Your first ever set up

[wotnobivvy]

My first rod was a Milbro one piece solid fibre glass about 4ft long with a wooden handle. It came from the local second hand shop, along with a small (about 2") centrepin reel. I went to the local tackle shop which was a bus ride away and bought some nylon line with a foreign sounding name, a pretty looking perch float, which I still have, a small tin of assorted split shot, and some Model Perfect hooks made by Mustad. I had an OXO tin about 6" x 4" with holes punched in it as a maggot tin. This and my lunch was packed in an Ex-army surplus khaki rucksack which had a cardboard stiffener inside to protect your back. I had to go on my pushbike everywhere, especially when collecting maggots (which were called gentles then), as the bus conductor would not let me on the bus with them. This was in the early 1950's, and kind relations bought me the "How to catch them" series to help me. My hero was my late cousin, who landed a 10lb carp on 2.5 line using an Apollo Taperflash tubular steel rod. To sit I had (and still have) a small foldup canvas and metal stool which I won for being the smartest Cub at an international Jamboree. It was and still is very uncomfortable for anyone older than about 10!!

[Worms]

My first rod was a homemade affair made by my father, I was about 5 at the time, a two piece whole cane rod with thick copper wire eyes whipped on with green thread. The reel was a plastic or bakelite 'pin of about 2 1/2" diameter tackle was in Players Navy Cut tins all stored in a gas mask case. I don't remember the details but I do remember my Dad's aversion to buying tackle that he could make.....his spinners were a work of art, made out of tin can lids, folded and hammered to the correct shape and soft soldered at the seams....probably still got one somewhere!

 

I used to fish a little brook, a tributary of the Teme that held minnows, gudgeon, dace, chub (up to the magic 1lb mark!) and, rumour had it, a giant pike "in the big pool near the bridge".....never saw the pike but I did see my first two otters, that came out of the water right opposite me and scrambled up the bank into a day rest under some bushes. One had a small eel the other a frog....the crunching of bones and the snuffling and squeaking of the otters went on for ten minutes before they slid down the bank and shot off downstream....I was hooked!

 

Thinking about it, I had that rod for about 6 years and caught a huge pike (well a jack of 4lb) from the Teme. This time the reel was a little brown Daiwa, a birthday present from my parents 'bought' with Green Shield Stamps!

Edited August 19, 2011 by Worms

[Phone]

RUDD,

 

It does bring back old memories. I'm afraid my "first" has been lost to the posterity of bad memory. My grandmother (mother's side) had 5 daughters. They in turn all married men who acquiesced to my grandmother's authority. There was the "big" house surrounded in a semi-circle by the 5 girls homes. Grandma was boss! Each daughter had an assigned responsibility in the "family".

 

There were grandchildren as follows: 1 grandaughter; 22 grandsons; one grandaughter. We didn't really have "personal belongings" until perhaps 14 - 15 year old and even then ownership was tenuious.

 

My first "personal" rod and reel that serves my memory was a Zebco "bomb" reel and steel hex rod of about 4'6" (they were made from a flexible steel sort of like for sword fighting - know what I'm talking about?).

 

Strangely, today I use a Zebco Optima and a 6'6" UglyStik. So, in my lifetime, I've gone from simple, to fancy and back to simple. Both these Zebco's are spincast reels with a casting range of about 25 yards on a good day. Today, my rod holders are "forked sticks" made for me by one of my grandsons in Boy Scouts. I use Eagle Claw hooks (carefully inspected to insure quality) and freeline.

 

It might also be added I don't catch many fish anymore either (ha ha). But, like you, I will be ready to GO whilst drawing my last breath.

 

Phone

[Newt]

You folks all seem to have started at a pretty high-tech level.

 

My first in 1947 was a bamboo "pole" (cured, limber piece of cane about 6 feet long) with braid line tied to the tip. Float was a whiskey bottle cork with a hole punched in the center and a piece of match stick used to peg the cork at the desired level. Rig was a simple mainline to hook and the bait was a piece of worm or a roach on the hook. I was a little over 2 years old at the time and a proud young man since the pole was MINE.

 

Dad left his fly rod at home and used the same gear as I did. We usually fished from a wooden jon boat (a form of skiff) using the sort of wooden paddles you see in old movies being used by people in canoes. We did have a 2hp gasoline outboard but only used it for traveling from fishing spot to fishing spot.

 

I was given a fly rod a few years later (age 7-8 I think) when my hands became strong enough to use it.

[John S]

My first rod was at first borrowed from the uncle of a pair of friends, brothers who used to go fishing with said uncle almost every weekend. A 9' cane rod (which I still own and cherish), it was presented to me on my next birthday by their uncle who was by now convinced I was 'hooked'. The first reel I owned was an Intrepid Black Prince, the Trabbant of the fishing world. It was succeeded by the more upmarket Prince Regent (but we're still talking Trabbant here).

 

We'd all fish the local park pond or get my dad (who didn't 'do' fishing) to drive us all to one of the ponds outside Hull, either the Brickyard or Bakers Pond, which I still fish.

 

I also had (and still have) the wicker basket bought as a birthday present a couple of years later by my parents, made by someone in the local Blind Institute, and yes it was uncomfortable. Until then, unless we were travelling by car (an old Ford Classic), rods were tied to the crossbars of our bikes and everything else was carried in a plassy bag on the handlebars.

 

Halcyon days....

[Ken L]

Mine was a horrible Shakespeare fiberglass rod with a zip real fitting and a strange shrunk on corrigated grip.

I think the real was an intrepid but was soon replaced with a Mitchel 300 handed down from my dad.

 

The upgrade was to a Bruce and Walker CTM Match (fiberglass again) paired with an ABU 506.

[poledark]

I think I can better you here Newt.. my dad came home from work one evening in 1946 with 3 sets of "fishing" gear. With 2 brothers, I ended up with what had almost certainly started life as a billiard cue, with only two "eyes" whipped on, eyes made from bent wire. Can't remember the reel, if indeed there was one, but I "have never looked back"

 

Caught my first fish ( a small brown one, probably a carp) with that rod

 

Den

Edited August 19, 2011 by poledark

[Sportsman]

It was 1956. The rod was a tank aerial with a wooden handle. The reel was a cheap tin thing that looked like a multiplier but wasn't. Heavy line, no more than 25yds, but a packet of proper hooks - Lion D'Or size 16 crystal bend (what a memory, if only I could remember what I was doing yesterday )

I fished the carp pond on Stacey's farm with my mates for 2-3 oz golden coloured carp that we called Crucians.

My mate, Dave Shearing, caught a 3lb carp and got his picture on the front page of the local paper

[paul93]

havent been fishing long so only got one rod. its a ron thompson g force carp feeder 13ft. a bloke in my local tackle shop gave it to me when i went to see how much it be to start fishing. he also gave me a reel but i cant remeber what it was. sadly have also lost the reel:(. but i have a diawa sweepfire now which i like:) i still owe tha man alot.

[davedave]

A whip (which at the time i thought was and called it a pole), a few ready made rigs that came with it, a pack of size 14 hooks (way too big for one or two maggots) which i would reuse, a couple of floats, and a stool.

 

I would then take half a pint of maggots and sit by the lake with dad for a few hours fishing for dace (thy were roach, i thought they were dace)

 

I actually used to catch pretty well, i imagine if i had used smaller hooks and finer line i could of put a half decent bag of fish together