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Tag Archives: vintage

The last angling auction house in London

07 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by The tuesday swim in General, Tackle

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

angling, auctions, chiswick, fishing, london, tackle, vintage

On Saturday 2nd April 2016 the Angling Auctions in Chiswick finally drew to a close when the hammer fell and lot 630 – “An unusual American Bamboo trout fishers creel” was sold. Slow applause permeated throughout the hall in appreciation for Neil Freeman who has put the hammer down on 32,000 lots over the last twenty five years offering vintage fishing tackle, taxidermy, books and angling art to a worldwide audience of collectors and angling enthusiasts.

My involvement began in 2011 (I’m considered a relative new boy) when John Andrews of Arcadia asked if I could help out on the rods. Arriving in Chiswick I was soon put to task in the construction of the rod rack, an antique in its own right, but a protector of fine fishing rods. Neil told me that he built the rack in 1991 with a drunk Irishman, a story I must confess I believe looking at the quality of its construction, but in  defence of the Anglo-Irish workmanship it still survives with it’s biannual kicks and trips that it has to endure from eager anglers grasping at the wonders it beholds.  Five years on I am still putting up the same rod rack, stuffed with even more matches and bound with ever more gaffer tape.

Over the years staff have come and gone but generally there is a core that stay loyal,  Neil’s brother has been involved from the start and more recently Neil’s son Sam has worked as a porter. Fresh sandwiches and cakes are made and the all important tea urn is switched on as soon as we arrive on the Friday morning, the tea urn is first off and last on the van, a tradition that has lasted since the beginning. Last Saturday the tea urn was loaded onto the van for the last time in Chiswick and a new beginning for the Angling Auctions has begun down in Romsey, Hampshire. Hopefully I will see you there?

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The curator of tackle boxes

19 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

angling, tackle, vintage

The tackle box to many is a container to hold smaller items of fishing tackle; floats, hooks, weights and so on. But you can tell a lot about an angler by lifting the lid and viewing the contents. The boxes I like have character, a soul, this appeals to me greatly  as an insight into the owner and a period of time in the angling past. Over the years I have acquired tackle boxes that I keep as an archive, a curator that considers each box as a piece of art and historical interest, but most importantly a box that has a personality. Sometimes I will edit a box to create a pleasing aesthetic but all the time I am conserving the integrity of each collection. Tackle is not the only thing found, old permits with scribbles on the reverse of notable captures, newspaper cuttings from the angling press, badges, coins and in one example a lucky charm belonging to a superstitious angler. I must also mention the smell of old tackle boxes, a smell that is hard to define but lingers like that of an old british bike or a waxed jacket, a scent of wood, oils, and old cotton.

I have a acquired these boxes from elderly anglers who have taken their last cast, anglers who can no longer tie a hook and rely purely on their memories, but most of all the boxes I have procured come from anglers I never knew, only through detective work I can paint an image of who they were, when they fished and the style of fishing that they pursued, I can step into their shoes, I have become the curator of tackle boxes!

 

Vinatge Tackle Box
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Fallon’s Angler at the National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by The tuesday swim in Fallon's Angler quarterly, Reading

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

angler, fair, fallon's, fishing, national, publication, tackle, vintage

This Sunday amongst boxes of old reels, racks of rods and all types of angling ephemera, Garrett, Nick and Les also known as the three musketeers of Fallon’s Angler will be showing all issues to date along with free advice on stewed hemp and leaf soup. To celebrate our arrival on the National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair scene we shall be offering a nice deal on our archive of issues one to four and discussing issue five, six, seven…

Find us at the entrance along side our good friend Steve Roberts of River Days.

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Advent in spoons 2014

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

allcocks, fishing, Hardy, lure, mahseer, old, pike, salmon, spoons, tradition, vintage

 












Spoons 23:12:14Toby 24-12-14text

 

The tuesday swim advent…

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in General, Tackle

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

lures, pike, spoons, vintage

A glorious seasonal celebration of copper, bronze, tin, silver and some gimp wire as the tuesday swim photographer warms up for christmas with a collection of vintage spoons.

Spoon 1:12:14

Ultra floats.

18 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

cuckfield, fishing, floats, penfolds, ultra, vintage

 

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I quite enjoy using and accumulating fishing tackle from the same era as when I was a young lad, but at the age of ten or eleven most of the tackle I owned was hand-me-down rubbish, a pink solid glass rod paired with an Intrepid Black Prince reel was my only kit. With my inadequate tackle and limited funds the only ‘good’ items I could afford in my local tackle shop, Penfolds of Cuckfield were fishing floats.

When entering the narrow shop illuminated only by artificial light, carded displays in glass cabinets from various manufacturers covered one wall, it was always the Ultra range of floats that caught my eye. Neat rows of floats organised into models and then graded  into sizes lined up like church organ pipes standing to attention as if on parade.  To a novice angler the range was beweildering, I mean how many ‘onion’ floats do you really need, and how different are they from a ‘Ducker’? To understand the range was an education in how to fish, although attractive they all had a utilitarian purpose.

Thirty years on I still have a few remaining Ultra floats, a band of brothers that managed to avoid the pitfalls of being cast into overly optomistic situations, less lucky comrades were lost in battle, eventually washed away by the ebb and flow. Today though I was most pleased to find that good friend and dealer in nostalgia John Andrews of Arcadia had located a lost battalion of Ultras, locked away in a box for decades but now released, dressed in black (as I remember them) and the earlier olive-green version.

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Losing tackle.

03 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in Pike

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Tags

deeper, go, heddon, losing, lure, river, runt, tackle, vintage

I appreciate vintage tackle and I am an angler, but sometimes combining the two together can cause some upsetting moments by the waterside.
On Sunday I decided on a quick hour of spinning for pike on the Lea despite all of the recent rain. My theory was thus, the water had been running fast for three weeks and now as the water was dropping an opportunist pike must be lying in wait in the slack water. Armed with a box of plugs and a bait-casting rod I headed down to the river to find it still running faster and higher than I had ever seen before, the colour was like tea made by a Frenchman, Liptons bag with too much milk.
The sun was appearing through the trees and it looked to be a pleasant day so I was quite happy trying out a few different plugs at varying depths, speeds and actions, trying to locate the slower water. After a while I decided to put a lovely old Heddon Go Deeper River Runt on and explore the deep, slower water. The Lea was up about a meter so I thought the lure should stay off the bottom. This lure has a fantastic action that vibrates the rod tip in such a distinctive manner that you always know the lure is fishing properly and not twisted or caught on the trace. On my fourth or fifth cast the the lure caught on something just near my feet about two foot out from the bank, dammit!
After much pulling from all directions I finally went for the ‘pull’ and the 25lb braid gave way, leaving no resistant, the lure had been lost. God dammit!!!!
Losing bits of tackle including vintage tackle is part of angling but losing this lure in the raging river Lea really pi**ed me off as I knew I was unlikely to get it back. After a another few casts I left for home.
Obsessive? me? No surely not!
I had one glimmer of hope though, the Lea was running high so I could return as the river dropped and hopefully find the obstruction that my River Runt had clung onto? The Lea is not really tidal anymore due to the Olympic Park but at low tide on the Thames the water flows out of the Lea more quickly and drops about 2-3 feet. Low tide was due at 9.50 am the following morning and with no rain for the previous 48 hours it should drop even further. But fearing another angler or dog walker would pass by and spot my lure I decided in a paranoid moment to make a quick visit before dark, so to look like I was not abandoning my duties as a father on a Sunday I took my daughter along in the pram. The river was falling but when I arrived at the crime scene the water had only dropped about a foot, my lure was nowhere to be seen.
Monday morning had arrived so I included a visit to the Lea while heading to work. At 9.30 am I arrived to find the river down about a meter and there in the torrent of water was a lone twig, Excalibur stood alone with my River Runt clinging on for dear life, swaying backwards and forwards in the fast current!
Now I had the simple task of cutting down a branch, creating a fork, stepping down into the silted mud in my trainers, pushing the lure off, knocking it upstream and flicking it onto the bank. As I said before, obsessive? me? No!
Well, it all went to plan and my Heddon lure now sits on my desk at work all safe and sound, while my trainers dry off below, leaving a faint smell of River Lea in flood…lovely!
Heddon River Runt vintage Plug

Boredom, boys & pike!

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Pike

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

1960's, boys, fishing, own, paper, pike, vintage

The theme of pike in October continues although with all of this mild weather I personally don’t consider the pike season has really started for 2013. There’s a pile of seasoned logs awaiting the first cold snap but mother natures seems to be un-hurried this year. I tend to have the date of November 5th as a traditional starting point for me, it is a time when I often go down to Sussex for Bonfire night and grab a few hours for pike before the fireworks begin.

A recent visit to Spitalfields Antique market found me rifling through some old copies of BOP (Boys Own Paper) and the copy below which caught my eye for obvious reasons…pike! BOP really conjures up the past from my childhood although I think the BOP stopped being published by the time I was looking for advice on fishing, camping, astronomy, which first motorbike to buy or improving your slot car performance!

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Inside BOP is a picture of a monster pike that would inspire boys to dream of large pike and their potential capture. In reality a capture very rarely happened because these creatures are quite scarce. And secondly, pike tackle in the 1960’s and 70’s was generally fairly crude and an added expense to a young boys fishing armoury, so short cuts were made. If such a pike was hooked it was inevitably never landed. This led way to many boy’s pike stories that ended in lost giants due to snapped lines, un-twisted traces, jamming reels, broken rods, straightened trebles or landing nets that were simply too small.

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Boredom would get boys out on their bikes in the middle of winter in search of their dreams sparked by publication such as the BOP, with a collection of botched together pike gear, some hope and a sprinkling of patience.

The lure of Abu.

11 Saturday May 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

abu, Anders, Österlin, Bute, fad, Isle, loch, lures, poster, spinners, vintage

After booking the annual trip to the Isle of Bute this summer, my mind turns to thoughts of spinning for Pike on Loch Fad or trying for wrasse off the rocks. Plugs, spoons, jerk baits, streamer flies, shooting heads and multipliers, the fishing bag is going a little more modern as I will be spinning and fly fishing for a week on the west coast in August.

Abu poster Abu poster 2 Abu poster 3

A few more floats.

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

avon, cook, float, maker, making, paul, vintage

After posting a shot of two rather nice old floats on the Traditional Fisherman’s Forum for the float builders to use as reference, I was most surprised to be contacted by master builder Paul Cook who has used the colours as a reference for some Avons.

Below are the original two floats that i posted on the TTF.

Vintage floats And here are Paul’s versions, amazing work as to be expected….

photo 2 photo

I was also given a sneak preview of something that Paul has been working on, the results are stunning but I’m afraid its all hush hush for now!

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Off to the marshes #hackneymarshes
I’ve been here before but this is reassuringly familiar, an antidote to the boutique homogenous lifestyle that is rife in our city. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Watersmeet- Our current winter film set on the Hampshire Avon with @adamchetwood @kgparr link in my bio. Where to next? #anglingfilms #chubfishing
Watersmeet - Chub fishing on the Hampshire Avon, our new film for winter #hampshireavon #hampshireavonfishing #chub #fallonsangler #fishingfilms #winterfishing link in bio
A reunion on the Hampshire Avon. Our new film for Fallons Angler ready to view in time for Christmas. Friends, pints, and fishing #chubfishing #chub #fishingfilms #fallonsangler #hampshireavon
Surely it’s time for a perch?
Epping forest #eppingforest
The fading light plays a strong roll on us at this time of year. The Witching Hour film available to view, link in bio. #embracethedarkness
Next week I travel to France and begin filming a life in Normandy over one year. A man whos footprint on the planet has the lightest touch, where his life and the natural world sit side by side. #dustthefilm …
The Witching Hour our new film launching at midday today 15th October link in bio #fishingfilms #fallonsangler
Last week we spread my parents ashes on the South Downs. In life they were inseparable, so we did the honourable thing and mixed their ashes with our own hands, returned them to the chalk on the Sussex Downs at a geographical point between birth, life and death.
The Prince of Peace is dead, thank you for the musical and spiritual journey of my life. 1940-2022 #pharoahsanders
A quick over nighter by the river and under the stars with @fallonsangler_magazine for a new film. Packing light - bedroll, camera, drone and a Katsu Curry Pot Noodle or two. Film out in a fortnight. In the meantime please order our new issue of Fallons Angler capturing the bewitching hour. #autumnequinox #fallonsangler #fishingfilms #canonuk
Norway, reassuringly boring with some hidden surprises #norway #oslo #snorway

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