Up at 7.30 am with a black coffee and I just had a sneak peek into the morning emails.
Yes the 10’ rod is 10’, no the 3 piece rod is not a two-piece and the 6 weight line does not weigh 6 lbs.
Various offerings of reels, rods, and collections from the UK and mainland Europe plus an Australian one as a bonus set the scene for the week.
A new client standing in the River Tweed decided he needed a new rod and reel, so that was ordered over the phone between casts, and packed along with the piles of other packages sold over the weekend.
I attempted to start listing some items when a tackle shop owner called to discuss his imminent retirement. Off I went for a meeting and a future deal was agreed in principle.
I came back to assorted telephone messages, valued a few items, bought a 19th-century Dutch wooden creel, a fixed spool and a centre pin collection, two Ari t Hart reels and a pair of modern salmon fly rods.
A man from Alaska called to buy a Hardy Perfect trout fly reel to match the rod he bought last month. This was followed by a call from Ireland to discuss lure fishing rods, reels and silk fly lines.
One of our many Rapala buyers acquired another 40 lures this week making 300 in total to add to his collection!
I chatted to an Italian customer about the UK auction scene; he bought a Hardy reel rather than spending the flight money to come to the UK for pending auctions, now held online. This is a trend I see happening more and more. Why spend £1000+ getting to the UK when you can buy tackle online anytime with a rock-solid guarantee of customer satisfaction from Thomas Turner.
By the mid-afternoon cuppa I still hadn’t listed anything, when a good order for a Hardy Palakona salmon rod and matching reel came in, followed by a Mitchell 300 and a Hardy Anglers guide. There’s something for everyone in both price and in collector brackets.
I nipped out to paint the garden hut in traditional Norwegian colours, an homage to my family’s 200-year-old home in Garta, southern Norway.
Oh did I forget to say, I’m actually on holiday this week, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
