Could a piece of angling history be hiding in your shed?

IF ONE of your New Year’s resolutions (or more likely one of your wife’s instructions) is to declutter your life of the detritus we all collect over the years, then just pause for a moment before you do anything rash.

As you work through those boxes of old tackle tucked away in the back of the shed or garage and blow the dust off a reel that hasn’t seen action since the 1960s, make sure you give it a close inspection before consigning it to the lost world of the landfill.

Hidden among the cobwebs and mummified maggots could be a real gem of fishing history and, in some cases, you could be throwing away a small fortune.

If our feature on angling antiques is anything to go by then there are people out there prepared to pay considerable sums for vintage fishing tackle. In fact, you’ll be gobsmacked at what one bidder paid for a centrepin reel recently!

That’s not to say that every item of old tackle is going to top up the bank account and see you snacking on lobster on that next Caribbean holiday. In truth, much of it’s worth very little.

A tackle dealer once told me that the value of any item is only what someone is prepared to pay for it. However, we’ve all seen auction sites go crazy, and some bidders will stop at nothing to secure something they’ve set their heart on. Then there’s the sentimental value of old tackle, and you can’t put a value on that. On my office desk is an old tea mug that’s full of great memorabilia, as I call it, although others may describe it differently. Mixed in with pens are the stick floats I won in my first junior match, the rig I caught my biggest fish on, and a couple of Avon floats given to me by John Wilson the first time we met.

One man’s rubbish is another man’s gold, I think the phrase is…