Over the past 50 years there have been some momentous changes in the tackle we use. Back in 1970, the chances are that you’d have headed to the bank armed with a heavy fibreglass rod and creaking Mitchell 300 reel, all the while struggling under the weight of the wicker basket slung across your shoulder.
It’s a far cry from the situation today, with modern-day anglers having benefited from a remarkable period of truly game-changing tackle innovation. We’ve taken a look at some of the things that have undoubtedly changed the way we fish for the better.
PVA
Poly-vinyl Alcohol (PVA) is a water-soluble substance that can be made into solid sheets, tape or string, or woven to create a continuous mesh stocking. In contact with water it dissolves to leave a neat pile of free bait around the hook.
PVA first hit the shops in 1983, when Gardner tackle released PVA string, but it was carp ace Frank Warwick who first envisaged its use in angling. PVA has since changed the way we fish and offer loosefeed forever.
THE BEST FISHING GADGETS HAVE MADE OUR FISHING SO MUCH EASIER, OUR BUYER'S GUIDE HAS SOME GREAT PRODUCTS TO TRY!
The quivertip
Though sometimes credited to the great match angler Benny Ashurst, it was actually Ron Pinder, from Newark, who came up with the original idea for the quivertip in 1966.
Leicester tackle dealer and consultant Roy Marlow was one of the first to use it on the River Witham, where his Leicester side had tried to combat a strongly-pulling river by using longer and longer swingtips.
“I had some great success using it back in those days, because everybody else was using swingtips,” Roy said.
USING ONE OF THE BEST FEEDER RODS WILL MAKE YOUR FEEDER FISHING MUCH BETTER.
Carbon-fibre rods
Several expert anglers worked with the material as part of the Moncrieff Rod Development Company, although the rights were held by rod manufacturer hardy’s.
Pike angling legend Fred Buller recalls: “I had the first carbon rod ever made but it was far too stiff, more of a carpet beater than a rod! Still, I realised that it was actually quite important, so I sent it back to hardy’s to refurbish.”
After much tinkering with the product, a patent for the first carbon-fibre rod was duly taken out by William hardy and Dick Walker in 1971.
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Spomb
The importance of this product to carp and specimen angling anglers cannot be overestimated. When it was launched in 2010, the Spomb was dismissed by many as a gimmick that wouldn’t catch on. How wrong they were! This highly innovative bait-delivery device has now all but replaced standard spods.
Users no longer have to worry about baits coming out during the cast, and it deposits the bait instantly on impact with the surface – unlike a spod which takes longer to empty out the payload.
The ultimate bait delivery system, Spombs fly straight and true and can be punched huge distances in the right hands.
THERE ARE A VARIETY OF BAITING TOOLS NOW SIMILAR TO THE SPOMB, OUR BUYER'S GUIDE CONTAINS THEM ALL.
Pellets
It was fish-farmers who first fed their stocks high-oil compressed food pellets but then, in the early 1980s, these were refined to cater for all stages of a fish’s life cycle. This coincided with the growth in commercial fisheries, whose owners fed their fish in winter when no anglers were there.
Forty or so years on, pellets are now a must-have for anglers of all disciplines, and tackle shops sell many times more pellets than maggots or any other form of bait.
PELLETS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOME OF THE BEST PELLETSIN YOUR MIX.
Bite alarms
Dick Walker’s carp fishing buddy Maurice Ingham wrote about a crude bite alarm using a torch in 1949’s Fishing Gazette, but Walker’s heron Bite Indicator, launched in June 1957, was the first electronic alarm of its kind.
In 1954 he caught the second-largest carp ever landed in Britain using an alarm he called the Bedlam Mk 9. But when the heron came out (priced at £2), with Walker’s endorsement, it rapidly became the market leader.
YOU DON'T NEED TO SPEND A FORTUNE ON BITE ALARMS, SOME OF THE BEST BUDGET BITE ALARMS OFFER INCREDIBLE VALUE.
Wagglers
Dickie Bowker Snr, of Leigh, is credited with naming the waggler in 1967, because it ‘waggled in the air’ when you swung it in.
Prior to that, Jim Bazley won the National Champs in 1909 and 1927 using a bottom-only float, and it’s probable that such floats were in use before 1900.
In the Complete Fisherman (1907), Walter Gallichan writes: “Many Norfolk fishermen use no cap to the float, but simply pass the cast through a small bottom ring.”
USING ONE OF THE BEST FLOAT RODS WILL TAKE YOUR WAGGLER FISHING TO THE NEXT LEVEL!
Method feeder
Few things have had such an impact on commercial fishing techniques as the Method feeder. In the mid-1980s Mick Emm and Ken Statton’s Emstat Feeder took waters apart with hard groundbait packed around its frame. The tactic evolved and now takes the form of a micro-sized, flat base loaded with micro pellets.
Now, just about every tackle company has Method feeders to suit all types of river or lake fishing.
SHORT FEEDER RODS ARE FANTASTIC FOR METHOD FEEDER FISHING, OUR BUYER'S GUIDE CONTAINS SOME OF THE BEST.
Baitrunner reel
This groundbreaking Shimano reel was launched in 1986 and allowed a fish to take line without the handle turning, or the rod being dragged into the water. You could set the tension so that a fish could run until you turned the handle or flicked the Baitrunner lever over.
The concept has since been adopted by many other manufacturers, but the Baitrunner name remains a patent of Shimano to this day.
LOOKING FOR A NEW REEL? OUR GUIDE TO THE BEST FISHING REELS IS WORTH LOOKING AT!
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