Ron,
I started, aged 5, in 1950, in Northern Ireland, using a bamboo pole with hempen cord, (no reel) and a length of 'gut', and then later progressed to cane rods - which bent - and stayed bent - if a sizeable fish was hooked.
Incidentally, in Ireland then, rudd were always called 'roach'; they, perch, eels, and pike were my winter fish; my mother came from Ardglass - a small fishing village about six miles from my home town of Downpatrick (which is famous for having the grave of St Patrick, but not many people, indeed not many Irish people, know that!), and we undertook sea fishing in the summer months, my favourite sea fish being wrasse.
I progressed through various bakelite reels, wooden reels for sea fishing, until the early 60s, when I was put on to the Angling Times by some soldiers from a Yorkshire regiment who were stationed at ballykinlar camp, again about 6 miles from Downpatrick. Through tem, I was put ont Don Baits, for maggots, and Bennetts of Sheffield, from whom i purchased some glass fibre rods and Mitchell reels (306).
Those days were, indeed, of an innocent age, and are missed for that.