Back in the 80s...

[Steve Sorrell]

Bill i bet you will remember the old send marketing bivvy,s or should I say canvas over wrap … it was like chucking a big Barbour jacket over your brolly weighed a bloody ton

Then Dave Barnes came along with lighter nylon bivvies and we all put bamboo canes under each rib so we could take the centre pole out. I had one and you could get 2 sun loungers under it.

Then Kevin Nash started selling his ‘sides’ that went on the brolly at ‘tilt’. Initially they had webbing fixed to the inside so you could weave the ribs through it (or stitch on small curtain rings). Next stage was sewing Velcro round the join……

I had the Nash mini sides on a nubrolli. Think they just covered 2 ribs but served me very well doing overnighters on my flashy (then) Lafuma bedchair

 

[Graham Elliott]

Gosh you lot were posh.
My tackle consisted of a shopping bag, a fold up tubular green bottomed chair, and a forked willow branch.
I did have a Mitchell 300 with the catch the line special triple armed drag setting and Tony Fordham posh rod, with a twice reduced quiver tip,. They tended to break casting more than 2oz.

I got my first brolly in 2019.

 

[Terry Simner]

Bloody 'ell, we're drowning in nostalgia here ....
The good ol' days are good'n gone now,
That's why they're good, because they're gone

 

[Dave Taylor]

Gainsborough Tackle? Think it was Nev Ficklings shop. Bought a brilliant ruck bag from there, first mail order purchase I ever made.

Steve

Used Trev’s shop a lot in the early 80’s,.. still got the catalogues somewhere.
One of the best sources for rod building gear back in the day.
Cheaper South Korean rods put an end to my rod building days but I still ordered pike gear from The Tackle Shop when N.F took over,…. I remember the shop even supplied an Admiralty depth chart for Loch Lomond.
This thread reminded me that I’ve still got an old canvas overrap and original Optonics tucked away for posterity,… unless the mice have been busy!

Ps,… the Ruckbag was a great bit of kit,.. lasted for years,.. brilliant quality.

 

[Neil Smart]

Bloody 'ell, we're drowning in nostalgia here ....
The good ol' days are good'n gone now,
That's why they're good, because they're gone

Well I would say the 60s growing up was pretty special that being the early 60s before joining the RAF in 66. The gear then would have been home made glass rods with a cheap pin or a new fangled fixed spool such as the Monarch. Caught loads on that gear, river Avon was dirty but full of quality roach etc. Fishing saved my sanity when posted to Bahrain 68 joined a Sunday fishing club who hired an Arab Dhow to fish the Gulf waters...amazing stuff Shark huge Grouper King Mackerel all caught on gear we knocked up or knocked off lol. As soon as something edible hit the deck, the crew gutted it and cooked it in a flash. Those fishing trips made that tour bearable. Hand lines were what the locals used. we were very much high tech.

 

[Andrew Burt]

James Robbins of Cadence fame extols the virtues of bait from Lane’s in his excellent videos. So the shop must still exist !

I still have a copy of Billy Lane’s ‘Encyclopaedia of float fishing’.

It certainly does exist and aside top quality bait it is an excellent shop, one of those you browse and come out with things you didn't previously know you needed.

 

[Barry Garwood]

Does this help at all ?

It is a page from the 1981 Tackle dealers directory . I cannot find a specific dealer in Leigh, but maybe one of the names would jog a memory cell ?

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David

Wow that’s a coincidence one of your fingers is on the shop I bought my first “proper” fishing rod from! Tookes it was a goldcrest cuckoo sadly the shop is long gone as with so many others!