Issue 85

*Mick Toomer reveals the story behind the 50lb pike that now takes pride of place in his home, and how he ‘caught’ it.

*Charles Thacher relates top extraordinary tale of the gramophone pioneer who spent his fortune trying to catch tarpon.

*Mike Cacioppo looks at how rivals did their best to scupper Penn in the bait-casting company’s earliest days.

*Tony Hayter, author of a new book on GEM Skues, treads the banks where the nymph master once casted a fly.

*Clive Young recalls the less savoury side of running a tackle business: dealing with the dodgy, dishonest and downright dangerous.

*All Our Yesterdays from 1916 looks at when English turbot were stocked into New Zealand waters.

*An all-brass Hardy reel bought at a car boot sale for just £12 has been sold at Mullock’s auction house for £12,000.