The lives of Britain’s 54,000 disabled anglers will be safer and easier thanks to a new accessory recently unveiled by a Yorkshire inventor. Charlie Mylonas, 72, has spent the past two and a half years perfecting the product which is also being marketed at able-bodied fishermen wanting to eliminate the difficulties of leaning over the front of their rig to adjust their pole position.
The automatic pole rest enables pole anglers of all abilities and physical capabilities to re-set the pole tip quickly, safely, and precisely, without having to do it manually and requires less physical effort than traditional rests. Disabled anglers will find the product particularly useful as pole adjustment can be done at the press of a button.
“Once the unit is set up the angler can fish all day with ease, safety, relaxed, and hopefully catch more,” said Charlie, who took his Fisheazy Autorest into the BBC’s Dragon’s Den before going into production with North Yorkshire product design specialist Pd-m International. “Pole anglers spend much of their time adjusting their rig to make sure that the tip of the pole is accurately positioned at the perfect point over the water. They can spend most of their angling time leaning over the water, fiddling with the bars on the rig, trying to get the position just right,” said Charlie.
He was inspired to come up with a solution after talking to his friend Eddie Longbottom, who has been a keen angler for 50 years.
“Eddie told me he had lost keys, cash and a mobile phone whilst leaning over the water to adjust his pole and had even fallen in once.”
The Fisheazy Autorest has been developed by fishermen for fishermen, to help them avoid accidents and get the most out of their fishing. It takes 30 seconds to position and fix and three seconds to make adjustments. The automatic rest was developed as a safety product and with disabled anglers very much in mind but in trials it has been found to improve control for all pole anglers. It allows amateur anglers to achieve professional levels of precision in the placement of float and pole tip and makes it far quicker to set the pole tip position. It is also useful for anyone who suffers from back pain.
Charlie, who was born in Cyprus, is no stranger to entrepreneurial success, having invented a golf ball washing device in 1990 which was bought out by a major golfing supplier. He has been in business in Yorkshire since setting up a coffee bar in Heckmondwike over 40 years ago and has owned a fish and chip shop and run a burger factory during a varied career. He hopes his latest invention will be successful enough to allow him to enjoy his retirement.
“I’m not a fisherman but I developed the product in conjunction with anglers with the aim of making the lives of disabled and able-bodied pole anglers easier.” he said.
