Thomas Turner
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NOT QUITE GOLDEN OLDIES
You might be surprised to hear that iconic rods from the seventies, eighties and nineties are becoming popular again, especially after the pandemic brought many people back into coarse fishing. Thomas Turner sees huge demand for the Hardy Marksmans I was involved with developing only a decade ago, but perhaps because there are not such big numbers of these around, returning anglers haven’t forgotten favourite long-lived brands like Drennan, Normark, Shakespeare and Daiwa. These go back further, but not to the extent where many would have thought them to be collectables. But rods from these stables are now much sought after, so maybe you need to start looking at ones you might have stashed away and don’t use any more…
12ft Normark Microlite Match float rod
WELL-USED
This 12ft Normark Microlite Match float rod of mine has seen too much action to go back on the market, not that I would ever sell it. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the bright burgundy whippings, which I blacked out with a waterproof felt tip pen. This soft actioned float rod became a firm favourite on wider stretches of canals, finally winning me the London Angler’s Association Canal Benevolent, after being runner up back in the days when over 300 anglers lined the Grand Union just outside the capital. I ended up working for Normark France a couple of years ago, but they don’t use that magical brand name on products anymore. Many Normark rods are now highly sought after. I witnessed Thomas Turner buying two crackers at a recent valuation day held at Horncastle Angling.
NICE ONE
Back in 1993 I fished the Drennan Super League final with Essex County over in Ireland. We won it and I was lucky enough to be individual top points scorer over the three days, which encompassed switching between pole, waggler and feeder tactics. Apart from the lucrative main prize and daily pools, I was awarded one of the first Drennan IM8 13ft Feeder Rods. It was an early long-range quivertip blank and I loved it, particularly for the Emerald Isle. Peter Drennan himself rang me when I got back to the UK, as enthusiastic as ever. I worked for him as a consultant for a while after that.
Drennan 13ft rod
A SPECIAL ROD
I used my new Drennan 13-footer a lot, winning loads of coin with it and enjoying some great bags of bream on the feeder at long range. It became like a lucky charm for me over in Ireland, bagging up on big hybrids and slabs in festivals, back in the days when most feeder/quivertip rods weren’t up to casting very far. A lot of anglers who maybe enjoyed using this popular model as much as me, probably don’t realise late classic rods like this are in demand. My prize rod pictured here is well used, a little battle scarred, but still in very usable condition. To set the ball rolling, Thomas Turner have purchased it and it’s up for sale, after being stored away doing nothing for too many years.
Proof of Dave winning the 13ft IM8 in the Drennan Super League Final back in 1993.
Drennan Light and Medium Feeder rods
MOVING ON
I also owned early Drennan Light and Medium Feeder rods, which used to be very popular when I ran a tackle shop in North London back in the eighties and nineties. Like the later 13ft IM8, they are well-used but still very nice rods to fish with, perhaps a bit ahead of their time. I eventually moved on, mainly due to developing rods for Hardy and Greys, turning to more modern favourites I designed myself. These two rods have been stored away in my tackle den for far too long, so T.T. have finally persuaded me to part with them and they are now due to be listed on their website.
12ft IM8 Super Feeder rod
COMPLETING THE SET
Owning the Light and Medium Drennan Feeder rods, also the IM8 13ft model, I just had to invest in the 12ft IM8 Super Feeder to complete the set. Once again well used and forgotten about for many years, but now going on sale on the Thomas Turner website. Hopefully somebody can enjoy fishing with this lovely all-rounder all over again. It was equally at home fishing at fair distances for stillwater bream, as it was on big rivers. It saw lots of action on the Thames and River Yare.
IT CHANGED HERE
Some of the Drennan rods above were used in my best-selling Coarse Fishing Year book, which sold 100,000 copies. I’m seen here holding the book outside Hardy and Greys, where I moved after being given the Product Development Manager’s job in 2012. It was after this I switched to using mainly Hardy Marksman Supero rods, which I mainly tested myself. I still use many of the early prototypes, but have to thank Drennan for showing me how good and versatile well-designed rods could be.
HARDLY HARDY
Although some of my match fishing style exploits probably didn’t fit quite right with the Hardy brand, the Marksman rods went down well enough. The originals had a problem when Fuji discontinued their SiC line guides, which I replaced with Alconites on the new Superos. The 13ft Extreme Float accounted for this great haul of quality roach and rudd, taken from a Norfolk Lake, just round the corner from where my Mum and Dad used to live many years before. I travelled all the way down from Alnwick for this catch, doing a feature for a monthly magazine.
Hardy Marksman Ultralite Feeder
A DIFFERENT MARKSMAN
This 11ft Marksman Ultralite Feeder is an unusual rod, one of the first prototypes featuring lightweight match rings on a quivertip blank. Both Fuji SiCs and Alconites were strong enough for this job, making the high modulus blanks even faster and more responsive. Compared to using standard closer fitting and heavier line guides, which most companies relied on for feeder rods at the time, I discovered lighter stand-off rings didn’t weigh the slim blanks down so much. Also, that wet line didn’t stick to the rod so easily. I don’t use this sample anymore and it’s in very good nick, also now freshly going on sale with Thomas Turner.
THE CHINESE WAY
Of course, I couldn’t resist having the odd dabble in China, where Marksmans were expertly made by one of the best rod factories over there. Although this was an inland man-made lake, it was filled with salt water and stuffed with sea fish. I wonder why nobody has tried that over here? We now have river fish in lakes, so why not sea fish? I’m only joking because in the Far East most things caught end up in a cooking pot. To the amusement of the locals, I kept slipping back the sea bream and bass I was catching, from under a fancy fishery umbrella in the searing summer heat.
Beautiful rudd
A BIT OF THE OLD BLARNEY
I caught this beautiful rudd in County Cork, from the back garden of a hotel, not far from where the Blarney Stone is situated. This was no old wives tale though, snapped on camera for an Angler’s Mail feature, using a Hardy Marksman Supero float rod. I had spotted these fish cruising on the surface of the old course of the River Lee, now part of the giant Innescarra Reservoir. Funny how I came to love fishing the River Lee in Hertfordshire and North London, then finding another one over in Ireland.
The post DAVE COSTER’S GUIDE TO LATER CLASSIC RODS appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...
You might be surprised to hear that iconic rods from the seventies, eighties and nineties are becoming popular again, especially after the pandemic brought many people back into coarse fishing. Thomas Turner sees huge demand for the Hardy Marksmans I was involved with developing only a decade ago, but perhaps because there are not such big numbers of these around, returning anglers haven’t forgotten favourite long-lived brands like Drennan, Normark, Shakespeare and Daiwa. These go back further, but not to the extent where many would have thought them to be collectables. But rods from these stables are now much sought after, so maybe you need to start looking at ones you might have stashed away and don’t use any more…
12ft Normark Microlite Match float rod
WELL-USED
This 12ft Normark Microlite Match float rod of mine has seen too much action to go back on the market, not that I would ever sell it. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the bright burgundy whippings, which I blacked out with a waterproof felt tip pen. This soft actioned float rod became a firm favourite on wider stretches of canals, finally winning me the London Angler’s Association Canal Benevolent, after being runner up back in the days when over 300 anglers lined the Grand Union just outside the capital. I ended up working for Normark France a couple of years ago, but they don’t use that magical brand name on products anymore. Many Normark rods are now highly sought after. I witnessed Thomas Turner buying two crackers at a recent valuation day held at Horncastle Angling.
NICE ONE
Back in 1993 I fished the Drennan Super League final with Essex County over in Ireland. We won it and I was lucky enough to be individual top points scorer over the three days, which encompassed switching between pole, waggler and feeder tactics. Apart from the lucrative main prize and daily pools, I was awarded one of the first Drennan IM8 13ft Feeder Rods. It was an early long-range quivertip blank and I loved it, particularly for the Emerald Isle. Peter Drennan himself rang me when I got back to the UK, as enthusiastic as ever. I worked for him as a consultant for a while after that.
Drennan 13ft rod
A SPECIAL ROD
I used my new Drennan 13-footer a lot, winning loads of coin with it and enjoying some great bags of bream on the feeder at long range. It became like a lucky charm for me over in Ireland, bagging up on big hybrids and slabs in festivals, back in the days when most feeder/quivertip rods weren’t up to casting very far. A lot of anglers who maybe enjoyed using this popular model as much as me, probably don’t realise late classic rods like this are in demand. My prize rod pictured here is well used, a little battle scarred, but still in very usable condition. To set the ball rolling, Thomas Turner have purchased it and it’s up for sale, after being stored away doing nothing for too many years.
Proof of Dave winning the 13ft IM8 in the Drennan Super League Final back in 1993.
Drennan Light and Medium Feeder rods
MOVING ON
I also owned early Drennan Light and Medium Feeder rods, which used to be very popular when I ran a tackle shop in North London back in the eighties and nineties. Like the later 13ft IM8, they are well-used but still very nice rods to fish with, perhaps a bit ahead of their time. I eventually moved on, mainly due to developing rods for Hardy and Greys, turning to more modern favourites I designed myself. These two rods have been stored away in my tackle den for far too long, so T.T. have finally persuaded me to part with them and they are now due to be listed on their website.
12ft IM8 Super Feeder rod
COMPLETING THE SET
Owning the Light and Medium Drennan Feeder rods, also the IM8 13ft model, I just had to invest in the 12ft IM8 Super Feeder to complete the set. Once again well used and forgotten about for many years, but now going on sale on the Thomas Turner website. Hopefully somebody can enjoy fishing with this lovely all-rounder all over again. It was equally at home fishing at fair distances for stillwater bream, as it was on big rivers. It saw lots of action on the Thames and River Yare.
IT CHANGED HERE
Some of the Drennan rods above were used in my best-selling Coarse Fishing Year book, which sold 100,000 copies. I’m seen here holding the book outside Hardy and Greys, where I moved after being given the Product Development Manager’s job in 2012. It was after this I switched to using mainly Hardy Marksman Supero rods, which I mainly tested myself. I still use many of the early prototypes, but have to thank Drennan for showing me how good and versatile well-designed rods could be.
HARDLY HARDY
Although some of my match fishing style exploits probably didn’t fit quite right with the Hardy brand, the Marksman rods went down well enough. The originals had a problem when Fuji discontinued their SiC line guides, which I replaced with Alconites on the new Superos. The 13ft Extreme Float accounted for this great haul of quality roach and rudd, taken from a Norfolk Lake, just round the corner from where my Mum and Dad used to live many years before. I travelled all the way down from Alnwick for this catch, doing a feature for a monthly magazine.
Hardy Marksman Ultralite Feeder
A DIFFERENT MARKSMAN
This 11ft Marksman Ultralite Feeder is an unusual rod, one of the first prototypes featuring lightweight match rings on a quivertip blank. Both Fuji SiCs and Alconites were strong enough for this job, making the high modulus blanks even faster and more responsive. Compared to using standard closer fitting and heavier line guides, which most companies relied on for feeder rods at the time, I discovered lighter stand-off rings didn’t weigh the slim blanks down so much. Also, that wet line didn’t stick to the rod so easily. I don’t use this sample anymore and it’s in very good nick, also now freshly going on sale with Thomas Turner.
THE CHINESE WAY
Of course, I couldn’t resist having the odd dabble in China, where Marksmans were expertly made by one of the best rod factories over there. Although this was an inland man-made lake, it was filled with salt water and stuffed with sea fish. I wonder why nobody has tried that over here? We now have river fish in lakes, so why not sea fish? I’m only joking because in the Far East most things caught end up in a cooking pot. To the amusement of the locals, I kept slipping back the sea bream and bass I was catching, from under a fancy fishery umbrella in the searing summer heat.
Beautiful rudd
A BIT OF THE OLD BLARNEY
I caught this beautiful rudd in County Cork, from the back garden of a hotel, not far from where the Blarney Stone is situated. This was no old wives tale though, snapped on camera for an Angler’s Mail feature, using a Hardy Marksman Supero float rod. I had spotted these fish cruising on the surface of the old course of the River Lee, now part of the giant Innescarra Reservoir. Funny how I came to love fishing the River Lee in Hertfordshire and North London, then finding another one over in Ireland.
The post DAVE COSTER’S GUIDE TO LATER CLASSIC RODS appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...