Traditional fishing tackle checklist

Traditional fishing tackle checklist

As expected, last week’s blog about the evolution of traditional angling caused many people to contact me. They were full of praise that I’d finally spoken with such truthfulness about this quirky style of fishing. Some did, however, question whether I’d fallen out of love with traditional angling and abandoned the crusade to uphold angling’s traditions. 

Well, I haven’t abandoned the crusade. I’m still very much a traditional angler – albeit one who no longer kowtows to the whims of a minority. 

My mission is, and has always been, to encourage others to discover and explore the gentle pleasures – rather than weights and measures – of angling. My interests and approach to angling, however, have changed since I first began writing about the subject in the late nineties. 

Twenty years is a long time: nearly half of my life. So I’m pleased that I’ve matured in my outlook. The challenge for you as a reader is that writing has the ability to travel through time. You might read something today that I wrote many years ago. I know how long, but you might not. My Traditional Angling book, for example, was published in 2010 but contains several chapters (Real Ale and the Meaning of Life, The Adventures of Smelly Brown, Frozen, The Last Cast) that I penned in 1998. Yet they’re fresh and relevant today. So I’ll forgive you for not knowing that they were written by the 24-year-old version of me.

I don’t fish nearly as often as I did. Between 1996 and 2002 I fished every day of the week. Weekdays would see me fishing for barbel on the lower Severn, and weekends would see me at a carp lake somewhere. Nowadays I fish once per month. Because my free time is limited, I tend to seek a more intense and complete ‘escape’. Hence why I travel light with a fly rod deep into wild places. By leaving as much tackle as possible behind, I’m forced to use watercraft to catch my fish and have fewer manmade things to distract me from the nature around me. Hence why my fishing is heading in a more bushcrafty direction, tying flies and making tackle from whatever I can find at the waterside.

That said, this week I’m going to be fishing in conventional traditional fashion. I haven’t coarse fished this season, so I’m going ‘camping-fishing’ for a few days. There’s a lovely little estate lake I know that contains tench and carp. I’ll pitch a tent in the wood alongside the lake and fish a swim nearby. I’m likely to fish day and night, so will need to take my full ‘session’ gear. I haven’t used this tackle since my trip to Redmire Pool last year. So I’m struggling to remember what to pack. Fortunately I made a list in 1998 of the tackle to take. I’ve used this as my reference point ever since, ensuring a consistent experience from then to now.

I thought you might like to see the list, partly do document how I once fished and partly for you to compare my list to yours – to see if either of us has missed something. (Let me know in the comments below if there’s something I ought to add to the list.)

Here’s the list of fishing tackle I take on a long (three day) coarse fishing trip:

Efgeeco canvas holdall containing:

  • 1 x B James MKIV carp rod
  • 1 x Hardy LHR No 1
  • 1 x Sharps Scottie 8ft spinning rod (for stalking)
  • B James Richard Walker landing net and pole
  • Optional: 30” Crabtree net and pole
  • 2 x forked wooden banksticks
  • Optional: 2 x adjustable metal banksticks (if using bite alarms)

Brady Conway creel containing:

  • Reels
    • 2 x Mitchell 300 fixed spool reels (loaded with 12lb line for carp, or 8lb line for tench)
    • 1 x wide spool Speedia centrepin (loaded with 12lb line, for stalking)
  • Bite indicators
    • 2 x Gardner TLB stainless alarms
    • Crumpled tin foil bobbins
  • Tobacco tins containing:
    • Hook packets, size 6, 8, 10, 12
    • Legers and split shot
    • Swivels, beads, float rubbers
    • Baby bell wax (controller floats) for surface fishing
  • Float tube containing:
    • Reed stem wagglers, swan quills, goose quills, porcupine quills
  • Miscellaneous
    • Forked wooden catapult
    • Forceps
    • Swizz Army knife
    • Optional: Ruben Heaton scales, weigh sling and carp sack

Bait options, in buckets and Efgeeco aluminum bait tins:

  • 1 gallon cooked hempseed
  • 4kg cooked tiger nuts
  • 3 x tins luncheon meat
  • 3 x tins sweetcorn
  • 2 x large loaves crusty bread
  • 1 box chum mixers (Bakers Small Dog bites)

Fox stalking unhooking mat

Wychwood stalking chair

Tea-making kit

  • Kelly Kettle
  • 5-gallon bottle of water
  • Pot-bellied creel containing:
    • Stainless steel tea pot
    • 2 x china cups
    • Tin of tea leaves
    • Tea strainer
    • Small Kilner bottle of milk
    • Teaspoon
    • Newspaper for tinder
    • Wood shavings and twigs for kindling

Camping kit

  • French Army ridge tent (replaced in 2014 with Vango Force 10 CP three-man tent) 
  • Coleman self-inflating mattress
  • Optional: 60 inch oval profile umbrella
  • Optional: JRC stealth (lightweight) bedchair
  • Ex-army sleeping bag
  • Ex-army poncho (as waterproof cover, attaches to sleeping bag)
  • JRC pillow
  • UCO candle and 3 x spares
  • Head torch
  • Wash bag: toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, small towel
  • Sanitary bag: loo roll, folding army shovel

Cooking kit

  • Hobo stove to fit on top of Kelly Kettle base
  • Coleman camping saucepans & frying pan
  • Firesteel and cotton wool tinder in a tobacco tin
  • 2 x disposable lighters
  • Enamel plate
  • Knife and fork
  • Cool bag and ice block
  • Fairy liquid, sponge and tea cloth
  • Bin bag

Food

  • 2 x breakfasts: sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding, mushrooms, toast, butter
  • 2 x lunch: French sticks, crusty bread, cheeses, chutneys, savouries (pork pie etc)
  • 2 x afternoon tea: cake, Welsh cakes
  • 2 x dinner: rice, tinned curry, tinned chilli, new potatoes,
  • Tunnocks tea cakes and wafers
  • Cooking oil
  • 1 x bottle port, 4 x bottle beers

Writing & nature bag (small rucksack)

  • A5 lined notebook
  • Fountain pen and ink bottle
  • Reading book
  • Binoculars
  • Camera

Misc

  • Le Chameau wellies
  • Walking boots
  • Wax jacket
  • Change of clothes (leave in car)
  • Wallet: money, rod licence

Traditional angling by Fennel HudsonIf you like this blog, you'll like Fennel's book Traditional Angling. 

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