Welcome to my new website, I assume most of you by now will have noticed in the previous few weeks we have been searching for a new home, after a while I managed to find one that has a tonne of features and seems to be free for people like us who just want to share new ideas and basically keep this trend going, in recent years fishing trips have been in decline likely due to the fact that the rain keeps spoiling play and most men these days seem to be more at home playing Fortnite on Xbox (if you don't know what that is then take a look - they say there is nothing you can do to stop time so rather than complain lets enjoy what we have.
Fishing for me started when I was a wee lad, my dad used to take me out and often times we'd start going to the beach and spend hours trying to catch something other than a cold, with a flask in hand we we had all we needed, for most men there is always a sense of enjoyment to spend time with dad and as an older man now I appreciate the time I got to spend with him in while we talked or sometimes just sat in silence, a few times he would teach me all about how to cast off and also let me have a go a few times at reeling in a catch, of course at that age I wasn't very strong and I think he was more worried about the fact the rod would be dragged in and lost forever but eventually I grew to enjoy fishing.
As I got into my teenage years we ventured further afield and went to Scotland, it was abit of a waste since we didn't catch anything but the weather was sun for the full week (IN SCOTLAND!?!) so we had a great time and even had a return visit with my uncle and grandad which I'll never forget, as we get older we tend to move onto different things in life or the things we did before we simply can't make the time for, things and people fall away but some memories stick with us and fishing has always provided me with those which is the reason I'm still a fan even to this day.
In my teenage years I got some friends interested in my hobby, we would kip at my house and then get up at 5 in the morning for the long trip down to the local fishing supply shop to pick up some bait or even get a new rod depending on how much money we'd have saved up, unlike my younger years there was alot more talking and joking around as we waiting for a bite, none of us went solely for the solitude but most of these days were an awful lot of fun and we still talk about them even to this day with the few friends I still see from school.
After starting in the work world it must of been at least 10 years since I'd been fishing, taking care of a family and not having as much free time was enough of a problem to push fishing to the last thing I ever thought about, after a while I made friends with Dave who was a little younger than me but still an avid fisherman, I somehow ended up talking to him about new rods and how we didn't have all this technology back in the day, it was just pure time and effort, after a while he told me about a new message board he joined online and I started looking into it, I think it was the total fishing forum but I could be wrong, anyways I made a few friends and decided I would buy my first official (decent!) rod, after digging out the old credit card I looked online for a place to buy and then settled on getting a rather nice Ron Thompson rod, check out below for a pic:
Hopefully that will load up, I'm still new to all this technology deal, by the way if anyone wants to start up a new site then you can head over to wikidot - it's free to use and you can load up your own blog with pictures to show us, that is unless you are lucky enough to be invited on our next VIP outing.
As this point our trips are just abit of a laugh and as our wives/families would say its a great way to get some peace and quiet around the house (bit cheeky if you ask me!).
There are a few places we have been looking at going to but haven't booked anything yet, if you want to join then you are going to need a few bits of decent equipment other wise you will stand out like a sore thumb and be the punch line in all our jokes……..it's all just good banter fellas!
I have used a few vendors over the years but I don't really have a favourite, certain sites deliver faster but some are cheaper or have better selections, I'll post a few links below that I've personally used before, make sure you double check they have a secure ordering part because it's been a while since I've used some of them.
Here are a few place I've used you might want to check out:
North East Tackle Supplies - Good for rods, selection, reels and offer some good clearance items.
Wass Fishing Tackle - Decent for monthly payments if you don't want to pay everything at once, selection is ok for sea fishing gear.
Challis Tackle - Small selection compared to others but stock some of the brands that I like such as Korum, worth a look.
I think that shall have to be all for today.
I assume most of you will be just about to start work now so I'll post this up in about a week or so when I have more details, I have some pictures of the latest trip saved on my hard drive so I'll upload them on here and post on the forum when all is ready to view.
Until next week folks!