Fishing Shops: Wow!

Thud has started fishing with his mates and wanted a fishing rod (to be paid back from his wages from the local chip shop).

So I went with him to the local fishing shop* today. Wow!

Hundreds of rods to choose from,  ranging from £18 to £1000+. Not really much of a surprise there, but to me the only thing differentiating them was the price tag.

A mass of other stuff on sale, from check-shirts to lures and sunglasses.

Guy behind the counter was spectacularly unhelpful. Look, you’ve got a kid here that you can really shove in the right direction and turn into a customer for life, or you can be an unhelpful dick. He chose the latter.

So – we bought a rod and reel for £35 and went on our way. Guy in front of us bought a Chubb rod (I think) and a bucket of maggots. They keep for 5 days in the fridge apparently.

Whole new world out there and I just thought I’d share the experience :)

* Angling Active in Stirling. Stirling Bull Sales were on at the same time, which made car parking a wee bit interesting.

Yeah fishing is bonkers, I was obsessed as a lad and have got vaguely interested in catching sea fish to eat recently.

The thing that staggers me is how cheap decent tackle is now. 40 years ago I bought some nice daiwa rods for about 30 quid which seemed a lot on paper round waged. I still have them, they are decent,light and thin and ideal for chucking mackerel lures about. But nowadays you can buy similar rods for the same price! Same with other decent stuff.

I haven’t done fishing properly for years, but it’s very much like bikes or any other hobby really…

As in a £500 mountain bike will be perfectly good for most people starting out, it would be stupid to buy an 8 grand carbon wonderbike until you really know what you are doing, and know what you want and are really into it as a hobby.

A £35 rod and reel is very much on the cheap/budget side of things, more of a beginners thing… think of it a bit like buying a carerra mountain bike from halfords..

In terms of other kit, you’ll figure that out as you go along, weights, lures, nets, etc, etc, depend very much on what style of fishing you are doing, so if you get into it, you’ll end up adding to your ‘tackle box’ over time with various bits and bobs.

For clarity they’re ‘chub’ rather than Chubb, which was a former Wolverhampton based lock manufacturer  ;-)

Maggots will keep for longer than a week if they’re swapped into dry bran, always assuming Thud’s mum will put up with them in the fridge. And even when they start to turn into chrysalis (‘casters’) they’re still excellent bait.

Brother in law has a fishing “VW T6 4 motion”, all kitted out with rod holders etc. I guess it’s the same as having a van for your MTB hobby.

How about a large stuffed pike above your fireplace?

Just came here to say…..

And Away!!!!!!

whatever happened to using your dads bean cane with some string and a bent nail? after all surely fishing is just sitting on the bank in peace with a can and a roll up rather than actually catching a fish?

@rOcKeTdOg Or stood in the water chest deep eating a sandwich!

after all surely fishing is just sitting on the bank in peace with a can and a roll up rather than actually catching a fish?

Yes but to truly relax and get smashed you need some rod holders and electroninc bite beepers… so then you can set up 4 rods, sit back and concentrate on getting drunk!

My boss is a carp fisher.  I’m amazed at the amount of kit. My favourite is the remote controlled bait boat, with sonar, uw camera, two bait hoppers and GPS.

Maggots was the guy in front.  Thud says he’ll borrow bait from his mates.

Guy behind the counter didn’t even attempt to sell a tackle box or bait or anything else.

Chub. Noted.

How about a large stuffed pike above your fireplace?

Don’t worry, Be happy

But you bought a selection of small hooks and weights, right? you will lose hooks and weights when they get snagged on stuff and the line snaps.

My favourite is the remote controlled bait boat, with sonar, uw camera, two bait hoppers and GPS.

Wow..just when you thought you’d seen it all, hahah!

Weirdly I experienced something similar recently (different shop). Nephew getting into fishing, birthday coming up, wanted a reel. I went into local shop with idea of what kind of fishing he does, what rod he had etc and asked for some advice and it was like pulling teeth to get any kind of help. I didn’t really have a budget in mind but was happy to buy something middle of the road as long as it wasn’t multiple hundreds and still struggled.

I fished a little as a kid off the pier and a little bit of trout fishing but lacked the patience for it. Now I actually quite fancy disappearing off to somewhere quiet, sitting with a thermos, comfy chair and a good book. Kind of think actually catching fish would be an inconvenience!

Guy behind the counter didn’t even attempt to sell a tackle box or bait or anything else.

Reminds me of the owner of a small bike shop I went to once, and only once, he was a soulless old git! lol!

I mean, it’s good he didn’t try to upsell you with a load of stuff you might not need as a beginner, but I’d have thought they should at least make the effort to sell you a cheap beginners kit of hooks, weights, a disgorger, etc.

I’ve got a couple of classic centre pin reels, including a Dave Swallow custom job I bought from him personally many moons ago. It is the Chris King of reels, if I set it spinning now it might have stopped by breakfast tomorrow.

Absolute joy to use, especially for trotting for the  aforementioned chub

Also got a couple of Abu Cardinal 55s, beautiful brass gears and worth a few bob now

Lots of pike lures in various guises, a Heddon crazy crawler and boxes of hi-los

But you bought a selection of small hooks and weights, right?

No. Guy didn’t mention that :/

I got given a fishing rod, hooks and a bag for a birthday once. I must have been 7 or 8. Went to local shop for bait with my mum and a  tub of maggots duly purchased. Obviously I took the lid off to have a look at them. Guess what, the pot upended in the back of the car somehow and the lid wasn’t on properly.  It was a Mini, a week later it was full of flies.. oops!

At least he didn’t cough and land a great big greeny on your jumper, like the owner of my local tackle shop did

Or stood in the water chest deep eating a sandwich

From the username I take it you’re shark fishing?

my mate is a keen fly fisher – someone with all the gear etc is apparently a “tackle tart”

No. Guy didn’t mention that :/

Much like with mountain biking, the guy that never has a spare tube or puncture kit… his mates will soon get pissed off if he keeps robbing hooks and weights from them… I mean they are very cheap really and it might be his mates have an abundance of stuff like that and don’t really care.. but still…

I took up fishing again after many years. I was amazed at the amount of kit and techniques available now. Went into one fishing shop- to be honest they are thin on the ground now-and  conmented on the variety of gear on sale and the lady behind the counter admitted that the object of the exercise was to catch the fishermen rather than the fish! I now have a car full of gear, half of which I don’t probably need. All the gear-well, as with bikes you know the rest.

Maggots don’t last quite as long when you put handfuls in your pocket then go into town with your mum the next day, pulling them out in M&S and showing her maggots. Sorry mum.

TBF I’m quite pleased there are actual kids going fishing. Good on them.