Well, so much for hoping to feel better and going fishing! Instead I have had the most horrific cough which has kept me awake every night and stopped me sleeping. I had a lateral flow test last week followed by a PCR, both of which were negative and of course it had to be my granddaughter’s eighteenth birthday family celebration on Sunday and I couldn’t even crawl out of bed for that. So, no chance of going fishing last week or this and I have not even felt much like thinking about it or writing my blog.
So today I am going to do a bit about online tackle suppliers. Due to covid and the fact that my wife is vulnerable we have been keeping away from shops and crowded places, which includes tackle shops. I would prefer to support my local tackle shop but at the moment it is not going to happen. I also have faint memories of tackle shops when I used to use them in the past when they seemed more like a club for regulars and treated new customers like me with suspicion. A bit like walking into a country pub as a stranger a few years back!
So, online suppliers. Amazon and ebay are both sites that I use but I find myself going back to Angling Direct on a regular basis. I am on their email mailing list and get regular offers but one that caught my eye while I was lying in bed was a flash sale for Nash Siren S5 alarms at 25% off, which came to £16.49. This was just over their £16 limit for free postage so was an even better bargain. Of course, I needed a few other bits and pieces as well, namely a couple of Guru hybrid method feeders so it came to a few pounds more but then it always does whether you are in a shop or online! My justification for buying an alarm was that I had had several cheapo Amazon ones which were not proving to be much good. My NGT one gave up the ghost the first time it rained. Another one seems to turn itself off all the time and the other unbranded one I am using is loose on the screw thread despite my attempts to tighten it and 25% off, don’t we all love a bargain!
The alarm arrived a few days later and the first thing that I noticed was how heavy and solid it seemed compared to my cheap ones, a much better built piece of kit. The next thing was that batteries were not included, as the saying goes, so it was a search through my bits and pieces drawer only to find that I didn’t have one the right size so it was back to Amazon. The new battery arrived the next day and was installed and the alarm worked loudly. It took me a while to see how to turn the sound down, Youtube showed turning the on/off button but mine must have been a later model as you have to press the button to cycle through three different sound levels so I was able to turn it down. It seems to remember the volume level that you left it at which is good as I don’t like to have it set too loud.
Then there was the latching light and I had to look that up as well. Apparently it stays on for longer after the alarm sounds to show you which of your alarms has sounded, who knew?
So, it seems a nice enough piece of kit and I can’t wait to try it out. Of course, I will have to and will report back. In the meantime it has started raining again here and the rivers are filling up so it may be time to go back to my favourite spot! In the meantime I will try to take care of myself and get well, you will know if I have succeeded if next week’s blog is about fishing and not the state of my health!
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