Cycle Fishing

[RoachLover]

Hello there. Im wondering does anybody on the forum have experience transporting a lot of fishing tackle by bicycle. By a lot i mean at least 2 rods, tackle bag, chair ect. I am asking this question as I will soon be transporting my fishing tackle by bicycle but I would like to hear of someone that has experienced doing this. Many thanks Dan.

[Renrag39]

Was a while back but yeah, I've done it.

Get a big rucksack with external straps (for nets), about 80l is right so nearly everything bar the rods can fit inside. Get a cheap folding chair from asda/tesco/aldi etc, will also go in bag. Tie rods to crossbar. Pedal.

 

Renrag

[RUDD]

I bike with fishing gear a fair bit.

 

A few simple rules:

 

1. Only take what you really need in a secure rucksack to keep weight down.

2. Wear a cycle helmet

3. Make sure rods, net handle, brolley (I only take waterproofs instead of this item) are safely secured to your bike frame and do not interfere with brakes, gearing (including cables for both) or the steering. Having these long items in a holdal / quiver over your shoulder is very dangerous - they can get caught in wheels, hedges, trees etc or hit other vehicals / road users.

4. Do not even try to carry any type of framed chair - use a small foldaway type that will fit in or secure to the rucksack or just sit on your unhooking mat (I have one of them fabic foldaway chairs that support you own weight).

5. Make sure you use your lights if travelling early moring / evening or in bad weather.

 

Another alternative is to but a bike trailer or one of them baby trailer things and convert to carry your gear. I am on the lookout for one off ebay!!!!!!!!!!

[davedave]

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Fishing...ke-t250216.html

[paul93]

me and a mate recently biked from mansfield to skegness with our fishing stuff. we tie wrapped the rods, bank sticks and landing nets to the bike frames and the tackle box to the headset of the handle bars. the fishing stuff was fine for the whole journey but after 85 miles i felt about dead. you can get big tie wraps that reach round, you may have attach 2 together to get the tackle box on.

[RoachLover]

hmm yeah in reply to RUDD i never would have given a second thought to carrying my rod quiver on my back but i shall have to scale down my gear in order to carry my tackle safely. but there are many ways.

[lyn]

my friend has a trailer, like the sort you have for kids but his is flat and takes all his bags, chair etc and rods strapped to cross bar.

 

lyn

[Emma two]

Once our bikes were the main way of getting to fish the lakes, we sometimes went on the bus too! We could walk to the river as it ran close to where we lived. That was the situation for the adults too. it wasn't a case of being eco-friendly, nor part of a fitness regime, it was simply that no one in the family owned a car.

 

My Dad fitted an extra seat on the crossbar of his bike for the very young me to sit on (I had to hold onto the handlebars too), our tackle was held in an old army 37 pattern webbing large pack (not especially large) and rods and landing net tied in a bundle and either fastened to the handlebars or slung across his back. Tackle then consisted of one rod each, reels, small box with floats weights and hooks, a tin with spinners and a jar of worms, our flask and sandwiches and perhaps waterproof coats if it looked like rain. Lots of the stuff carried around now it, we didnt need, 'seats', well there were logs and rocks everywhere, rod rests could esily be cut from branches already down, keep nets, unhooking mats, rod pods, electronic alarms, unbrellas etc just didnt come into it. Later when at secondary school my fishing pals (come to think of it all but one of my school friends fished) rode our bikes to the lake (5 miles away) lots eapecially during the summer holidays.

 

It seems that modern, 'mountain type' bikes dont lend themselves to stowing fishing tackle on them as older types did. In the late 60s we bought 'shopper' type bikes, folding frames, smaller wheels (not the really tiny ones). thay had racks on the back to which a tackle box or bag could be secured safely and out of the way, rod bundle slung diagonally across the back. The journeys were eased along with 3 speed ('sturmey archer') gears.

 

I did try using the 'work vehicle'..a grocery deliver bike with a huge basket on the front, not bad for putting tackle in, but it played havock with the steering, an iron frme with no gears meant peddle standing to get up hills, are we are endownded with lots of those around here, in fact the geography of an area must impact upon people's disposition to cycle?

 

By the 70s I was motorised, still not driving cars, but had moved onto small motor bikes, the step through Honda 50cc was fantastic for fishing. Rack on the back sturdy enough to take a big basket, I had discovered bungees wich made the securing a smooth operation, and the rods in a 'proper' holdall, but as of old slung diagonally across the back. I went all over the York (where we lived at the time) ditrict and beyond with that set up, with the added advantage of being able on lots of places to ride down river and lakeside paths to the fishing spots. Car drivers having to find a parking place and then hump all their gear.

 

I think that the thing about using an alternative to the car is it really makes one think hard about what does and does not need to be carried with us fishing. I am too ill to be able to cycle any more, and for most of my fishing have reduced what I take with me to what I can carry, move and fish at the same time. one rod and reel, Bellows pocket vest with 2 small tackle boxes, polaroid clips ons, weighing sling and scales (in case I catch a whopper) unhooking tools, wallet of traces, camera, phone (although my mobile fell in the lake yesterday as I launched the boat and I havent decided whether or not to replace it) little folder with license and permits in it. A few 'emergency' pills and a few sweets. Firelighting kit, not really sure what I want that for but one never knows! and an 'emergency fiver, once again not sure what that is for, not really enough to bribe any upholders of the law/fishery rules that I might have broken.

 

Swingling back on track, bikes' I wouldnt go fishin' on one these days, not because I'm ot well enough, but because it's simply not safe to go out on a bendy, up and down country road given the amount of traffic and the disregard shown to other road users by so many motor car drivers.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Emma two

[seph]

Many years ago I used to be up and down the canal towpaths on a bike. Secret was to only take what you needed, sometimes I didn't even take a chair of any sort, sat on a unhooking mat. A must is a spare inner tube, pump, punture repair kit and tools to take the wheels off with. I still ride with these items today aswell as a helmet now.

 

At Coombe Abbey years ago there was guy who used to drive there and pull a bike and trailer out of his car and cycle to his peg, it is a good 20-30min walk to the end of the fishery.

[Vagabond]

When I saw the title I thought you were fishing where Dick Walker learnt to catch carp - in "a deep and weedy claypit full of discarded bicycles"

 

He and Pete Thomas used to share a bike, Dick sitting on the crossbar, and balancing TWO sets of rods and tackle.

 

I used a bike also, have a picture somewhere.