Match Fishing Magazine

After all of the notable press about Internet forums I was looking through them the other day a spotted an interesting topic of discussion titled: Favourite ever item of tackle, and it got me thinking...

I have used so much tackle over the years but only some of them have really stuck in my mind as a special item of tackle. I had a look back through my past gear and these are my favourites.

My TD-R reels have played an important role in my angling for a long time, my various poles and rods have also been key items and caught me a lot of fish. But it is one rod in particular that I wouldn’t sell for a million pounds!

One of my family friends, Stuart Proctor from Knaresborough has seen me grow up as an angler. He used to give me various bits of advice but more importantly was a good friend to my Dad and myself. Sadly Stu (or Proc to his mates) became diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately lost his battle some months later, everyone who knew him was gutted as we had lost a great character from the community. He had however left me his favourite item of tackle and told me to ‘win loads of money with it!’ and that item of tackle was a Normark Titan waggler rod.

I would love to say that it was a pristine rod that had been lovingly cared for throughout years of service but that just wasn’t the case, Wert was a ‘proper’ angler so to speak and didn’t care for fancy gizmos and certainly didn’t clean his gear – much like myself. The rod in question had faded graphics, had several eyes missing or damaged and was in a bit of a state. However I went on to use it as it was and have caught loads of fish on it, despite lots of comments from anglers asking where the missing eyes were! I have certainly won more money on this rod that any other and I can safely say it is the best rod ever!

After a particularly bad winter last year I decided to give the rod a bit of a treat and sent it off to get rebuilt by ‘Bob The Rod’ at Fosters of Birmingham. He lovingly stripped it down and replaced the eyes, gave it a lick of paint and sorted the handle out and for £20 I had a rod that looked like new again! I have since gone on to catch more fish on the rod and create more memories with it, and as you can probably tell it is quite a special bit of kit.

So my question is, have you got any particularly special items of tackle or things that mean a lot to you as I am sure there are loads of you out there with a similar story to tell. If you do, don’t hesitate to e-mail me.

Joe Carass

Follow Joe on Twitter: @carassjoe