''The old stuff''.

Derek Gibson · Mar 6, 2016

Clearing out the shed the other day I was surprised to find an old box containing a few tackle items. Amongst the contents was a hook wallet containing a number of dubbed hooks in both ''short draw, and yard bottoms''. Plus a number of empty line spools of ''Luron and Bell'', amongst other bits and bob's. For example, both ''Bell and Luron'' lines had a tendancy to leave the spool like a childs slinky.

Anyone on here remember any of the above?

dorsetandchub · Mar 6, 2016

I bought a job lot of terminal tackle a while back to find a Newark Needle Float (hmmmm!!), a stack of Billy Makin canal greys (bonus NOT bogus!!!!!!) and a mixed stack of hooks to nylon, many were obviously made for individual tackle dealers, some Pegley Davies and a load of Lion d'Or.

For old times sake, I used them with a pair of 440 Matches (cobalt blue) from childhood), gutted when an extensive manhunt of the tackle store failed to turn up my kidhood Edgar Sealey blue match.

It's funny but in every other aspects of life, I adore antiques (see the current future ex Mrs for example) but when it comes to my fishing I'm a complete tart for anything new and shiny.

We all need a dark side alter ego if Freud and Neitzsche were right, I guess

flightliner · Mar 6, 2016

I used Luron line as a youngster. Wasnt it one of the first nylon lines on the market that superceded plaited / silk lines?.
Not bad stuff either so long as it was twinned up with bottoms made up from Racine Tortou, that line could still hold its own along with the best if it was still available.
Lots of hype tho about modern lines these days for coarse fishing in my opinion.

john10 · Mar 6, 2016

Derek Gibson said:
Clearing out the shed the other day I was surprised to find an old box containing a few tackle items. Amongst the contents was a hook wallet containing a number of dubbed hooks in both ''short draw, and yard bottoms''. Plus a number of empty line spools of ''Luron and Bell'', amongst other bits and bob's. For example, both ''Bell and Luron'' lines had a tendancy to leave the spool like a childs slinky.

Anyone on here remember any of the above?

I remember them very well Derek. My grandfather would only buy Bell mono as a mainline and yard bottoms were essential, I think the bottoms were made by "Oakley's". He didn't believe the short draws were as effective because of the loop being too close to the hook. The yard bottoms gave better presentation in his opinion. I think he was right too.

I went on to tie my own using a glue bought from the chemists, canada balsam I believe the stuff was called. Anyone remember that? You stuck a bit of wire in the cork top which was immersed in the glue and used thread from a nylon stocking to whip the mono onto the hook

I carried on using Bells until Sportex Fleur was introduced. A lot of us changed to that as a mainline in the mid 60s and it was the "bees knees" for a while.

We used to shop at Calcott's or Thackery's, both not far off the bottom of Commercial Street in Sheffield. Regular visits every week for a pint and a half of maggots in an Ostermilk tin. I eventually discovered Billy Clarke's and still shop there now.

barbelboi · Mar 6, 2016

I used ICI’s Luron 2 during the mid-late 50’s. A big improvement on the plaited silk that Mick mentions above that was fat and you had to keep treating it with Mucilin.....................

trotter2 · Mar 6, 2016

I still use an efgeeco hook wallet, had it since I was a kid

john10 · Mar 6, 2016

Me too, I use it for wire traces.

rayner · Mar 6, 2016

A bloke who lived two doors from me when I was a kid used to hang his nets over the washing line to dry. I remember asking my dad what they were, this was in about 1957.
Every day after he told they were for fishing I asked Mr Nettleship to take me fishing. Of course he put me off with excuses. At that time I was 5 years old.
It took until I was 8 to get him to agree.
One proviso was I had to tie an hook to fish with. He let me look in his wallet at his hooks, he showed me an hook tied, he gave me an hook with a piece of line and said when I had one tied he would take me fishing.
It took me three years, I had advice from my Dad and he said to ask Mr Nettleship for a tied hook take it apart and then see how it was done.

peterjg · Mar 6, 2016

A mention of Effgeco made me realise that the fishing trolley I still use is a much mended and altered Effgeco trolley - it's currently on it's fourth or fifth set of wheels. I've altered the handle, the base, wheels and repainted it - they don't make 'em like that anymore!

robtherake · Mar 6, 2016

Too early for me, Derek. The first line I remember was that ruddy awful "Rainbow line" which was just as slinky-like as the stuff you describe. I wasn't really happy with Sylcast, either; the first lines I really rated were Bayer Perlon (floating) and Maxima Chameleon (sinking.) Amazing how Maxima's still held in high regard, which gives credence to what Mick says about the hype surrounding modern lines.

I was given an old float box a few years back, containing a fair few of the 70s floats in use - Ultras, Dentons, Ivan Marks and quite a few Woolies specials. Remember the Winfield floats? They were poorly painted and leaked badly as a consequence, so always needed a proper coat of paint or varnish if they were to last. Some of the Winfield rods - sadly, out of my (schoolboy's pocket money) price range - were actually pretty good; the ones I had a go with, at least. They were almost clones (albeit poorly finished ones) of a certain manufacturer's offerings. They did a two-piece plus handle rod that was suspiciously like the Hardy Fred Taylor Trotter....say no more.

flightliner · Mar 6, 2016

At school We had swimming on friday afternoons down attercliffe in Sheffields east end where to get your tram fare home it was req'd that you line up at the deep end for the resident instructor/sadist to give it.
He would always ask the same--- can you swim--- you only said no once as you were thrown in-- we learnt fast, very fast.
I digress, back outside there were two tackle shops, Stamfords and Ben Welbons and after spending my penny tramfare on a small Hovis brown loaf I would always call in Ben Welbons simply to look at the tackle on disply, a magical moment for me and the smell of linseed oil ( for keepnets) sawdust and moakes (maggots) was one I will never forget, very evocative.
Anyway, I did have the occasional few pence to spend and a "real hook to nylon" was my choice, always a short draw as the extra tuppence was just to much at the time, the leg home all the way back to firth park was a bummer, to late back n it was a clip round the ear and a cold tea.
Heady days indeed!!.

S-Kippy · Mar 6, 2016

Nothing like the smell of an old school tackle shop. I used to cycle to my nearest of a weekend just to press my nose against the window and gaze at all the gear. This is before I started and I had very little idea of what I was looking at.....still don't some days.

I don't remember Luron. First line I used was Platil, then Sylcast because it was cheaper then Maxima. Racine Tortue was great for light work....they also did one called Nacrita which I loved but was hard to find. Keepnets were gudgeon mesh or bream mesh and mine was mustard yellow. I loved that net.

I still occasionally get a cane rod and old reel out if I'm feeling particularly nostalgic but I can't honestly say they are a pleasure to use. They do look fantastic though and always get admiring comments......unlike their owner !

robtherake · Mar 6, 2016

Got to agree about that smell - it seemed to disappear when they stopped using sawdust - just the thought of the smell took me back four decades in an instant.

I'd forgotten Platil and Racine Tortue (a very good line) and I remember Nacrita being the extra-good stuff. My first proper keepnet was a monstrous 3 foot diameter micromesh affair, big enough for a family of ten. I'd watched that thing - as my paper round money built up - hoping that no-one else would take it and soon found out why it had stayed on display for so long. It was difficult to carry and manage when it was dry and damn-near impossible when it was wet. Worst of all, in shallow water the vast hoop meant the fish were sitting in water not much deeper than themselves. I don't bother with one at all nowadays and I'm embarrassed to admit that I was once convinced that if I released a fish it'd tell all its shoalmates.

flightliner · Mar 6, 2016

In my float box ther's a chubber like float that I made when I was about twelve. I used it on the lower tidal Trent on coach trips with my dad. I never use it these days out of fear of losing it.
Its been everywhere I've fished since the mid fifties with the odd exceptions when pike or fly fishing .maybe three to four thou a year travelling to differant venues for decades must add up to a hefty number.

binka · Mar 6, 2016

robtherake said:
I'd forgotten Platil and Racine Tortue (a very good line)

That is about my earliest line brand recollection from the early to mid eighties Rob, I think there was something called Bayer Perlon too.

derwentbob · Mar 6, 2016

I was surprised to find Bayer Perlon at the tackle shop yesterday. On closer inspection it wasn't quite the right colour (sorrel, whatever that is supposed to be) and is now Kamasan branded. I used to like Racine Tortue as it was a matt mint green colour, unlike anything else at the time so the fish wouldn't be looking for it.

Alan Tyler · Mar 6, 2016

The smell! It varied from shop to shop; the base model was the linseed oil pong from the dressed cotton (linen?) nets, the ammoniacal maggot odour and the smell of the sawdust (all too often pine; I suspect that's a bit of a turn-off for fish).
Quite a few were pet-shops that carried a bit of fishing tackle, so all the pet and pet-food smells joined in, as they did in a proper tackle shop if a couple of bags of Spratt's "Silver Cloud" ( dog-biscuit sweepings stretched with silver sand) were on the counter.
At a posh place like Dave Steuart's "Edgar Thurston", just over the bridge from Richmond, there'd be open drums of different groundbaits, so wholesome bakery smells would sweeten the brew.
Heady stuff; now they tend to smell like an organic chemistry lab where something has gone a bit wrong.

Edit: how could I forget the whiffs of mothballs from the fly tying section, if there was one; dope and varnish, if repairs were undertaken "out back" and the faint, smell of gun oils at tackle-and-guns shops like Woody's of Wembley? I don't recall maggots on the counter there; maybe the gun-room bouquet pulls in a more prosperous sort of customer.

greenie62 · Mar 6, 2016

dorsetandchub said:
... a mixed stack of hooks to nylon, many were obviously made for individual tackle dealers, some Pegley Davies and a load of Lion d'Or.....

I remember both PDQ and Lion d'Or as being OK ish. PDQ did a lot of odd bits of tackle - I get the feeling that they were a marketing rather than manufacturing company.
One brand of line I haven't seen mentioned on this thread is FOG - about 40-50 years ago they churned out a whole range of lines from 1.5lbs through 25lbs bs - all on the same pale blue spool - but the line quality was all over the place. You'd find the 3lb line was fine, soft and supple but the 4lb was stiff and like a coiled spring! The lines seemed to go like this through it's range - where depending on the strength - you could have a really good line or a total dud!
I think they re-launched the brand again about 20 years ago - but the damage was done as far as I was concerned!

flightliner · Mar 6, 2016

Beyer line took its place amongst the best or most popular in the early sixties and as mentioned is still available today.
Its a line I would have no hesitation to use for silverfish , float or bomb.
My line choices today cross the whole price range depending on species and chosen method.
One of my favourites at the moment if I,m float fishing for Barbel on the Trent is ridiculously cheap and its done me some very big fish, feeder or straight lead fishing for them and my line choice goes to a much higher price bracket.
Back on thread I still have a few rods that I was using in the sixties, swing tips and a couple of fibre glass float rods but I hav'nt used them for decades, I think it was Pete the other day that said they arnt going anywhere as they were too sentimental to be rid off, hold one and the memories just run up your arm to the old grey matter.

binka · Mar 7, 2016

I was awful at trying to remember line names as a kid, I remember my mentor telling me to ask for "racing" line in the case of Racine or "knitting" line in the case of Perlon, as in "knit one, pearl one".

The oddest thing was that the bloke in the tackle shop (occasionally John Dean) knew exactly what I meant!

''The old stuff''.

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