Haywards of Cosham

[The Sweetcorn Kid]

Ok, not a vintage tackle shop, but then I'm still the right side of forty!!!!

Life as an angler started for me when I was 12. Sea fishing at first in and around the local creeks where I would catch crabs at first and then progress to eels, flounders and, the holy grail, bass. The local tackle shop was Haywards, half fishing, half model shop, the front window was filled with the stuff dreams were made of, shiny rods, reels, tackle boxes and every item of tackle known to man.

I remember going into the shop, after spending what must have been hours, just staring at the wonderful items on display, like the mighty Daiwa J10 reel, or the Paul Kerry and Moonraker beachcasters. They even had aluminium tripods to rest them on whilst fishing!! Very posh.........

My pocket money would only allow me to buy the odd weight and packet of hooks, but that didn’t bother me too much, it was nice just looking. And from time to time, they had manufacturers brochures on the counter, free to customers. I always took these as I could dream about all the shiny tackle whilst at home and, sometimes, they even had pictures of fish to gawp at, real fish!!!!

I don't know why but I was always mesmerised by Shakespeare's variety of spinners, so many shapes and colours, they were so impressive.

[The Sweetcorn Kid]

Here is an Ad for the type of reels I stared at in that shop window.

The Jupiter was my first reel...........