About

Collecting, preserving and recording the history of fishing tackle.

We are always interested in buying examples of fishing tackle for research. We also have contacts with collectors who will pay a fair price if an item is not for us.

The Antique Tackle Observer was originally started as a “Fanzine DTP (Desktop Publishing) concept in March 1994. It’s aim was to collect the vast amount of snippets of tackle collecting information that I was acquiring during my research for Men of Trent.

At the inception of the magazine the internet was in its infancy and no thought was given to a snappy internet title. A few years later it did highlight some of the problems with the name and I did attempt to change the title but this was abandoned.

It was one of the world’s first sites to have Java which attracted the internet “nerds & geeks” but no tackle collectors. Tackle collectors were usually involved in auctions, tackle meets and local get togethers.

The magazine ended at issue 45 as a hard copy with hundreds of article. It is my intension to publish the majority of the articles on this site which are still relevant today.

I also will advise of auctions tackle meets etc. in a News section.