Had an afternoon at Bungay today, miles of windy river, lovely place to fish. In the town is an antique shop that sells old tackle. Me being me had a good poke round and played with some real old crap! What is the fascination in using right old rubbish when there is such good modern stuff out there. Aged pins and cane might have been the ultimate in its day but things have moved on. So why do people use this old stuff?

why not if it does the job

exactly as edd said Plus its normaly a hell of a lot cheaper

[ 06. July 2004, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: Cosmic-carper ]

aged pins and cane rods dont usually tend to be cheaper than modern tackle

because we can, i use it because i prefer it, my ABU 506 is still top of the heap in closed faces (although i prefer a 1044) my fiberglass rod is comfortable in use, for the couple of ounces you gain with carbon is negligable as i`m not a weakling.
no i dont use Intrepid it was only top of the pile for a few years and as others switched to Mitchell and ABU ,BOTH reels are still in use at my local pond by many anglers (a suprising amoungt) forget the wobble and bad drag of the mitchell how many modern reels will give 40 years of action for little repair.
The top range fiberglass rods are still very good compared to all but the finest carbon ones and you dont get a belt off a powerline.
the only modern thing of value are poles and even these are starting to get just as thick as early ones :confused: :confused:
cane on the other hand is strictly for conisours i hated the stuff all my cane rods develope "dogs hind legs" and my pin was gleefully smashed with a hammer in 1960 the only one i kept of use was a turntable one where at least you could cast properly

[ 06. July 2004, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

I see what you are getting at Peter some gear both new and old though is crap! Dont think age comes into it.I still think my ABU 501s are better than any modern closed face on the market.But I cant see for the life of me why some people still want to use old bamboo rods that have a bad set,weigh a ton and have as crisp an action as a stick of old rhubarb!

cant agree with you about pins. my allcocks aeriel match is still going strong and though i have bought two new pins they are no better than the forty year old one!!

Mark

I was just about to say if it ain't broke, don't fix it ... now you've spoiled it

I have all the new gear now, but I love my old stuff from 20 years ago too. I'm attached to them ... using them is like putting on a comfortable, old overcoat - they've been places, full of memories and do the job

Old tackle can give more enjoyment in some cases than modern stuff, it's just that modern materials are easier to work with, produce consistant results and are generally much lighter than traditional ones.

I've only once been lucky enough to fish with a cane rod, a 3 piece 5 weight 11' loch style fly rod. Yes it was heavy and only worked well with exactly the right ammount of line in the air but it had the best action of almost any other fly rod I've ever used. A totally different feel to a fish on this than any carbon rod, the only one that even came close was a 8' 3-4 weight orvis (not a cheap piece of kit).

I remember a friend having a tubular steel rod back in the early 80's in my early teens, it was easily as good as the fibreglass rods that were the norm at the time, despite being over 20 years old.

Still I'd hate to give up my "modern" carbon fibre, it's too versatile and easy to use compared to earlier materials.

Will

Straying from the point....

Some of my best angling times were using 'Woolworths' beginners kits to catch easy fish.

It was a challenge, of sorts, for me.

Besides, there aren't many rods a 4oz rudd can put a bend in