Hi All,
after reading some of the reviews of new tackle, clothing etc. I was wondering if there are old items of tackle that the fly fisher's on this forum would'nt be without? Have used for many years and have yet to be bettered?
for me my Ryobi 335MG's have been invaluable and have seen me through many years of use.
thanks.

A good point Sixo, and welcome to the forum.
For all the fancy modern, state of the art reels I own, I have one, an Old Hardy Princess, that I paid £10 for many years ago.
It had a crack in the cage, but I Araldited it and it has worked perfectly ever since, I have caught more fish on it than any other reel I own and it still makes a great sound when a fish runs.
Wouldn't get rid of it for anything.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

My old Shakespeare radial carbon 10ft #7. Tough as old boots. Bought it in 1986 for £30 and it's still going strong.

velcro fastening theodolite covers, i use them to put rod tubes in after getting fed up with 'dink, dink, dink' every time i go round a corner

also, those little palm scissor/pliers, good for unhooking fish and magnetic to pick out flies, dont have the finger loops that catch on the way into a pocket and you can clamp the onto clothing where you can find them later, good for removing ticks and by gripping the butt of a leader you can make a tube knot around the nose of the pliers that tightens when you pull the butt through

Still got and use half a dozen rimfly reels. Cheap as chips and never had any hassle in over 20 years use.

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Forgot about those Graham, same with the LC 80 and 100's, smashing little reels.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Snap!! I have had good service from my old Shakey, 10ft Radial Carbon and an old 9ft 6in Glider model, rated 8/9 on which I have had one Derwentwater pike on a big, lead head muddler fly. Also have several Rimfly reels, all in good order, an LC80 and an LC100. Never had a problem with any of them or my two old 3in Hardy Viscounts and an even older 3 1/4in St George. I still use an old Rudge, 3in bought in July 1959 ( I forget the day of the month ) That's for Steven's benefit; and several Young's Condex, Pridex and Beaudex models for both trout and salmon, as well as multipliers by Speedex and Gearfly. Most exotic would be an old ABU Delta 3, with lovely old disc brake, way ahead of it's time. It's a heavy, chunky, silent reel used now for dapping. All the above, and just two modern large arbours are in good working order. They are wasted on me!!
I won't even start on my other old or more recent 'el cheapo' rods. Well, I do have a Sharpe's Scottie 9ft 5wt cane, an 8ft 9in Hardy 'Triumph' 5wt cane and an 8ft 6in Milbro Trufly dry fly rod in glass fibre. They are the older rods in the TC armoury. Must confess, to the 'tackle tarts', that I have never paid more than £145 for a rod, and that was a Daiwa rated at £168, bought on a discount. Cheers,TerryC , AKA, 'the tackle-tramp'.

My Shakespeare graphite fly 8ft 6in rod bought 1989 for £25 and my Speedex reel bought around the same time. I would not be without them. I use them both on stillwaters and rivers.

interestingly, no body has mentioned hyped or expensive big brand stuff