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The bit you should read.
This fishing blog details my angling adventures around the UK (although depending where I am in the country I also sea fish from both Boat and Shore, Carp, Pike and Fly fish). I will be giving a summary of 3 values considered by most anglers as well as the additional Disabled Access rating. Since being diagnosed with CIDP and regaining my motor function Disabled angling and Disabled access is now something I always consider when visiting venues. They will all be rated on a scale of 1* to 5*;
1. Fishability *****
2. Accessability *****
3. Value for Money *****
4. Disabled Access *****
I think these 4 points are the key issues which are readily identifiable with all anglers. Feel free to take a look and add your own comments along the way!
Wednesday 5 November 2014
Tackle Store Review - Todber Manor Tackle Store
Todber Manor is somewhere that gets a fair
bit of press, whether it be from official angling publications or anglings
blogs, and having read how good both the venue lakes and the tackle store are, I
wanted to get out to Todber and have a look for myself. As the crow flies
Todber isn't that far from me, but the winding roads of Somerset and Dorset
left my SatNav believing it was going to take me 57 minutes! Nonsense, and
without speeding I made it in 39. I pulled into the complex, and parking right
outside the store (which is open until 2.30 on a Sunday) I was very pleased
with what I saw.
The store itself is in an open plan style,
with the till on the immediate left as you enter. There are double sided aisles
filling the floor space and there is a fairly large rack of rods on your right,
but the main feature has to be the abundance of quality coarse fishing gear.
That said I was very keen to have a good look around, and walking down the left
hand side of the store there is coarse fishing equipment galore, with more
brands than you could shake a... pole at. There were several Colmic seat boxes
set up, next to which there were numerous pole rollers and various tripods with
pole roosts on. The left hand wall was absolutely covered in coarse fishing
equipment and I could have spent ages looking through the various types of
landing nets, keepnets, pole floats, swivels, leads, disgorgers, elastics,
readymade rigs, readymade hooklengths and comparing brand to brand (of which
Todber covers A LOT). There was a fairly extensive range of Guru, Fox, Preston,
Colmic, Matrix and Drennan rig and tackle bits, which reminded me that I needed
2 new PTFE connectors for 2 of my top kits.
The back wall continued the theme, and there
is a large selection catapults, spray bars, feeder rests, side trays .... Pretty
much every seat box attachment you could think of. It became very obviously
that at Todber Manor they catered for every type of angler. The coarse fishing
part of the back wall is broken up by a large freezer, housing a good selection
of frozen boilies and other chilled baits (although I didn't spend a great deal
of time looking through it). This then makes way for the Predator and
Specimen/Carp section which runs across the rest of the back wall and down the
entire right hand side of the store. The Predator section ticked a lot of boxes
too. At Todber you can fish for Catfish, so it seemed obvious that they had
equipment there to cater for it. Along with the standard piking gear for
deadbaiting - Floats, traces, trebles, everything you would need to get you off
the mark and on the hunt for a winter Esox.
The right hand wall had everything a carp
angler would want or need. With large ranges of all the main brands, all out on
the shop floor for you to have a good look at. There were rod pods, luggage,
clothing, rig bits, alarms, all sorts! This tackle shop was turning out to be
one of the best I have visited in the South West. It was also great to see a
selection of rods, set up at full length, in store. You could actually pick
them up and get a feel for the rod before buying, which always helps.
The aisle in the middle of the store was
filled with ground bait, pellets, boilies, attractants and various other
additives. I walked around desperately convincing myself that I didn’t need to
buy at least 1 of everything. I could have spent a good hour in the store
looking around and going through all the bits on the walls but there were fish
that needed catching! I intended on spending the rest of my day on one of the 2
Whiteposts lakes, hoping the quality of the lakes matched the quality of the
tackle store. I will say didn't see many poles on site but then I wasn't really
looking for them. I also forgot to ask if they sold any fresh baits on site (as
I already had a few pints of maggots in the car), but I wouldn't be surprised
if they did, especially with so many lakes on site, it was seems a bit
nonsensical not to offer some fresh bait, after being able to provide all that
fishing tackle.
As with all big fishing tackle shops on
fishing venue sites the prices were slightly over inflated (the same can be
said for Cefn Mably), but then you are paying for convenience. As far as tackle
shops go, it is great and you could go in there an unarmed novice and come out
a professional match angler!
Although a bit too out of the way (for me)
for a weekly visit, if you are in that area I would seriously recommend that
you call in and have a good look around. You will not be disappointed, although
you will almost certainly leave a few quid lighter!
As
a rating a would say - ****
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