Supermarket Tackle

[Tony Stevens]

My first experience was buying a Asian made fly rod over 50 years ago imported by Cowan DeGroot Ltd, London in a local toy shop! Split cane, 2 tops and 4 wt. I used it as a burn rod for many years. By the time it was ready to burn it I probably owned up to half a dozen assorted rods, reels etc all bought at tackle shops.
Now I live in NZ and as a coarse angler have to use the internet to buy most items that I need even down to such as split shot from UK shops.
So I would guess that it's the initial ability to purchase to see if angling is for you that matters at a reasonable cost. If that original purchase is from a toy shop as mine was or your local supermarket so what! The tackle shop specialists will win out over the years with more customers and more sales over time.

 

[eric woodcock]

not surprised people go for the cheaper tackle. tackle shop prices are a rip off besides if you got a lttle fishing knowledge you still catch fish using a clothes prop cant understand people keep backing up tackle shops for getting info why not by a fair priced info book from tesco etc...

 

[Deanos]

Wow!
Thanks for that great idea Eric, if I find out where FM supremo Mr Granville Manson
is fishing, I can sneak up to him, poke me mums clothes prop through the bushes and give him a good clout with it, then leg it with his MEGGA expensive barbel rod.

Ps. Calum, don?t bother asking granddad for a very expensive fishing rod for Christmas this year, you will be lucky to get an orange and some nuts from old shylock!

 

[Woodys angle]

Sorry John, I'm playing catch-up due to too much fishing....

"Woody but can you honestly believe that supermarkets will be selling quality bait etc." No! I never said they would, I sarcastically said I could see Mrs Whatnot putting her groceries on the same belt as a young kid who'd just put a pint of maggots on it. It will never happen and if supermarkets aren't for you then good. That's not the purpose, your custom belongs in a tackle shop, I'm talking about kids that aren't anglers - yet.

Eric (there's a whole chain of Woodcocks in my family on my mother's side),
My mate who used to come fishing with me made his first rod out of a four feet length of ?" dowelling with refashioned safety pins taped to it. Catching gudgeon wasn't much fun, but he enjoyed it.



Deanos, get yourself down here quickly. Because Mr Marsden won't take back all the barbel rods he's sent me, I've had to hire a skip and pay a tonnage charge for disposal of inert material. You're welcome to a selection before I cover them with rubble.

 

[Bully]

Lets face it, if the parents were anglers, they would not buy Graham's suggested "bubble wrap" gear.

So I guess it will really only be the "non anglers" who do. I doubt it would put them off really, especially younger ones.

I think angling kit in supermarkets is a fine idea, see it all the time in France.

 

[Andy "the Dog" Nellist (SAA) (ACA)]

From my earliest memories i was obsessed with fishing but my fishing career started very poorly. I blanked continuously for 7 years until on a family holiday to cornwall in 1975 i caught a mackeral on a wrecking trip.

I owned just one rod at the time a split cane three piece that seemed to thwart rather than help my early attempts to land a fish. It was coupled with an intrepid prince regent reel.

A few days after the capture of the mackeral i was in Woolworths in St Austell with my parents and managed as always to find the fishing tackle.

A rod there took my fancy and I managed to convince my parents to buy it for me as a (2 months)early birthday present. It was a "Woolworths Pike Fisher" in a very fetching blue with chrome finished rings. It cost the princely sum of seven pounds.

Later that day, 28th May 1975, I caught the first fish I'd ever caught on my own fishing tackle a small pollack from the harbour at Goran Haven. A month later I caught my first coarse fish on it along with a further 10 fish over the next two days and I haven't stopped catching since.

I didn't have a lot of money to spend as a kid and woolworths cheap line and hooks kept me going for many years.

Woolies got me started and created a very good customer for more specialised shops later on.

Supermarkets selling fishing gear is a positive thing for our sport.

 

[Steve R]

I've always advocated supporting your local tackle shop but I can't see any harm whatsoever in the supermarkets selling basic gear to attract people into the sport. As others have pointed out those that then want to progress further with the sport will eventually end up in the specialised tackle dealer spending their hard-earned cash on better rods, reels and all the other sundries anyway.

What does make me laugh though is those that say you should buy everything from your tackle shop and then they go to Tesco [the very people their decrying] to buy their sweetcorn, bread, luncheon meat etc because they sell it cheaper than they do in said tackle shop - double standards methinks!!!

As a qualified angling coach attending events across the South of England I come across loads of kids who've got these starter kits and, with a bit of advice and a few minor changes, these kits are ideal for the market they're designed for ie starters [the clue is in the name!].

Yes we normally have to strip the line off the reels and replace it with 3 or 4 lbs breaking strain, replace the size 8 hooks, replace the lead shot that comes with many of the foreign imports, etc, etc, but proper advice on the use of the gear means the kids can then go and catch fish and I've seen carp up to 8 lbs caught on this gear and it's real fun I can tell you.

I'm just recovering from a busy weekend that saw over 200 people given introductory lessons in angling and the question that most of them ask is where do we go to buy some fishing tackle. My answer is that if you think you're going to take it up seriously then your local tackle shop is the place to go but if you think it's something you might do just a couple of times a year on family holidays then the stuff that's being sold in Tesco is more than adequate. The vast majority of these introductory lessons are carried out with 3 & 4 metre cheap telescopic whips that cost less than a pound to buy from the whoesalers so can somebody please explain why they cost ?10 when you buy them from your local tackle shop [and I don't need a lecture on overheads] we're talking about 1000% profit here and I can't think of any other retail item where that is the norm - no wonder people are buying off the internet or, worse still, from their local car boot sales!

 

[paul williams 2]

Andy......some of that Woolworths gear was OK........i remember using one of the rods for river eel fishing, it took loads of abuse and did the job.......they also sold whole cards of flyspoons....i caught loads of shad on those and they are hard to find now!

If i had to use them today as my only means of fishing then i would!..........i just wouldn't fish next to Wol!

 

[Tony Stevens]

Just where do you think this retail therapy minded population of ours will take us?
Here in NZ there is a mega store chain called "The Warehouse" Yes they sell fishing tackle too and until recently it has been unknown brands. This year they have been going up market with their brands with many very well known names. For the sea angler they now have the "Total Fishing" range (ABU); now you can buy an Ambassador 7000 for $199. 95 as an example. Best price is $250 from a tackle dealer. "Kmart"has Shimano, Okuma, Daiwa, Penn etc. not the full range but enough to make you take notice. My tackle dealer has certainly taken notice and I have bought my new Okuma Epix from him for just $65 in British thats 20 quid including one spool filled with Berkley fireline 6lb braid the other with 3.5lb Dynema and a pack of 3 soft plug baits.
Only time will tell if the whole crazy merry-go-round will go arse over teakettle. In the meanwhile I'm happy playing piggy in the middle.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

A good example this very morning.

A lady rang me from Surrey askign if there were any places left on our Junior Academy day on Friday.

Her two sons had seen this fishing tackle being sold in Tescos, at heavily reduced prices, and they wanted some. Now they have it, what do they do with it?

Sadly our event is full, so I told her to look up her local tackle shop for further information about local clubs who might help. Now if everyone was/is/or should be switched on to helping newcomers she should be able to find someone to teach her kids how to fish.

I hope so because otherwise it will be a missed opportunity and the angling trade and local clubs will only have themselves to blame.