with it, knowing that you spent the time to make it.

Dons of Edmonton was another great shop, as was the Barnet Angling Centre. Simpsons has now gone, but in the decline of all these shops, at least one, Johnson Ross of Hoddesdon has got bigger and better.

Sadly still no rod or float making materials

sam vimes · Nov 7, 2014

Ray Daywalker Clarke said:
I know it may be more cost effective to just buy a rod made and ready to go, but it's not as good as making a rod and catching fish with it, knowing that you spent the time to make it.

That might be true for you, and others. It might be for me, but I don't care to find out.

peterjg · Nov 8, 2014

Youngs of Harrow (closed years ago) used to sell split shot by the ounce. The other day I bought a tub of swan shot for £1.60, later found only 8 shot in the tub - that's 20p per shot- unbelievable! I miss the smell of old tackle shops - I think it was the linseed oil put on keep nets - now they smell of boilies.

Some tackle shops now sell very few floats? Just as well I make my own!

Peter Jacobs · Nov 8, 2014

I miss the old style tackle shops with their distinctive aromas that were a testament to a much more gentle and innocent era of angling.

We were not at all consumed then with thoughts of financial gain from records, bait deals or sponsorships but simply enjoyed a day fishing either on our own, with a few friends or in a match on the local river.

I am not such a romantic as to think that there has not been a lot of beneficial progress in the materials and design of our equipment and baits, but these days when you go into a tackle shop it reeks of artificial flavours and plastics.

We fished with simple bait pastes from bread or cheese or with maggot or worm. These days you almost need a degree in food and flavorings to design yet another instant success bait or another.

So, yes, I truly miss not only the old fashioned tackle shops but also the sport that they portrayed . . . . . . .

Paul Boote · Nov 8, 2014

Yes. The memories summoned by a smell (like Proust with his madeleine cake).

I only need to smell a strong strawberry flavour and I am immediately transported back to the halls, conference centres and sports halls in which the great carp conferences of the 1980s were held. Seething with day-release serial fishers milling round the Rod Hutchinson, Simpson's and Terry Eustace stands....

Peter Jacobs · Nov 8, 2014

Paul Boote said:
Yes. The memories summoned by a smell (like Proust with his madeleine cake).

Yes indeed, the contrast between voluntary and involuntary memory eh?

Neil Maidment · Nov 8, 2014

Yes, modern tackle shops (with the odd welcome exception), forums and Facebook don't measure up to the anticipation of a walk to Bill Longman's shop to listen to the mob of anglers making plans.

Once I became more mobile with a bike and then a car, my shopping experiences multiplied to include Dave Swallow's Custom Tackle, Dob Chislett's Nimrod and Davis' down in Bargate.

Such a long time ago

mg:

Paul Boote · Nov 8, 2014

Bill.

My word.

"W.J. Longman, Barrack Road, Christchurch"

I even wrote about him once!

alan whittington · Nov 9, 2014

Paul Boote said:
Bill.

My word.

"W.J. Longman, Barrack Road, Christchurch"

I even wrote about him once!

Was that the shop in that small row of stores on the opposite side to the pub(now the 'Stourvale')Paul,it moved closer to Iford bridge(the other side of the side road that split the shops)?

---------- Post added at 13:19 ---------- Previous post was at 13:07 ----------

Back to topic,i miss the decent old shops that actually either employed someone,or knew themselves a little about the tackle they sell and methods to use with it,very often the only thing the staff know about is spodding and which boilies smell like a prossies handbag,some couldn't help a beginner if they wanted too,tragic really.

Neil Maidment · Nov 9, 2014

alan whittington said:
Was that the shop in that small row of stores on the opposite side to the pub(now the 'Stourvale')Paul,it moved closer to Iford bridge(the other side of the side road that split the shops)?

That was Bill Longman's, virtually opposite the pub. Don't remember it moving but it was a long time ago!

Dob Chislett's Nimrod arrived a little later and was just up the road in Iford Parade by the roundabout with Castle Lane.

Paul Boote · Nov 9, 2014

alan whittington said:
Was that the shop in that small row of stores on the opposite side to the pub(now the 'Stourvale')Paul,it moved closer to Iford bridge(the other side of the side road that split the shops)?

I can't remember its exact location as I was only "small" and on holiday in Bournemouth, Easter, Summer and Christmas, during the 1960s.

However, Bill took a shine to me (as did Jack Harrigan at his shop in west London), as I was keen, very keen, young as I was, with both men commenting about this to my Dad.

Bill not only ran a very successful shop, but was also a very keen Stour (had a very few remnant fish back then) and Avon salmon-fisher. In my early days, he sold me maggots, floats, hooks and day tickets for Throop, but as I hit 12 or so, the spinning rods and fabulous salmon multipliers that he had shown me as an 8-year-old, became the imagined tools of a trade that I badly wanted to take up.

I couldn't, then, afford Avon salmon fishing, of course (not even my Dad would pay that sort of money), but I could fish in Wales whenever we went there on holiday - a junior club ticket on many rivers at the time being as cheap as chips and sometimes free.

For several years, well into my teens, Bill and I corresponded about salmon fishing, with he sending me packages of Devon Minnows, both ones that he had made in wood and some commercially made rubber minnows just become available. At fourteen I had my first salmon (Wales), writing about it at length to "Mr Longman" as I called him. He was delighted.

Still have some of his Devon Minnows in one of my boxes of baits and lures somewhere.

Bill and Jack had a big influence, the latter getting me float fishing half-decently when I watched him fish the Avon below Salisbury in my mid and late teens. Good men and great Anglers both.

alan whittington · Nov 9, 2014

This is the third attempt to reply,so here goes,i couldn't tell you how many times ive been in there,very helpful fella he was,showing my age now...

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