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Start of a New Season

 With the new season about to get underway as the weather turns a bit warmer (I took the decision that fishing is meant to be fun and I no longer have any desire to fish in temperatures of anywhere near freezing) I thought I would remind myself of how much my equipment changed over the last 12 months which was effectively my first full season for 30 odd years.

Beginning of 2022 Season

    Rod                     10'6" John Norris 2 Piece from the mid 1980's

    Reel                    Wychwood SLA 2 Cassette 

    Lines                   Wychwood Floater, Fast Inter, 10' sink tip, DI3, DI5, DI7

    Net                     Old Sea Trout net from the mid 1980's

    Boat Seat            Wychwood Boat Seat

    Drogue                 None

    Bag                    Wychwood Flow Extremis 50 Litres

 Beginning of 2023 Season

    Rod                     Vision Onki 10' and Vision Stillmaniac 10'

    Reel                    Hardy Ultradisc Cassette

    Lines                   Wychwood Floater, Fast Inter, 10' sink tip, DI3, DI5, DI7, Vision SloMo, Airflo 3' fast                                 tip, Airflo 6' and 12' Slow tip, Rio Clean Sweep Sinking

    Net                     Wychwood Boatman

    Boat Seat            Wychwood Boat Seat

    Drogue               Wychwood Competition

    Bag                    Vision Hardgear Bag (Reels/Lines/Bits and Bobs), Snowbee Classic Trout Bag Large                                  (Food Flies and Liquids).


So a large amount of change, the reasons for those changes (apart from me being a nightmare with new kit) are:

1 - Rods - needed to upgrade as my old one was quite heavy for a full days fishing, the Onki was purchased half wat through last season after testing about 1/2 a dozen rods including a Hardy Ultralite, for me casting wise I could not split the Hardy and the Onki so saved myself about £500 by going for the Onki. The Stillmaniac I bought last week as I want a rod with a bit more grunt for sinking line work - will see how that works out

2 - Reels - changed these after a day at Draycote where I couldn't change the cassettes and was stuck with a DI7 or a DI5 which was not what I wanted. Research later revealed that this was a fairly common issue and was probably caused by the line being wound too tight on the spool, anyway that is not happening again the Hardy is fantastically easy to change spools

3 -Lines - was always going to end up with more lines so expect this to grow

4 -Drogue - just a required bit of kit for boat fishing really

5 - Bag - 50 Litre bag when fully loaded is very heavy and also more difficult to find things, splitting everything into 2 smaller bags just makes everything more manageable, didn't want a box as again that would be heavy and would need modifications to not lose everything in it, bags allow me to be more mobile and can change what is in them if I fancy a bit of sea trout fishing


 

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