Which company makes the best accessories?

Excluding rods, bait, reels and line is there one company you consider makes good quality floats, swivels, adaptors generally, weights and other bits?

I like to use small quick snap swivels when float fishing with Cralusso my favourite brand. I have bought Drennan but consider the Cralusso to be better! I doubt there is one company we could use to the exclusion of all others.

I tend to not stick to any one brand to be honest but for pole floats and bits and pieces I usually opt for Milo as it is tried and tested over a long period of time.

I have used Sensas split shot for many years in the smaller sizes and Anchor in the larger sizes, but also Stotz as well.

For other floats I tend to shop around as the quality seems to be much of a muchness between most manufacturers these days, but I do have a penchant for some of the craft floats from people like Cook, Lewis or Field.

Those are just my personal preferances but I will experiment if something new appeals . . . .

I'm afraid I can't get everything so will shop around between several companies,guru are very innovative and some items are brilliant,but Preston,Drennan and guru,are my main choices,I simply will not use decent kit,so sometimes expense has to be made.

There isn't a tackle company out there that is a jack of all trades and master of them too, even sponsored anglers have other gear which they don't get free and tend to keep quiet about

What is annoying is having to go to one shop for hooks and another for the shot you prefer

Plus having to make your own sticks as certain areas of the country barely stock them at all

theartist said:

Plus having to make your own sticks as certain areas of the country barely stock them at all

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Go on Rob explain! Are we talking bank sticks here?

mikench said:

Go on Rob explain! Are we talking bank sticks here?

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What's a bank stick? lol I'm talking little balsa and wire thingies that'll be working well for them big roach and barbel in a couple of months

whitty said:

I'm afraid I can't get everything so will shop around between several companies,guru are very innovative and some items are brilliant,but Preston,Drennan and guru,are my main choices,I simply will not use decent kit,so sometimes expense has to be made.

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I tend to favour these brands for terminal tackle bits and bobs also. Predator stuff tends to be a lot of Savage Gear, and some carp stuff is ESP. To answer your question; I don't think I could use just one brand.

As others have said it is almost impossible to pin your flag to a single mast.

But when it comes to some of the larger luggage type accessories, I rarely look past Trakker who I think produce great products at a reasonable price point.

Drennan over the years has been the benchmark that the newer more trendy
brands have tried to develop further imho.
Preston, Guru, Korum etc are pretty much well established now too, Trakker I found make good camping equipment and clothing and NGT make sturdy low budget travel rods.
I tend to like getting around specific bits of equipment and once my angling technique has accepted it or I get familiar with something I tend to stick with it, having to much bits distracts me somewhat and I have a hoard of bits I dont use nor can I sell on so minimal tried and tested boils down to Drennan (hooks bands line flouro braid bait boxes landing net pole etc etc... besides alot of one offs like from Amazon or Ebay cannot be replaced as well as the Drennan stuff, that has been my experience anyway.

I use a variety of terminal tackle from different manufacturers, one item I couldn’t do without, the Gemini clip.

s63 said:

I use a variety of terminal tackle from different manufacturers, one item I couldn’t do without, the Gemini clip.

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I had to google this one. Not many cod in my lakes:whmg:

john step said:

I had to google this one. Not many cod in my lakes:whmg:

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I use the mini clip for all my perch/pike lure fishing.

When I first started pole fishing in the late 70s I used to favour trabucco and Milo floats, not much else was available from my local tackle shop back then.
Since going all out commercial fishing floats are not the same quality, OK some hand made jobs are available. Trouble is some hand made are nothing more than hand assembled ebay kits, pretty garbage really.
Getting toward other commonly available tackle in shops it's all much of a muchness. I try products that look like they may be OK, if they are I stick with them. The only fault is they stop producing a product and come up with something new.
God knows why.
Drennan are generally very good, my choice at the moment, Guru have some decent stuff. Matrix are trying to be big, they certainly have a wide range of products. All the rest are very similar.
One things for sure cheap tackle is far superior than it was 30 years ago. It doesn't have to break the bank to start fishing now.

Drennan usually does good bits and pieces.

Not sure if they still do but Solar could be relied upon for some good quality stuff. ...their line clips are still the benchmark which all others have failed to reach as where their tadpole rubbers..no splitting or disintegrating of the rubber with those.

Enterprise used to make some quite good things when they first came out ...I like their Isotope/Betalight holders allot ...better than the Drennan ones for example ...but again not sure about Enterprise nowadays.

The ones you continue to go back and use most regularly or whichever gives the best value from quality vs affordability.

As with any fishing gear, it largely depends on what the local shops stock. I will occasionally take a blind punt (recent examples being DH line and some Browning hooks) and buy online, but I prefer to see even the smallest item in the flesh. Drennan invariably score highly due to their wall to wall availability. Every last one of my local shops stock Drennan gear, even if only the terminal tackle. Preston aren't far behind in terms of availability in a large number of tackle shops.

I have my favourites but that's largely down to long term use and faith in a particular brand. When I was doing a bit of carping and barbelling, the majority of my terminal tackle was either Gardner or Nash. For some reason, ESP never featured strongly, despite better availability.

For match/general coarse fishing, it's a bit of all sorts. I'd guess somewhere above 50% being Drennan. Add a dash of Dave Harrell, Preston, Browning, Cralusso, Guru, and Greys and I'm largely covered. Fox Match used to get a bit of my cash. Since they became Matrix, I barely see their products. I'm sure their stuff will be just as good as it was under the old brand name.

Even with products that I tend to favour one brand over others, I'd not claim that brand to be universally better than all others. I'd also hate to be entirely restricted to a single brand of any item. Fixed spool reels are probably as close as I get to single brand buying. However, I do have (or have had) other brands and I'm always keen to try any new stuff, regardless of brand, if I get the opportunity. I'm not remotely faithful to any brand when it comes to rods.

If forced to pick one brand for terminal tackle, it would be Drennan, though I'd not be happy about it. If forced to pick one brand for fixed spool reels, it would be Shimano. I'd still not be too happy to do so. If forced to pick one brand of rods, I'd probably end up having some sort of existential breakdown.

s63 said:

I use a variety of terminal tackle from different manufacturers, one item I couldn’t do without, the Gemini clip.

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I'm a Gemini myself, John, but I had to google this!

nottskev said:

I'm a Gemini myself, John, but I had to google this!

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Nah, reckon it was your twin.