Thomas Turner Appointments.

I am pleased to announce that with immediate effect Dave Townsend is appointed as Managing Director of Thomas Turner (TT). Dave has done an amazing job at building the reputation of TT as a business you can trust to do business with both as sellers and buyers. His enthusiasm for especially vintage tackle is infectious and carries on a family tradition.

Also, with immediate effect I am pleased to announce the appointment of Matt Daymond as Creative Director with responsibility for marketing and related activities. Matt has worked as Art Director with leading digital advertising agencies in London and his knowledge and expertise will help Dave enormously in continuing the upward path of the business.

I will remain as a director, and I am sure be called in for some buying opportunities, but Dave and Matt will have full operational control of the business. More time for fishing, I hope,

Richard.

Isle of Man ‘TT’

We have just finalised the purchase of a large collection from the Isle of Man. This contains some of the best Hardy and Sharpes built cane rods we have seen together with a good number of Hardy Perfects and St George reels and some desirable big game tackle. 180 quality items and we hope to be able to list later this month once we have the logistics sorted out.

Hardy Carved Salmon

We will also be listing shortly two massive Hardy carved salmon I have been admiring at home for several years now. Both Wye fish caught within 3 days of each other in April 1927 One is 42lbs caught on the Quarry pool at Armanstone and the other 39.75lbs (very honest weighing!) on the Butlers Pool. Time for them to have a new home! (I am told).

Update: The Peter Wheat Collection

We are about to start photographing and listing the Peter Wheat Collection. I have become somewhat obsessed as I see one man’s lifelong passion unfold in front of me.  Peter’s attention to detail is quite staggering and his hand-written notes on most items are fascinating and most helpful.  See photo of two traditional-style rod rests with Peter’s notes.

We plan to dedicate a section of the site to this collection so it can be viewed in its entirety before commencing sale of the items. Highlights will include some exceptional cased fish. There is a superb Cooper Barbel and a Chub but again the ‘PW effect’ drew me to a small carp. Quite ordinary in many ways until you read the history detailed on the back of the case.  If I had to keep one it would be this purely because of the provenance.

(I wonder where the other three are?).

The bulk of the collection is made up of modest tackle items  that tell the story of angling before the surge in carp fishing, bait boats and bolt rigs. One example being the maggot shute shown below. An ideal item to start a collection perhaps?

TT Classic+ Rods

Finally look out for some special offers on our TTClassic+ rods. We have a number of demonstrators available in the popular Avon 1lb test curve model (featured in Gone Fishing and also the latest Angling Trust video with John Bailey) and also some prototypes to clear.  We are looking to increase the range of Avon rods to include different test curves as soon as trials have concluded.

The journey continues.