| KEVIN PERKINS | |
Never mind smelling the flowers, don’t forget to take time out to see the satirical side of fishing life and grab a laugh along the way as well. So here’s a regular column from Kevin Perkins to remind us that life is for laughing at, or taking the p*** out of, whenever we can. But he does have a serious side occasionally……. |
CLEAR OUT
A recent article of mine started an interesting Tradition v Technology debate on the Forum, but I feel there is another side to this issue that needs to be addressed.
In the searing white hot pace of technology and development, new tackle is being produced (and bought!) all the time – where does the ‘old’ stuff go? Before some smart arse shouts ‘car boot sales’ at the screen, I mean who buys it? By that, are there really that many ‘new’ anglers coming onto the scene, that need tackle?
So far in my fishing life, I can probably claim to have bought and ‘disposed’ of at least ten complete sets of tackle. If there were three million anglers when I started, are there thirty million now? Of course not, in fact it is more likely that there are less than when I started, so where does it all go?
Now I know we anglers all hoard things like demented magpies, my recent close season spring clean to cleanse my tackle of extraneous items was not the success my wife had perhaps hoped for when it came to creating more space in the garage. My tackle still occupies the same floor space, but is in a much neater heap than it was (for the time being – I know that will change!)
In fact, I think Chris Sandford could do us all a service by publishing a list of things that will not ‘be worth something one day – I’ll hang on to it’, so we will be able to chuck items out with a clear conscience, knowing that they won’t pop up on the Antiques Roadshow in twenty years time.
My spring cleaning did involve some tears; items I have loved and cherished were finally consigned to the bin bag, after my wife’s vigorous cross examination as to their use, proved my feeble objections were to no avail.
The collection of worn out toothbrushes were obviously going to be heated up in boiling water and then fashioned into ‘killer’ banana shaped pike lures (your fault, for suggesting it, Prof Barrie Rickards), but not any more.
I admit there was no defence for the broken floats, I mean, does anyone ever get round to gluing then back together? If you do, they’re never straight, you forget to seal them so that as the session wears on you find you are having to remove shot to try and stop them sinking.
The reel with a missing bale-arm, part of a ‘bargain bundle’ of tackle I bought at an auction, should really have gone straight in the bin when I got home. Spares for reels that don’t have a name are normally hard to come by. And this one could have done service on the football terraces, as the ratchet was far louder than any football rattle I’ve ever heard.
The carrier bag of goose feathers had to go, not because I will never get round to using them, but we finally discovered where that strange smell in the garage was coming from… (Nowhere near as bad as finding the long forgotten bait box full of liquid that used to be worms, but heading that way).
Free spools of line, (why do they sellotape them to the front page? Getting them off the page rips the paper in half, then taking the tape off the spool normally takes the label and the all important BS with it!), which is why you defend buying that particular mag in the first place “Look, this spool is worth £ 2.50 on its own – bargain!” You then chuck it in your box for long enough for it to be useless, and still don’t throw it away! They all had to go in the bin, about ten of them, I’m ashamed to say.
The bait stand caused a minor difference of opinion, as I said it shouldn’t be thrown out, at the very least until we located the missing bolt. My description of what it did when we did find the bolt, was cut short when I tried to demonstrate how my square bait boxes fitted into the round holes. (The bolt didn’t materialise during this clear out, but one day…).
Having finally paired up all the reels with their spare spools, why are there some left over? No ifs and buts, in the bag they go.
I just managed to defend all the rods, having a young son helps in this respect, because you can blame him for nearly a quarter of the tackle you have to have, in case he wants to go. The bent and rusty rod rests, ditto. And if there are two of us we have an umbrella each, don’t we? Phew!
So, nice tidy tackle, nothing to sell or give away, less than a carrier bag full of rubbish, and while I’ve been clearing out I have noticed that actually there are a number of bits I am missing, where’s that catalogue ….
