Tackle shops...

[nottskev]

I dare say you are right . My main experience is West and North Yorkshire , Teesside and , for a few years , Lincolnshire. I've only experienced the ' "you're not from round here " mentality in tackle shops and pubs in the North Yorkshire area and further north , and it's by no means universal .But although West Yorkshire folk are usually very welcoming and friendly , some of the knuckle dragging hillbillies in North Yorkshire are the most hostile folk I've ever met . It's a minority , I hasten to add, but for sheer rudeness, hostility to outsiders and belligerence you can't beat 'em .

A very reasonable reply to a bit of a regional dig on my part. So I should say you’re right that some old-school ts’s were smelly and parochial. And Yorkshire is a big county with big variety. I found Sheffield a friendly homely place, for example, living there for 4 years, and I only met frostiness to off-comers much further north. Town and country often have very different vibes

My take on ts’s is partly rooted in dismay at the spread of homogenised retailing. High St’s look the same, retail parks are unspeakable, chain stores abound and I really don’t want to get my bait and tackle from somewhere as arid and plasticated as Halfords. More and more, everywhere resembles everywhere else, and I like the way old school ts’s keep something different alive. My local ts’s are hubs of angling culture. My local AD is just a node in the economy.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I had a tackle shop near me where the cronies would gather and it was quite an unwelcoming shop. The locals would dispense unwanted advice and for the most part were clueless. An old boy named Frank would squat in the corner giving out his words of wisdom. Now, I knew Frank as he worked as a cleaner in a garage where I also worked and as far as I was aware he never actually fished. He suffered some sort of mental impairment due to microwave radiation when he was in the army. Every so often he would go off on one and end up being committed to a mental hospital for a few weeks. Once he stripped off and was running naked around the busiest roundabout on the A20, trying to catch imaginary butterflies in an imaginary net. He is the main reason I am very discriminatory when it comes to taking advice from locals in tackle shops, lol.

I had a row with the owner of that shop after he tried to deliberately stitch me up and I boycotted his shop and when that shop folded I boycotted his next venture too. I held that grudge for almost forty five years, lol. When I heard that he had passed away and it had been taken over by his son and ex partner I thought I would give it another go. It was still rubbish and the new regime were still more interested in chatting amongst themselves than serving customers. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

 

[Philip]

I must say I do prefer the impersonal nature of larger tackle shops if you can find them. I get people sometimes want to go for a chat but I relate to the comment someone made about walking in and the talking stops and everyone stares...like the pub scene in An American werewolf in London.

I just want to go in and look around without being followed or advised, I really dont like it when people tell me whats best or how to fish. If I want to know something I will ask. The only place I am liable to ask a techical question about a bit of tackle or listen to anyone for advice (and even then its specific people) is the Tackle box.

Trade or tackle shows probably offer the best chance to have a waggle of a few rods in the same range nowadays. I was at one a few months back and got to waggle a good cross section of the Cadence & Free spirit rods for example.

 

[Alan Whitty]

If you can access one Philip, last year Cadence had one at a water I fish, so when I packed I dropped in and had a chat with James Robbins and had a look at their range and even though I didn't need/buy anything I was very impressed with their 9 and 10ft feeder rods, but the days of me travelling any distance to visit a tackle show are long gone, that is even if I got time off for good behaviour, lol.... not only that but it may not necessarily offer you the comparisons that used to be available in shops like Leslie's... As for asking about gear in tackle shops or even possible tactical subjects, yes I would, but then I would evaluate how I might incorporate these into my own fishing, possibly as the guy said, but quite probably how I see it...

 

[Philip]

Yes access to tackle shows will be limited but it was offered as an option Alan. ....if there are few big tackle outlets left and people dont want or cannot travel either then they are stuck.

The best place I find to ask advice nowadays is here on FM.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I agree, but we are a split bunch, lol....
Even shops like Angling Direct have little scope, I have one around 20 miles away, they hardly sell any floats, in fact, basically no running line floats that I would put on my line, pole floats yeah, they hold more g.bait, pellets and boilies than they sell in a year, lol...