[Gethin Jones]

Just thought it would be interesting  to hear what tackle everyone started  off with...
I started with a 71/2' #5  Hardy jet glass and an Lrh lightweight reel  loaded with a Cortland 444 double taper.I spent countless hours fishing the stream near my home with it as a youngster and still use it  from time to time as it's still a delightful little outfit to use.

[Hamish Young]

A maker unknown 9ft fibreglass rod of dubious line rating that my Dad "allowed me to use" matched to a reel with no check left and an old fly line which might have floated once, but with so many cracks and bits of coating missing that there wasn't much profile left and it was thus more of an intermediate 

I had a ball 
I must have done because some (ahem...) 35 years later here I am still fishing.... although I might have moved up in the tackle quality a smidgen since my first outfit

No idea what happened to the rod.....

H

[Sandy Nelson]

Lucky you

My first fishing rod was an Orange Shakespeare solid fiberglass spinning rod in a kit from woolies, i was 5 and used it to catch pollack and herring of South Shields pier, i still remember the day very fondly

the first fly rod i ever used was my big cousins Red Diawa, couldn't tell you what reel he had, but at 8y.o. i think i was rather difficult to teach

My own first fly rod i got for my 11th birthday and it was a metallic blue/grey Milbro fiberglass 8ft6" 5wt rod which i wish i still had, it got broken by a mate one day while we were out when i was  teenager, i had a rimfly reel and a white floating line. Grandad had far more patience than my cousin so i eventually learned enough to catch a few fish.
My passion at that age was tying flies, so it always seemed more important than the tackle, i still have my scrapbook of fly patterns cut out of the angling times.

Funny how i still love to fish with an Orange Fiberglass flyrod

Sandy

[Flyguy]

My first rod that I purchased 3 months ago was a scierra srx 7 weight 9ft6 with a reel I got off someone a Shakespeare mustang absolute crap lolwith God knows what kind of floating line in it lol anyway I found the  rod was too stiff for me just didn't feel right so 2 weeks ago I bought an orvis clear water 7 weight  10ft rod and a skb cassette reel and loaded it with some Cortland Classic 444 line and couldn't be happier with makes casting a lot easier than previous rod

[Derek Roxborough]

My first rod was a Japanese cane rod bought in Aden in the late 50's, I fished with that until I loaned it and got it broken,then I bought an Olympic glass rod in Alnwick, used that for years 'til I got an Abu Salmo, ( He was a good salesman) I started  with hand lines off North shields ,we could barely afford hooks, but the Chandler ( Freeths) would sell us 2 spade end haddock hooks for a 1/2d then we had to learn to tie them  on, Aye it was a hard life,  easgach 1

[Mike Barrio]

No idea what the brand was, but it was a yellow fibreglass spinning rod that I bought from a wee second hand shop in Christchurch with my pocket money back in the late 1960s

Those second hand shops were real 'Aladin's Caves' for a young lad and I got my first fly rod in one a few years later ...... also fibreglass and golden yellow!

Cheers
Mike

[Jeff Donovan]

It must have been the summer of 1966, a birthday present ( a hand-me-down from an angling uncle) being a  Milbro glass fibre rod, 9' #5, matched with a Young's Condex reel & the remnants of a Shakespeare floating line. Those little wild brownies could never have felt any safer from being captured when I was thrashing around with that!  Great fun as an eleven year old on this endless learning curve. Happy days.   

[Rob Brownfield]

My first fishing rod was a 9 foot, solid glass three piece (metal ferrules) rod that was made in the Czech republic.  Solid turned wood handle The reel was an Intrepid "Boy-o", well I think that's what it was called, replaced a year later with a Black Prince. That was in the summer of 76, during the drought! 

My first fly outfit was a Shakespeare orange fiberglass 7-8 weight Alpha fly rod  and reel with a Shakespeare fast sink Sigma line. This was replaced by a factory second Cortland 444 Nymph Tip...which I still have!!

My first Carbon fly rod was a Daiwa Osprey 9 foot 5-6 weight bought from Browns. I then got the 11' 3" sea trout version and the 15 foot salmon version. I still have the sea trout one

[James Craig]

I was lucky enough to have a set-up given to me by my father-in-law earlier this year; an 80's vintage Shakespeare 9ft6 7 wt rod, Leeda reel and boxes upon boxes of flies. I replaced the line and as a beginner this suits me fine for general farting about.

But...

I've also procured a 4 wt number in anticipation of next season! 

[Marc Fauvet]

cool topic ! 

here's my first fly fishing outfit circa 1973 or so (gear and worm poles don't count but those started when i was 5)


Fenwick 7'6" 5wt fibreglass and Plueger reel.
the line was i believe a Cortland DT5 that disintegrated many eons ago and was binned.
even if its rather gorgeous to look at the rod itself is a peice of shit and the reel's clicking sound is unbearable but the lot still hangs on my wall doing what they do best: sitting pretty and doing nothing... 

but ! this junky rod does have a little story which explains why i kept it and why i've been fly fishing since.
i was quite succesful with spin and baitcast lure fishing doing 'junior league' B.A.S.S. type tournaments (in '73 i was 13 but started comps around age 10. this was in Virginia-USA) but after seeing fly fishos whilst trout fishing in rivers and really liking how it looked, or rather, how nice it was to see the line go back and forth through the air, i wanted to give this a try and borrowed a rod from a friend and went to my favourite bass pond with a handfull of poppers he'd lent me for the day.

a few poorly, flopped-out casts saw me hooked up to an 8lb large mouth bass and this fish in turn made me the winner of the year-long comp seperated by age groups and fish species. for this i won a little trophy that still sits in my office.
the rod lent to me was a Fenwick and was therefore on the photo of me holding up this fish that at the time felt like it was half my size.
i can't remember exactly how but this image finally ended up at Fenwick headquarters and they decided to send me three rods; a spinning, a bait caster and the lovely noodle above. you can imagine how i felt, happy as a lark and if i remember correctly, i think i even brought them to school to show them to my friends and teachers !   

i still have all three of them but never really touch either one. however, they're always there as reminders of the 'magic' or special feeling that fishing had at that time in my life and they've somehow managed to keep those feelings going throughout the years.
funnily enough, that 5wt just might be the best rod ever...

cheers,
marc

[Derek Roxborough]

going back to North shields I remember that the Guys all fished with Greenhart rods and Scarborough reels, But I was based in Glasgow in the late 50's and I used to go to Helensburgh to fish , we fished a pier called gully Bridge, the Glasgow guys had home made fixed spool reels made from Small hand drills with a home made spool instead of the chuck,the pick up was a piece of wire whipped to the rod, A young local lad used to get bait for me when I came up from Glasgow,some nice cod caught there,the pier was condemned so we had to climb through the fence, easgach 1

[Mike Thornton]

A 9 foot second hand cane Sharpes Dandy, bought in their January sale in 1959.   A beckalite reel,  and a sticky old number one kingfisher line.  Total cost......Thirty seven and sixpence.  That was more than my weeks wages.

[Euan Innes]

Now that I have time (sitting on the bridge of the MV Solitaire in Palermo in 14 degrees of lovelyness, logging data until the mess opens again at 18.45 ) I have time to add to this post.

All my "first" rods belonged to my Grandad so my own first rod was a Ryobi Double Top - 9'6" #6, or 10'6" #7 (2piece with two tops, self explanitory name). The short top could really throw a line and the long top was great for sea trout. I still have the Ryobi 357 Magnesium reel.
After that, in no particular order -
Trout rods
Bob Church Dave Shipman Drifter 11' 678(want another one but that might be rose tinted fishing specs)
B&W John Tomlinson JTS10' #7 (utter sh1t)
Clan 11'3" #5 (would be willing to sell one of my testicles to have that back (probably more use out of the rod anyway  )
Fulling Mill 8'6" that Kev Danby ended up buying (nice rod)
Loomis GTX 9'6 #7 (awesome but trashed my elbow)
Sandy Nelson Scott #5 (lovely)
Orvis 10' #4 Access (very nice!)
Guideline 9' #4 Fario (the last trout rod I will buy because it diesn't get any better than that  )
Orvis Western3 10' #7 (OK but only from a boat for tourists - to bad on the elbow for all day long casts. Did OK on the Alness though  )

Salmon rods
Somers glass 12'6" #10 (did someone say noodle???)
Sealey Octopus 10'6 #8 cane double hander (my Grandads rod that came to me. Must have it restored at some point as he had salmon to 28lb on it from the Ythan and I would like to at least have one more on it in my lifetime)
B&W Hexagraph 15' #10/11 (this is why I have big shoulders)
Clan 15' #10 (I WANT THIS ROD BACK! Willing to give away my other testicle... 40yard plus casts were an everyday thing  )
Shakespeare Oracle Mk1 14' #9 (£48 well spent)
Greys 12'#7 double hander, not switch ( I have high hopes for this as my go to rod this year, especially with a DTX #7 shooting head with an inter tip built in.

Might have to start one of these topics about reels next 

 

[Mike Thornton]

   I can vouch for The Clan.   Wish I still had my one. 

[Euan Innes]

Redfish,
The 11 or the 15?
My 15 was on a B&W prototype blank, matt finished and the 11 was an unknown blank (Harry wouldn't tell me!) but again matt finished and could easily handle salmon into double figures.
Both had salmon on them 
Off for a nostalgic cry now....

 

[Mike Thornton]

 It was a 15 foot Ghillies Choice #10.   I still have an 11 foot,7/8, Ghillies Choice.   Learned my lesson and wont part with this one.  Modern rods are not always the best,

[Ian Bell]

A hand me down from my father ... an 8ft solid fibreglass spinning rod ! Thirty bob (1959) from Woollies.  and an ancient Intrepid (I think) reel.
Also a very heavy greenheart rod, must have been about 13ft, only used for "worming" in big floods!
Memories come flooding back, happy days 

[Mike Barrio]

[Marc Fauvet]

i can't unsee that................. 

[Alan Davidson]

My first rod at the age of 10 was a white Diawa spinning rod that I got from my older briother for Christmas. Can't remember the length, only that it was bigger than me. The reel I am not sure about. My first Salmon was caught on this rod at 8lb on a devon minnow. It was caught on a Deveron pool owned by a good friend of my dad. It was the same pool that the good friend's Aunt caught the biggest Salmon caught on fly, so that made it even more special.

[Steven Sinclair]

If I remember correctly my first rod was a hand me down 9' 6# shimano twinpower.

It was a cracking rod that was unfortunately broken by one of dad's customers years later 

Cheers

Steven.

[Robin Roos]

Guideline EPIK Pike 9' #9 Kit, bought this week.  I have put in a few casts already and she seems really well balanced.  I do question whether the 6-8 reel is quite big enough for the #9 line and will consider upgrading to the 9-11 reel at some point, but only if doing so would not adversely affect the very good balance.

The angling outfitter was closing down their fly section, so I also picked up a Guideline Fario 9' #5 for an absolute steal (neither "Fario CRS" nor "Fario Classic", just "Fario" with the mayfly engraving on the butt).  Is it any good?