martyn try bennetts of sheffield they do a fantastic mailorder service and if yougo on there website you can usally find good offers on diawa/john wilson/abu etc i have used these people for over 20 yrs and found them excellent  rainy-city
xs

Cheers for that JT, Stocks reservoir was the last place I fished with a fly rod ( apart for getting some bonito livebait for the big stuff ) and I have looked it up again today and its ideal. I like fishing from boats so that's where I'm planning to start, and I've found 4 or 5 still waters within an easy 90 minutes drive, and my best mate has just moved to Eire on the Shannon running into Lough Dergh

Ref the expensive road, yes I know, but I'm fairly relaxed as I'm shifting a load of IGFA stuff at the moment that me and my buddy invested in before the £/Euro knackered the trips we made to Madeira and other places , and I hope to clear enough to buy 2 really nice outfits one for a boat and one for something else and come out of the whole thing neutral so not a bad start. I'm also toying with buying the stuff in the USA later this year or looking at the UK rod builders like Tenet suggested, and of course im trawling the Bay of Thieves looking for quality reels

Alf - wow are Bennets still going ? I took my stepson there for a spinning outfit must have been 30 years ago  2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Fly stuff in Harrogate. As well as Orvis there is the Brown Trout in Cold Bath Street and another shop tucked away in a side street behind Orvis, Linseys?. Suspect you were searching for the latter when you met the police lady....... All have details of guides/tuition in the area...... IGFA, did you know that Scarborough was a centre for big tuna game fishing in the 1930's.... strange but true! JT Upgraded to an ex demo, 7 mth old, Rimini Red/Ebony Napoli Auto HSE on 28th Jan 2011, added roof rails, mudflaps and side strips.
Gone - A great 57 Plate, Auto SE, Bought Feb 2009, Roof Rails and Mudflaps added on purchase. Blue colour, anything but drug dealer black.....

Just googled Scarborough Tuna fishing and it's true....

yep it is true, and in the last 10 years anglers pirking for cod in Scarborough had reels stripped as something has hit the fish they were reeling in, no surprise there, on the west coast of Ireland they tried to establish a sports fishery for Blue Fin but the attrocious weather made it fail as a commercial venture, too few days for €1000 a day charter fees. The guy we used to charter in Madeira the late Capt. Ron Cowling once took wis boat to the north of the Island to try to catch Blue Fin, he told us he had 1500 metres of dacron stripped of the reel against 40 lbs of drag, the water was so deep the fish could angle down and never turn ! When the fished Tunny in Scarbourough theybasicaly were in rowing boats and when the fish was hooked they hung on for the ride untill it had worn itself out. Don't know if it's true but they reckon the north east Tuna fishing was why hardy call their big salt water reels FORTUNA cos they are for tuna 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

PS JT. Linley Bros, yes I stumbled on them, they are also a gun smiths and 30 years ago used to have a shop in Leeds next to Watson and Cairns motorcycles on Lower Briggate, I spent many a happy afternoon skiving off sports at school to hang round both those places  2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

: good one Martyn - Opposite Watson and Cairns there was a 'fashionable' clothes shop where i bought my baggy trousers with about 30 pockets on

Watson and cairns, havent heard that name in a few years

Bit worried McP bought his clothes in the gay area of leeds though

No No No ! when that clothes shop was there Lower Briggate was a mans street !
Oxford Bags, Kawasaki Z900s and Guns ( now you have to go to Harehills if you want a gun )

Back around 1971 then the only Gay area in Leeds was the Hope and Anchor Pub ! Gay wasn't in your face, mainly due to the Skinheads ! The pub was exposed in the News of the World, it was just around the corner from the place that City of Leeds Police would throw you of Leeds Bridge (opposite Paul Reannies sports shop ! ) and let you drown in attempt to remove vagrants off the street. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Before my time then

sadly  At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

MartynB wrote:

yep it is true, and in the last 10 years anglers pirking for cod in Scarborough had reels stripped as something has hit the fish they were reeling in, no surprise there, on the west coast of Ireland they tried to establish a sports fishery for Blue Fin but the attrocious weather made it fail as a commercial venture, too few days for €1000 a day charter fees. The guy we used to charter in Madeira the late Capt. Ron Cowling once took wis boat to the north of the Island to try to catch Blue Fin, he told us he had 1500 metres of dacron stripped of the reel against 40 lbs of drag, the water was so deep the fish could angle down and never turn ! When the fished Tunny in Scarbourough theybasicaly were in rowing boats and when the fish was hooked they hung on for the ride untill it had worn itself out. Don't know if it's true but they reckon the north east Tuna fishing was why hardy call their big salt water reels FORTUNA cos they are for tuna

If you go to the Hardy Museum at Alnwick they have some of their old Tuna rods and reels together with pictures of the "gentlemen" of the era fishing from small boats with the mother ship in the background.

I wonder what happened to the Herring shoals that attracted the Tuna  MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

MY 15 SD4 SE Auto Orkney Grey with colour coded Bumper Door Mouldings

MMMmmm Pickled Herring

Hi Tenet, yes it is a brilliant museum, It must have been fantastic to have been around in the era of Zane Grey and Ernest Hemmingway, only problem of course is that the things they did would not be accessible to peasant like me I've never caught a big tuna but it is on my personal bucket list  2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Update, and thanks for all the advice in the posts and PMs, today visited Mr Burns as advised by Tenet and i'm having a couple of rods built up in York ( That's in Yorkshire Taz ) for prices that are very reasonable, considering the blanks are high quality and made in the UK. the Reels unfortunately are not, but having opted for spending on the nice rods i've bought a selection of Pflueger President reels and spools from John Norris on the Internet at silly cheap money, they are made in Korea so probably are the Kia's of the fishing world

any way more stuff on e-bay, so this is quite a painless exercise really. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .