Just in, Sir!

Found at Spitalfields a fortnight or so ago and for sale with immediate effect in the 'Just In, Sir' wing of my website by clicking here, a most rare and excellent 5 1/2 inch J.W. Young's Trudex housed in its original tissue paper and box of issue date 1965 to 1966.

Kempton

A quiet morning at Kempton with slim pickings but I did acquire a sliding brass escutcheon bearing the Chubb of London Trade Mark that was registered in February 1876 with the legend Chubb London emblazoned onto the side of a startled roach.

Fenland Pike

Back in the district known as London North after a most convivial long weekend of pike fishing and imbibing along Fenland roads and ditches with the artists Bible John and Mr. Charles Rangeley-Wilson.

The Caught by the River Variety Show

This is an Arcadian Public Service Announcement to let you know that I shall be drinking ale and tea, as well as talking and reading from a chair on the stage in The Purcell Rooms on the South Bank on the evening of Friday May 25th as part of The Caught by the River Variety Show.  You can read more about this riot of an evening which is being held to celebrate five years of Caught by the River and buy tickets using money ironed by your or anyone else's butler, we're not that fussy, by clicking here.  Thank-you.

Norfolk and the Isle of Ely

I am lost in the district of Arcadia known as Norfolk and the Isle of Ely in search of giant pike with the artists Bible John and Mr. Charles Rangeley-Wilson.

Spitalfields

A spring day from nowhere at Spitalfields yesterday and with it an intriguing piece of lost treasure, a plaque of over one hundred years in age from a carved fish, a 6lbs Trout from Lochan Bannoch in Scotland, not far from the Spittal of Glenmuick.  It is not known what happened to either the carved trout nor the 10ft trout rod on which it was caught by 'C.R.'

Tony Hugill's New Dog Shop

Once upon a time in Arcadia, and especially on unseasonably mild Thursdays in the month known as February, ladies and gentlemen would step out in search of new dogs and fishing tackle.  A leading dealer in these two essentials of a good life was Mr. Tony Hugill who ran a shop selling both in the northern town of Sale under the banner 'We'll Tackle Anybody'.

Today, an unseasonably mild Thursday in the month known as February in the year of Arcadia 2012, the essentials of a good life remain new dogs and fishing tackle.  I deal in the latter and welcome dogs new and old to my stall at Spitalfields Antiques Market on a Thursday.

Record 700

Found at Spitalfields last Thursday, a Record 700, made in Switzerland and dating to the decade known as the Sixties.

A Week in Arcadia

I am currently losing myself in writing a commission for Mr. Mathew Clayton who is guest editor of the next issue of the Caught by the River fanzine 'An Antidote to Indifference' and has asked me to write a diary piece on a week in Arcadia.  Once upon a time in Arcadia every angler would keep a diary and many were anonymous.  I have always wanted to know the identity of the gentleman who caught a Roach of 1lb 11oz from Stoke Newington Reservoir on the last day of the season in the year 1936.  I shall never know his name, only that the weather was very bright and that he caught his remarkable fish in a keen easterly wind.

Embarkation

In kitchens across Arcadia, terriers are being kissed, berets and bobble hats are being blessed, pots of tea are being drunk trawlerman style and to the sound of Elgar on the radiogram, anglers everywhere are preparing to embark upon the final weeks of the coarse fishing season.

Relics

Found in the same carrier bag at Spitalfields on Thursday a pair of Milwards Wooden Devon Minnows dating to the period in Arcadia known as the Post War Years, hermetically sealed in their celluloid packets, unused and ready for the reliquary.

Spitalfields

Found at Spitalfields on Thursday amongst a carrier bag of floats a number of slotted pike bungs, some of them sporting the livery of Pegley-Davies.

Models Walking Up and Down in Arcadia

An early start in Arcadia and for once not at the beckoning of a faraway auction house or a Car Boot Sale for the Soul, but an early morning excursion to the opening of London Fashion Week where at the invitation of Art School Heroes Antoni & Alison , the Empress and I watched Models Walking Up and Down.   The show was a riot of biscuits, tweed, brown paper and a reminder of the truth & beauty often shown in old fishing tackle catalogues.

Tingle of Gleadless Road

Once upon a time in Arcadia, and usually on a Thursday during Fashion Week, ladies and gentlemen looking for a combination of fishing tackle and fancy goods would take the trolley bus No. 34 or No. 35 to G. Tingle whose premises were on the Gleadless Road in the town of Sheffield and where maggots were sold by the pint and served solid.

Ladies and gentlemen at a loss during Fashion Week today and wishing to find a similar combination of Vintage Fishing Tackle for the Soul including some choice fancy goods at lowest prices may take whichever route they choose to Sheffield and look for Tingles, but are reminded that they can also find such items on my stall at Spitalfields Antiques Market in the district of London known as E1, and which is open from a half past seven until three o'clock sharp on Thursdays only.

Dragnut

Found at Kempton on a previous Tuesday, a fine example of a Strikeright Tideflo Centrepin Reel, measuring 4 1/8th of an inch and featuring the unusual Four-in-One S.R. Dragnut.   In its original box and complete with paperwork the reel is for sale with immediate effect to sea anglers of distinction in the Just in, Sir corner of my website.

The Feast of St. Valentine in Arcadia

In Arcadia, as in some other districts, today is the Feast of St. Valentine, a celebration of love and union, as witnessed in these photographs of a salmon fishing holiday in the sun, taken in the year 1935 and sold to me by reputable dealer in photographs.   For the record the scales at the Glenalovan Hotel weighed the fish in at 9lb 4ozs.