Nostalgia

  • Thread starter Colin North, the one and only
  • Start date
C

Colin North, the one and only

Guest
Who remembers the 14 foot 6 inch Milbro Enterprise rod and the Ambidex 6 fixed spool reels. The rod weighed in at just under 15 ounces and if you picked one up today you would wonder how anyone could have stood in the river trotting down using such a rod all day long (which we did). My first pole was a 21 feet long fibre glass Lerc and weighed about a ton. Didn't stop me from catching fish though. No Skeetex snow boots, just wellies or waders with 3 pairs of socks. No thermal coats or lined trousers, just a parka that weighed a three hundredweight when it got wet and two pairs of trousers.

Those were the days. Makes you wonder how old gits like me survived.

Oh, and one more thing; in those days it would have been beyond the comprehension of 99.9% of the popultion that in November 2003, one could sit in front of a "Telly" with a "keyboard" and write a message such as this that would be instantly available for anyone else interested to read. When I was the Secretary of a local fishing club years ago, production of the club bulletin was a mammoth task involving creating Roneo stencils, getting covered in ink by the manual hand cranked printing machine, spending hours writing out envelopes and nearly as long sticking the down and putting stamps on them.

I glad things have progressed.
 
R

Richard Drayson

Guest
I can remember those Milbro rods Colin.
Actually, I always wanted the Bruce& Walker CTM but never got one.
How about those Efgeeco bait boxes and seat boxes? remember those?
 
T

The Monk

Guest
sealey blue match and intrepid elite reels, and spanish cane rods that snapped when you cast them

bring back tank ariels
 
F

Fred Bonney

Guest
Sealey black arrow and Intrepid monarch,Spratt's Silvercloud and a Lesney bread press.
 
E

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

Guest
The match lads used to put lead in the butt of their rods to balance them ---for some reason it made them feel lighter
 
E

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

Guest
And dough bobbins (the rats used to stand on their back legs trying to get at the dough)
 
R

Richard Drayson

Guest
Coax groundbait, ABU Fisherman's Pliers, ABU Combi Scale o'tape.
Rods by Aiken, Modern Arms, Auger, Sportex, Martin James.
Nylon with names such as Kroic, Racine-Tortue, Platil, Pescalon, Damyl.
 
R

Richard Drayson

Guest
Lead in the butts Eddie? I still do, especially on trotting rods. Less wrist ache - better balance, better striking.
 
R

Ron Troversial Clay

Guest
My favourite rod in those days was a B James Kennet Perfection. I did virtually everything with that rod short of chucking deabaits for pike.

And then there was my beloved B James Mk IV Carp and MkIV Avon. The set I put into these rods during my barbel sessions on the Swale made them look like dipping herons.

Would I ever use split cane rods again?

No of course not.

Peter Jacobs has a few delightful old classics together with a modern Bader barbel rod. He suggested I try one out on my last trip to The Avon. But quite honestly I didn't. I was scared of breaking them.

Let's face it, modern materials make far more efficient fishing tools than the old split canes etc. Even the split cane rods built today.
 
W

Wolfman Woody

Guest
I remember saving like crazy for a Hardy Matchman with twin tops.

And I must have been the first, certainly in our area, to have a telecopic rod rest. I made it out of an old bra stand.





Kept the bust bit for a bit of fun though.
 
E

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

Guest
heheheh ---you have a thing about busts don't you Jeff

What about a nightlight in a red painted jam jar to see your bobbins by--
and then Heron indicators arrived --and if you had one of those you were the dogs b**locks---and if you managed to adjust them properly on a windy night you were definitely top dog .....
We used to araldite them to a rod rest
with the sounder box to make a one piece indicator and do away with the length of wire (which was like table lamp cable)
 
M

Matt Brown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
This is a bit more early 80s, but I used to use a Shakespeare Sigma Wand.

My mates and I would walk 3.5 miles to the local lake (Cusworth, Doncaster) at stupid o'clock in the morning. We'd fish fish 1.1 Bayer Perlon, straight through to a 24 Drennan Carbon Caster. It was always a 1/8oz bomb over casters. We'd turn these ourselves and 1/4 pint would last a trip or three.

I had no brolly, box, or floats but I used to catch more than all my mates and almost everyone else on the pond, ecxept for a few of the Carp anglers.

We'd catch Crucians, Roach and Perch, plus the odd Carp. I once landed a Carp of 9lb 5oz after a 3 hour battle.

Later we went on to use 10oz Double Strength for hooklengths. The more bites the better!

It wasn't long before I bought my first pole. It was glass, telescopic and 6 metres long. I'd fish it with 4 m of line and would telescope 2 sections back in when I caught a fish. The pole floats were all huge (maybe 3 grammes) with massive tips with a ball on the end! It was all flick tip stuff, although pole crooks were being used by the England Team, but only at the Worlds.

At the time I never saw anyone else fishing a pole anywhere, and for a season or two I had a real advantage over my mates. This ended one Christmas when they all got 9m Tricast Carbon poles as presents.

Not quite classic tackle history, but we were in there as 'Pole Pioneers'.
 
F

Fred Bonney

Guest
Pole Pioneers ? really? I had, and still have a Lerc 'roach pole'telescopic fibre glass, 15footish, I think.Must be 1960's,used it with smallist porcupine quill and tied direct to the pole 2lb perlon,probably a size 18 hook,which we used to buy loose.
 
C

Colin North, the one and only

Guest
Necessity and boredom being the mother of invention, I recall a day on the Medway, more than 30 years ago, when the river was in flood and fish were just not biting, when I saw a washing up liquid bottle floating in the margin rushes. I fished it out and after a while, for no particular reason, I stuffed it on the end of a bankstick. With my little fish shaped penknife (bought in Ireland in 1968 and still in my tackle box) I cut the bottle into a scoop. It then dawned on me that the scoop on the end of the backstick would make an excellent throwing stick. It did and it worked very well with the mashed bread we used in those days, which was usually too soft to throw by hand any distance.

Next I got hold of a scrap bottom section of an old Lerc match rod, cut a piece off about 14 inches long with the thin end cut diagonally across. I glued a cork inside it about an inch from the thin end and had myself a wonderful throwing stick for maggots, casters, hemp whatever. I had that stick for more than 20 years until it sank to the bottom of one of the lakes at Wylands.

I'm a disabled angler and using a catapult is not easy for me, but one handed throwing sticks work OK
 
E

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

Guest
I think Cobra make a maggot throwing stick Colin
 
C

Colin North, the one and only

Guest
They probably do Eddie, but I now have a length of 1" diameter clear plastic tube, you know, the sort of thing you might keep pole top three's in, with a poly ball glued in it. Does the trick.
 
C

Colin North, the one and only

Guest
Hey Fred Bonney, you forgot those Hillman Anti Kink leads, you know, the ones with the wire contraption that meant you could take the weight off or put one on without breaking down your kit.
 
M

Matt Brown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Fred, you're right of course, we weren't really pioneers, but everyone we everyone we saw fished the waggler or stick float.
 
Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 21, 2001
Messages
31,045
Reaction score
12,235
Location
In God's County: Wiltshire
Richard,
I still have my Efgeco Tackle and Bait boxes and still give them an airing even today. In fact, the other day on the Avon below Sailisbury I chatted with qa chap who was carrying a very old Efgeco Midland Tackle Box. In my younger days that was *the* box to have as it had extra pockets in the sides of the box.

My first rods, after the tank aerials were; a Taperflash float rod and an Edgar Sealy glass legering rod.
I always yearned for a Peter Sone Legermaster, but had to wait until about 4 years ago when I bought one in auction. That rod adorns the entrance to my cottage today.

Whilst I couldn't argue the quality of modern materials versus split cane, I have to say that there is a certain 'wonder' about using a cane rod that modern materials don't even approach.

I took my Superwizard out on the Avon last week coupled with a 35 year old Aerial Match. At the business end I used a lovely old quill float, again over 30 years old, and caught Dace and Roach.

Later this week I will give an airing to my Dalesman 'Severndale' which is a 12 foot hollow split cane match rod, and match it up with a Trudex, or Rapidex just for fun.

The point is, in my opinion, these lovely old rods and reels deserve to be used and enjoyed instead of being displayed on a wall somewhere.
To be sure, I would catch more by using modern tackle, but then if it were all about "results" then we'd call it "Catching" and not "Fishing" wouldn't we :)
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2003
Messages
9,147
Reaction score
9
Location
Lydney, in the Forest of Dean
The days of 'creels' Ambidex reels, wooden centrepins, Edgar Sealey rods, celluloid floats, silk lines, 12X hooklengths. When wet weather gear was your old 'Mac' and cold weather gear was lots of woolly jumpers. A long time ago? You're bloody right it is and it don't half make me feel old knowing I've been there
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top