Don’t be fooled by salesmen
see a lot of catalogues from fishing tackle retailers, over a couple of
dozen a year at least, and tackle of many kinds at widely different prices.
Nearly all of the catalogues offer some expensive carbon fibre rods, especially
fly rods, that are priced at over £600 apiece, or even over £700.
A brash young salesman on the stand of a tackle company at an angling
fair a few years ago wondered why I laughed so much when he tried to sell
me one such expensive rod and went on to say: “I recommend that
sir buys a matching pair of the rods!”
Seriously, you don’t need to be fooled by such sales techniques.
Last year anglers were told that carbon fibre was going to rise in price
soon and that we should expect to see carbon rods rising in price by a
large amount. This has not happened.
I use some lovely fly rods that cost under £100, and sometimes only
half that amount. One firm sells a range of carbon fly rods, the cheapest
of which costs under £25 brand new.
Just for the fun of it I sometimes still use my old glass fibre rods bought
many years ago and now worth perhaps £5. I still catch fish on them.
In another recent feature I told readers about the nice large arbour fly
reel that has a spare spool thrown in and costs an amazingly cheap £10
brand new, though poorer models sold for up to £60 not that many
years ago.
Fly fishing lines are another matter. If you want the best floating fly
lines it often pays to buy the best and most expensive ones. They don’t
wear out as fast as cheaper ones for a start.
But sinking lines are another matter. I use mainly so-called ‘mill
end’ lines that I buy for only a few pounds each. Since I often
use ‘shooting heads’ a cheap double taper mill end line will
enable me to cut a shooting head from each end, thus getting two lines
for the price of one.
If my remarks upset some purveyors of expensive tackle, so be it. I am
unrepentant.