Your first ever set up

[RUDD]

It would seem (to myself at least) that the vast majority of posting I have done lately has been very negative.

With this in mind I thought it best to get my mind back on a more positive track and come up with this thread:

 

What was your first ever fishing set up and how did you come about obtaining it?

 

My first rod was a 12ft Sundridge Scorpio (maybe scorpion) fibre glass rod with a screw in eye tip coupled with a Ryobi LX200.

Sundries - a few packets of sundridge hooks (had pictures of fish on the inside card), plastic sundridge Dipper floats, a tub of mixed shot, a disgorger, a bait box and a cantaliver box to keep my bits in.

 

I got the set up for Christmas when 8 years old round my Grandparents house in Ford street Rochester.

The year before my family had moved out of Felixstowe to Kirton and the local lads had introduced me to coarse fishing (already done some sea angling).

 

This house move and christmas present changed my life by installing into myself a Passion for angling that will remain in my blood until my final breath.

 

Strangly enough after selling the rod some years later to by a better one I have seen it in the use twice of the bank being held on both occasions by different anglers. I knew it was the same rod due to some damage to one of the legs!!!

[Dales]

Nice post Rudd

 

I think your memory is much better then mine, I have not got a clue what make my first set up was but it was a green Salmon fibre glass rod paired with an old centre pin reel that was lent to me for fishing trips with my uncles in Ireland after a few borrowed trips it was given to me as my own set up . Never done much Salmon fishing with it but caught plenty of Trout, Perch and Jacks on it.

 

Once it was obvious the fishing was not a passing fad I got presented with 10ft DAM match rod and reel starter kit for a birthday present from either Woolworths or Argos.

[chesters1]

a nameless bent stick rod and a "boys" metal centerpin reel with a fixed ratchet

rod from my uncle ,reel from dad ,first used on military canal hythe approx 1960

i was completely hooked ,trouble was dad never (hobbies were fads rarely lasting a fortnight) was so i had to wait until the next years holiday to go again.

after a couple of frustrating years only fishing by myself on holiday as was in those days i ventured out from home by myself and was regularly fishing weekends as far away as maidstone (by train from bromley) by the age of ten.

one day my uncle sent me his old intrepid standard when he bought his continental and i said goodbye to my crappy tin reel with a 2lb hammer and never looked back

 

 

i wonder if the structure is still there ? it would be somewhere behind the campsite in hythe opposite the beach if its still there burmarsh road area

Edited August 19, 2011 by chesters1

[AddictedToScopex]

My first fishing setup that I owned rather than just used consisted of the following given to me by my grandfather:

 

> Multiple Mitchell and shakespeare reels. (The old style ones with the egg shaped body. I had at least 10)

> 1 Wicker box surrounded by khaki canvas with a woven strap

> 2 Fibreglass float rods

> Mustad hooks from my father

> Very old but very good floats

> 1 bank stick with old style rubber rod rest

> 1 maggot box

> 1 pair of small surgical forceps

 

And I made do with that setup for a long time until my father had a fallout with a camp site owner at a lake we used to fish in the summer in yorkshire and the tackle got left behind as the owner had it in his garage and would not give it back as my dad refused to pay him after he had been renting OUR caravan out to complete strangers. Incidentally I caught my first ever tench on this setup and it was 4.5lbs. Still not had one bigger to this day =(

 

Wish I still had it all as it was a joy to use.

Edited August 19, 2011 by AddictedToScopex

[Steve Walker]

My first rod and reel was one of those boy's fishing kits when I was seven. A bright green six foot rod in solid fibreglass, a crude little fixed spool reel, heavy mono, some large hooks to nylon, a perch bobber, some lead shot, a drilled bullet and a coffin lead, a plummet, and a spinner. I also had the Winfield version of the same thing at some point, very similar and just as awful.

 

My first proper tackle, bought for me when I was nine or ten, was a 12' Daiwa Delta match rod in hollow glass and a Mitchell 204 fixed spool reel. I still have that reel somewhere, though it needs a new bail arm and spring. I must get it fixed, it would be brilliant for ultra light spinning. By then I was buying my own tackle with my pocket money, cycling to the tackle shop with my mates. We had lots of these:

 

[Steve Walker]

> 1 Wicker box surrounded by khaki canvas with a woven strap

 

I had a bum-crimper too!

 

Once had a pint of pinkies escape into it on the bus - I got off sharpish without saying a word...

[Errrm]

I learnt to fish with an short rod made from an old tank aerial (I'm not that old though!). It was made by my grandad for my dad to learn to fish with probably sometime in the 60's maybe. I think I used a very old mitchell reel with it which was an old reel of my dads :-)

[AddictedToScopex]

I had a bum-crimper too!

 

It certainly wasnt the most comfortable thing to sit on but I miss it lol. I used to love the creaking of the wicker lattice as you opened it up on a cold morning to get your gear out. Its making me feel all reminiscent now lol. I was very young at the time and it was all so exciting to me. Although saying that, it still is. I love walking over the fields and catching your first glimpse of the river at first light with the mist coming down it and the odd dimple as a small dace tops. Its just magic.

 

God I want to be there now instead of sitting in the office. Roll on saturday.

[Steve Walker]

It certainly wasnt the most comfortable thing to sit on but I miss it lol. I used to love the creaking of the wicker lattice as you opened it up on a cold morning to get your gear out. Its making me feel all reminiscent now lol. I was very young at the time and it was all so exciting to me.

 

I can almost remember the smell of my first tackle box, and of the plastic sleeve that my starter kit was kept in. Almost, I just can't quite place it, but trying to brings back memories of sneaking out of the house at dawn, or of one trip to the canal with my granddad, trying to use tares and not realising that they needed to be boiled first!

[gozzer]

I can almost remember the smell of my first tackle box, and of the plastic sleeve that my starter kit was kept in. Almost, I just can't quite place it, but trying to brings back memories of sneaking out of the house at dawn, or of one trip to the canal with my granddad, trying to use tares and not realising that they needed to be boiled first!

 

The smell I remember most, is linseed oil. I can smell it now, just thinking of it. That and the faint ammonia smell from fresh maggots.

 

I started with my fathers tackle. He died when I was 10 so I inherited it. Several centre pins, from a bespoke 'side cast' type CP, made locally, to a few wooden starbacks. Several rods, a couple all cane, some with greenheart tips, and a solid greenheart pike rod. A home made plywood seat box, and landing/keepnets with that beautiful linseed oil smell.

It was nearly 10yrs before I felt the need for a fixed spool, and had added a couple of 'better' centre pins by then.

I had to keep my gear in the cellar, which involved going through the kitchen, and more than once the odd maggot (or several) would escape, and I would be threatened with a ban, (which thankfully never happened). Rushing home from school to grab my gear and bike, and head down to the local canal to fish for the roach, gudgeon, and even had minnow matches with my mates. The long Sunday walk into town, at stupid o clock in the morning, (before the buses started running), to catch the first bus to Tadcaster, Wetherby, Boston Spa, etc, along with a bus full of other kids. On arrival, it was a race to the 'best' swims.

 

John.