None of your fancy rods and reels
My first rod was a one-piece “supposed to be” 12 ft bamboo cane. (it lost 3 inches off the tip during delivery). I bought it from the Cornish Bamboo Cane Company, Lanivet, Bodmin, Cornwall in 1949. It cost me the princley sum of 10/- (50p) with carriage charges of a further 10/- and, if I cared to send the packaging back I would have got my 10/- back! …. except it was going to cost me that to send it back – so I didn’t bother. In those days I couldn’t afford things like decent rod rings, so I managed to get hold of some fairly strong galvanised wire and some porcelain rings that electric cables used to be passed through. After spending a month shaping the wire around the porcelain and whipping them on to my brand new beachcaster, I went off to meet the lads on King Edwards Bay promenade. Everyone admired my handiwork. Anyway … it was low tide and we decided to fish the flat rock on the south side at the end of the Oxfauld. Going down the steps from the promenade to the rocks, I slipped and bounced on my backside from step to step – landed in a pool of water at the bottom – and when I looked at my rod, it was just a piece of cane with a Scarborough reel on!!! I had knocked off every damned ring I had spent a month whipping on.
In those days – before nylon – we used to use what was called ‘cutty hunk line’ – which looked like brown string. We used to get this from Freeths, a trawler supply shop (it’s now long gone) on North Shields Fish Quay. This line would retain water and to put a lead out, we used to have to use a 10 oz sinker. The reels were all Scarbrough reels and if you caught your finger on those handles, you said more than “damn and blast”.. The problem was, on a cold winter’s night, you didn’t feel the pain for 10 minutes and when it hit you, you really knew about it.
I bought my Scarborough reel off one of the members of the Tynemouth. He was a bus mechanic and worked at the Norham Road Bus Depot and used to churn the reels out for the almighty sum of 10/-. He used to use the spindles from bicycle wheels which is what the reel turned on and the wood was generally teak or greenheart – or something along those lines – a hardwood. Once you got the hang of these reels, it was possible to put a good line out. I was Vice Chairman of an organisation called The National Shore Casting Association. Some of the older ones among us may remember Maynard Atkinson (Silver Grey of the Evening Chronicle) who was chairman of this Association. We used to hold open casting events each year – in fact at one of them Les Moncrieff came along – 6 ft odd of pure power, and a lovely man with it. In the Scarborough reel casting event which we held one year, winner was Ronnie Meikle (gone now) who was the harbour master of Cullercoats. He put a lead out 123 yards 9 inches. Second was Byron Barawitczka – also no longer with us – who was one of the North East top anglers. He cast 117 yards 11 inches. I managed third with 109 yards 8 inches. Remember, this was all with this string-like line and 10 oz sinkers which we were using.
None of your fancy rods and reels in those days!
