Memories.

[mick dunn]

Lads i was going to put this in answer to a post but think it deserves a spot on its own.
I am now 48yrs old. When i was a kid just starting fishing at about 12-13 yrs i remember going on Middleton. The end corner was the place to be. I saw some nice cod pulled in from this spot from the old hands who used to hogg the best spot. For some reason the abu 7000/9000 sticks in my mind. Think it was because they were red. Hardy tourney beachcasters rods as well . I remember they had castle transfers on the end section near where your reel went.
I also remember my uncle fishing from the light house corner by the heugh. He used to use runnydown which had been wrapped in newspaper.
Never saw any fish caught here but they reckon it was a hot spot.
My uncle Eddie was good mates with a lad called Morris Usher. Think he goes up and down on the pier now on his electric bike. Never seen him for years but he must be in his seventies, Eddie unfortunatly died years ago.
Then there was my uncle John. He had his own boat docked in Hartlepool-used to go out with him. Always remember as we passed the heugh he put his fingers down his throat and threw up. Then he ate his sandwiches. Those days we actually caught Haddock.
Wonder if the blokes still alive who caught my rod just before my 7lber nearly pulled it in off the end of the Heugh?.

Mick.

[adam.d]

When I was about 14 my uncle give me a Hardy Tourney beach caster in mint condition, along with a selection of multipliers, a white mitchell, a brown penn and a red 7000 with level wind. I was too young to use the multi's and I wasn't keen on the hardy as it was too heavy. They were all stored in my dads shed untill 2 years ago when he decieded he was gonna have a clear out and swiftly chucked them all in the tip
I informed him that the rod was probs worth a small fortune but he didn't believe me

[BAZACODBASHA]

Owned a Hardy Tourney rod myself for a good few years, and used it with the original 'red abu 9000'. Cost me a small fortune at the time, and to be fair I caught quite a few fish with this combination (However anglers who fished in the 70's will remember how many fish there were to be caught from the shore then). To be honest it was a beast of a rod that required brute force to compress it, and compared to todays rods , it was horrible!
However, I would settle for the quantity and quality of fish then with rods like the Tourney, rather than 'struggle' to find fish at times with the Rolls Royce tackle of today.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[big_sean]

there was a hardy tourney the other week on ebay and it ended at 99p with no bids



Sean

[Davey.B]

memories

I remember using a mitchell 600p multiplyer,if tou could master one of these you could use owt.Then when had cash gota red 7000,conoflex dc6 the semi carbon one,made up by tennicks s/land.Got mysel a 7000c an had bar chopped,loved that reel,still got it,it like new,and still got me 9000c,used to use that wi 40lb line straight thru on me dc8.How times have changed,incidently the last time i can remember when fishing was fantastic was winter 86/87 if my memory is correct,too long ago!!!

[willywetegg]

I moved this into here Mick, it will feel more at home and won't get lost as quick

Aye the white Mitchell 600p, it had the most distinctive sound of any reel that I have ever heard lol. I had mine for a lot of years and never had a bit of bother with it until the spool exploded mid cast, that quitened it down a bit . I never had a Hardy Tourney though, mine was the Hardy Victor but that was a bit later about 1980. I still have it, hung on the wall in my outhouse. I would think that the nearest I could get to explain it's action would be to wave a piece of warm liquorice about lol. They don't have any similarities at all to todays rods.

Jim.

[mick dunn]

No probs Jim.
I checked flea bay for one of the Hardy Tourneys last night and not one on the auction site.
I used to have an Abu 464 Atlantic Zoom. That was the bizz in the 70,s. Course now they are ancient.
I,m surprised they are not collectable like the reels. I used to have a Mitchell i remember the white compound/plastic side plates. Then as an upgrade i bought an Abu 8000. Me and my mate went to a tackle shop in Middlesbrough and we bought one each.
On my return to fishing after 30 years or so i was surprised by the impact Penn has had on the sport. When i was a kid Penn was not a good reel. I remember the Penn Sea Screech as we used to call them. Horrible red plastic things. You can get them on flea bay now for peanuts.
Mick.
I also remember how i financed my first rod and reel. I won £5 for writing a story for the chipper club in the Hartlepool mail. It was about when my dad took us to Flamingo park.
I went inro Gents at Hartlepool and bought a small rod and fixed spool reel. I remember the old boys in there laughing at me.

[waco]

intrepid sea streak

hey mick do you not mean intrepid sea streak and thats we called that the sea screach that was my first multiplyer but did'nt keep it for long then a got the in reel of the time the 7000 abu

[sandworm]

THe Penn you are on about Mick was probably a "Squidder",good casting reel but with a 2 to 1 retrieve it was a pain to reel in.
A Seastreak in mint condition with the box can fetch up to £150 from collectors now.
We used to cut the fins from the side of the spool on these,thought it would cast further.
Still remember when the first Abu 464 rods came out,all the old guys said the tips were too thin and they would never catch on.Look at all the rods now.

[Davey.B]

600p "exploding spool"

I moved this into here Mick, it will feel more at home and won't get lost as quick

Aye the white Mitchell 600p, it had the most distinctive sound of any reel that I have ever heard lol. I had mine for a lot of years and never had a bit of bother with it until the spool exploded mid cast, that quitened it down a bit . I never had a Hardy Tourney though, mine was the Hardy Victor but that was a bit later about 1980. I still have it, hung on the wall in my outhouse. I would think that the nearest I could get to explain it's action would be to wave a piece of warm liquorice about lol. They don't have any similarities at all to todays rods.

Jim.

Aye mine exploded 2 while bringing a coling in on tyne wi strong tide pull,sent it 2 mitchell they replaced it 4 free,and advised me put a backing on it,think it was wool to stop this happening.

[mick dunn]

Aye sorry lads it was the intrepid. It came to me today as i was on the way home.Sea Streak if i remember rightly.
And how about this as a kid-we had a massive storm once and i went down to dig some runny down because them days the beaches were covered in the stuff. I remember big black runny being washed up by the Banjo pier. People had handfulls of the stuff which had been washed out from the sand. Folk were literally filling buckets.
In the same place by the banjo i used to trench dig for King Rag in the sand-got some monsters. Mussells forom inside of the basin (near the yachting club). The Mussells grew on the side of the old Skelton pier. and the other inner pier. Aye they were happy days them.

[Castaway]

You used to get some canny white rag in front of the warehouse between the Middleton and the Banjo. Broke a couple of forks next to the "Red Light" over the years but you got some good rag for your trouble.
Had the Intrepid Sea Streak as my first "bought myself" muliplier. My uncle had given me an old Penn some years before but could never use it properly. Went through the Abu's 7000 & 9000 and preferred the 9000. Ended up with 2 Penn Squidder's, they were just about the best casting reel that I tried at the time and still have them and their boxes after 36 years.
Had a Hardy Longbow (the one before the Tourney and still have it), heavy as hell, stiff as a poker but a decent caster. Had a 484 for a while but didn't like the short handle (it was the one before the coasters came out). Made my own 13 foot reverse taper job which I preferred over the Longbow as it was a softer action and a bit lighter. Mostly used 30lb Sylcast straight through but started to come down to 25 then 20lb with a shocker.
The modern rods are so light compared to what we used in the 60's & 70's. Still use the reel up position, never converted to reel down

[skiny]

long time ago(in the seventys)my reel of choice was the penn squidder,cost £14 pounds then, me mate bought the michelle.two months later he had to replace his reel and i continued to use mine until that fateful day i caught what i thought was a lenth of rope,on the tyne at jarrow(behind the steelworks the pencils i think they were called)the line got tighter n tighter and just as i got whatever to the surface,(it turns out to be a fjjjhknmb great cod)and bang the side plates exploded n all the bits dropped out .the line went shooting off so grabbed the end of the rod and started to hand ball it in.just about to bring it (the cod)over the edge the darn thing fell off and made a lazy swim back into the middle of the river on the top of the water.
tried to get a replacment sides in the end got mesel a abu 7000 outa the cataloghe for £70 lot of money back then and was paying for it for what seemed like years.THEM WERE THE DAYS.

[Davyred]

I was a Mitchell 600 user as well, with its rapid 3:1 retrieve ratio

If it wasn't full to the brim, you could handline your line in faster than reeling it in.

It was luxury when I got a 7000 with the red plates until they started to corrode so got the black side plates. I've still got it somewhere, must be over 25 years old now.

[willywetegg]

Your not wrong Davy the Mitchell was a bit slow mate, still it did a pretty good job in it's day and I didn't seem to get many nests with it. I also "updated" to the 7000 with the red side plates. I stopped fishing for a while and cleaned it properly, dried it off and put it in a nice cloth bag in the cupboard. When I went back for it a good while later it was ruined, there was some dampness in the back of the cupboard and the side plates were knackered so it was back to the Mitchell for a while.

It put me off Abu's for a while and never got another for a lot of years, I never really had a good word for them after that as a few friends could still testify lol.

Jim.