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Old Glasgow Tackle Shops, a boy hood tour.

Started by Highlander, March 10, 2016, 12:05:15 AM

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Highlander

Apologies to Fred if I have posted this wee story but it was some years back, maybe some of the newer members might like the read. Comes on the back of the other post re favourite/bestTackle shops

Saturday morning early we hopped on the 59 corporation bus from Mosspark to Glasgow City Centre.
Our pockets jingling with the proceeds of our weekly endeavour's.
Me with my paper round, Tim with his milk money & Gerry, well he always had money.
Where he got it from we never did find out but he always had the best of gear. Where bye we had
Milbro & Shakespeare he turns up with a new Hardy Jet. That was Gerry, always travelled first class.
First stop was Wm. Robertson in Wellington St. Windows were scanned before entry, was always the way to do it our faces pressed hard against the glass & to this day I still love nothing better than browsing tackle shop windows in the towns I visit.  I admired the J.W. Young reels & I swore that one day I would own a Beaudex. I have four now along with Pridex & Condex so I guess I got my way all be it late in life, funny how things move on. Waders were Altona & Keenfisher lines Kingfisher & the new Cortland & Gladding PVC lines were admired & we wondered if they would really catch on. A row of the new Abu Hi-Lo's, Nevison Sprats, Mepps & Vibro spoons
Entering the shop, dark & foreboding to us young boys but Angus the then owner knew us boys & we soon settled in .Whilst Gerry admired the huge Tarpon in the glass case my eyes were transfixed by the 9lb plus record fly Trout from Loch Leven with the actual cast that caught it within its glass confines. "A Shanty Cast" & later on in life I would purchase a few for my rare visits to the Mecca that was Loch Leven. Tim would buy a few Model Perfect bait hooks. Me a couple of flies & maybe a Buldo bubble float for up the Dams, Gerry, oh he could buy the shop but settles on a couple of Pike Plugs, no not the cheap wooden pained ones but ABU Hi-Lo with their adjustable vanes. Trust him, he was a bit of an expert with Pike & many fell to his top of the water tactics something he was rather adept at. Way ahead of his time Gerry was.
Moving on we cut through Central Station to No 3 West Nile Street the home of our second port of call
Arthur Allan tackles. Here we buy a tin of maggots or a packet of brandling worms. He always got a fresh supply delivered on Friday & you had to be quick to get some. Maybe a spool of Luxor Kroic or Platil line for making up casts, we after all will be out that Saturday afternoon up to the Barrhead Dams or if a river invites us The Gryffe or Calder at Lochwinnoch. I liked Arthur Allan's as he always had a window dedicated to guns & many a nice model resided within its glass confines. Rods were Bruce & Walker Abu, Milbro & probably the best fibre glass Salmon rod of all time The MilbroVerre. The Puma knife I fell in love with but this is Glasgow & hunting knives do not go down to well with the boys in blue fishing or no fishing. Moving north we call into C C Mann in West George Street. A funny shop which had to be entered below street level & to the uninitiated would pass by without so much as a glance. The owner Charles was a gentleman & a well travelled angler who thrilled us boys with his tales of Highland Loch fishing & in particularly the art of Dapping, something which I took to with relish in my later years. At the top of the town in Cowcaddens one could find the smallest of all the shops Cafaro Bros & unlike the others I mention still plying their trade all be it some distance from their old shop. Sadly I have not paid a visit for many a year. I wonder if Pat one of the sons is still there, he was always helpful. Here I bought a few Clyde Style flies & a couple of Murray's Bluebottles. And so to the last in the journey, Alex Martin in Royal Exchange Square. Whilst not the friendliest of shops catering for the better off of Glasgow fishermen had the most interesting of windows. The left one was devoted to hunting & displayed the most beautiful of guns & equipment. The Parker Hale Single Point gun sight I first spotted here & I bought one for my spell in Her Majesties Armed Forces.  The fly & spinning window to the right had a lovely display not just of their own Thistle fly rods but rods by Hardy, Sharpe's & Pezon & Michel.  Fly reels by Hardy & Farlow & I particularly liked the understated Sharpes the Gordon one of which I purchased in new condition recently.
Barbour jackets, deerstalkers, woolly jumpers with suede patches, spinning reels such as Mitchell, the Italian Alcedo & the Intrepid range, all were shown to their best in their display. Early visits we entered the shop with some trepidation but after a time they got to know us & it was not so bad after that. I often stood & admired the framed Parachute & Waddington flies on the wall & to this day I still have a few tucked away in their little metal tin somewhere in my fishing cupboard. Here Gerry was in his element as he wiggled the latest split cane. Me I always cringed that he would hit if off the wall & break it but he never did & he certainly had an affinity with the salesman who probably realised that he had money & I am sure that shop was visited more than a few times when we were not there to make a purchase. Shooing Gerry out the door just as he enquires about an American Heddon River Runt in it's wee plastic box we catch the bus home & get ready for the off.
Sadly most of the shops have gone. & I for one certainly do miss them; they shaped us boys to what we are now. Tim has gone now & I have lost touch with Gerry, I wonder if he still fishes. But those boyhood memories linger on. Other shops were Anglers Rendezvous which bought Wm Robertson & though they moved location sadly the name has passed on though I believe they still ply their trade from Stockwell Street under the former name. Another good shop all is it a wee bit out of the city worth a visit was James Kent in Yoker. Sadly the big man passed away but a good wee shop it was the few times I visited he was always up to a bit of a chat. Now called Danny's Den but I have not been by since the change Again, most amiss of me not to pay them a visit. Maybe bitten with nostalgia as I get older I may well take a city tour & see what is still out there?  Who knows?
Tight Lines


" The Future's Bright The Future's Wet Fly"


Nemo me impune lacessit


JimJams

Great story, I wish I had fishing influence in my younger days, I never started fishing properly until around 8 years ago, then got bored of spinning and haven't touched a spinning rod since!
Fly fishing gripped me somehow, maybe it's the amount of different kit, different techniques, or that it's a little more thought out with tactics that keeps me interested.

corsican dave

lovely memories there Alan  :D

not quite in the same league, but I can remember pressing my nose against the window of the Co-Op tackle shop in Bletchley, coveting the intrepid black prince reel I was going to buy with my Christmas money. it was something like the day after boxing day and the shops didn't open again until after new year. try telling that to the kids of today!
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

Bobfly

For me it was The Hobby and Model Shop at the top of the New Row hill in Dunfermline. Full of all sorts of stuff that I knew very little about. A bit like a few of today's shops too - when I look in the sea fishing section at the GAC I haven't the faintest what half of it is for !!!!
~  <°))))):><       ~   <°))))):><

Highlander

#5
Quotehaven't the faintest what half of it is for !!!!

Me too but it is with the coarse fishing tackle. In my boyhood I spent many a summer holiday at my Grandfather's  house in the Fens area of Englandshire. He was a  Chief inspector of Police in the area & got to get fish all the wee private bits & pieces. He taught me to fish for Bream,Roach & Perch with a float. Bait then was bread paste or a wee well scoured worm under a  float & a couple of split shot. They few times we tried for Carp it was a par boiled potato for bait I remember we used to keep a dozen or so 8-10 Roach to take home but not dead, in a live bait bucket which was not much more than a galvy pail with a perforated lid. They were then transferred to a large water butt he had fed from rainwater att his garage Here live all be it temporarily his ready supply of live Pike bait. A visit to the tackle shop in Whittlesey he would buy a few "Crystal" hooks to nylon tiny the were. Looking back they were a 16 or 18 but tiny to this mans young eyes. Funny thing though he always bough a tin of maggots but he called them "Gentles" probably a local name. They were mixed colours & the red ones he swore for Perch. I remember once trotting a float among a shoal of Perch hard up against a lock gate with me sitting atop so I could see the little blighters below. This "huge" Perch appeared from no where & engulfed my bait. I got the fright of my life & was too quick & snatched it right out of it's mouth. Thinking back now I guess it was around 3-4lbs but they get bigger with age do they not so maybe not. I do remember though later on in the holiday that if I got hold of a couple of minnows I would go back & get the bugger, sadly I did not as my holiday came to an end soon after. I realy loved my days in The Fens     But look at tackle now i what with hair rigs & float controllers etc etc I have not got a scooby what half of it is for. But I ask myself do I really need to know probably not.
I listened in on a conversation with a couple of Pike fishermen at GAC & I will be honest I had not a clue what they were talking about. With me it was a live Roach under a Jardine snap tackle under a Fishing Gazette float & hey we caught Pike.
Times move on, not always for the best though.
Tight Lines
" The Future's Bright The Future's Wet Fly"


Nemo me impune lacessit

corsican dave

Quote from: Highlander on March 10, 2016, 01:13:28 PM
I have not got a scooby what half of it is for. But I ask myself do I really need to know probably not.
No; because we've got flies that are more effective!  :8)
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

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