I made myself a promise to sort the garage out, to clean and check all the tackle, to install another rod rack (sounds posh - but in reality they're just hanging-basket brackets) and generally make the place more user-friendly. (The truth is - I'd lost my spare keepnet and the 'better-half' couldn't get to the freezer anymore).

At this stage I must admit I'm a bit of a 'hoarder' - well a lot of a 'hoarder' really. You never know when you'll need that old rod rest head or that old reel - even if it's just for storing line on. And don't forget that collection of broken floats, which I will eventually get around to mending, adapting or improving. You just never know when you'll need them. And it always happens - you throw something away, next week you discover you need it.

So it looked like a long, tedious and boring day was on the cards, but whilst rummaging through some old boxes and delighting in their long-forgotten contents, (apart from all the empty caster shells), I re-discovered one of my first fishing reels.


Now I started fishing in the mid-60's (look - I was six - ok?) and the tackle was different then (Nope - none of that 'I remember when I was a lad' routine...) but in the sixties there were no baitrunners, alarms, carbon rods, etc., it makes you wonder how we caught fish - but we did catch - perhaps not as many - but just as enjoyable.

Re-discovering this Alcock & Stanley reel brought back memories and made me think - 'Is this my favourite bit of kit'?

Nah - I adore my present Shimano's, they're brilliant, they don't tangle, twist or snap the line, they are smooth, precise and reliable.

So what is my favourite piece of kit?
A good question. When I asked the same question to some of my fellow anglers, I got a very varied response.

'What would you hate to lose'? 'What item of tackle would you miss the most'? I asked bankside anglers on a recent fishing trip.

Here's some of the answers...

Fly-fisher Arthur Bell said it had to be his Dyna-King fly-tying vice, a predictable answer I thought.

Andrew Lockwood said it would be his old Redwolf carp rod, which he uses for everything from sea fishing to carp and feeder fishing.

Whilst Joe Hibbert said it had to be his landing net, 'cos he couldn't do owt without it'.

Jan Porter thought hard and declared that it had to be his old Stanton reel.

A.T. staff writer Dave Wheat plumped for his old hand-made centre pin reel which he bought from Walkers of Trowell back in the mid-60's (it's a perspex and bakalite job with an aluminium reel seat - and it's still working!)

The answers were varied and surprising... from scissors to disgorgers to hi-tec fish-finders - and even one angler said his pet dog!

It's quite a hard question really and not as easy as I first thought.

My Baitrunners are so good, I would miss them, but I could still fish in a similar style without them. Perhaps it's the old Bob Church fly rod which I've had for so long... (but you can buy better rods at half the price today). Maybe the bright orange disgorger I've had in tackle box for years, it's always got the awkward hook out, but again they cost less than a quid and are better designed today.

Perhaps I was right in the beginning, the old reel was my favourite piece of kit, but then I remembered what I would really miss, I use it on all my carp rigs, I repair floats with it, it's got dozens of uses and I've got two bottles of it in my tackle box today. Superglue.

Yep - that indispensable, finger-sticking stuff we all use and forget about. You've probably got a tube of the stuff solidifying in your tackle box right now. More likely the top's leaked and stuck itself to some hook packets or floats, complete with the obligatory stray loose shot and grass seeds that always seem to migrate into tackle boxes.

I always use superglue on the knots for carp rigs, it gives me that added confidence in the terminal tackle and yet the only time I really think about it - is either when I've glued my fingers together or when I'm muttering a prayer to Izaak Walton 'cos I've hooked into a monster carp that's nearly reached the snags and is about to be given the serious 'locked-reel bent-rod treatment'. That's when I think about superglue - and how glad I've used it on the knots...
...I did remember to glue that last knot didn't I?

E-mail details of your favourite piece of kit - and we'll add it to this page.