This is a new topic for Fishing for Schools, but no less vital for it.
Fishing stores – and the people behind them.
These wonderful caverns of mystery – the fisher's toy shop – have proven to be magnets for anglers from all walks of life, ages and demographic backgrounds; it makes no difference. Anglers love a fishing tackle shop. The end!
And few can be quite as seductive as the one run by my dear friend down the years, Chris Haines, a little shrine to our sport at his prolific fishery, Clivey, right on the Wiltshire-Somerset border.
You can find just about anything in here... somewhere. It’s a joy.
But beyond simply the product range, one of the greatest draws is Chris’s knowledge of coarse angling, both locally and further afield, his affinity with fishing’s technical side – his product knowledge is encyclopaedic – and above all his decency and kindness to others, especially people entering the sport for the first time.
So apart from this store being a little angling shop of wonders, Chris Haines is pretty darned amazing, too.
You have to visit.