Still lacking.

So I was going through my kit in preparation for a fishing trip on Saturday, and I realise how woefully under equipped I am.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tackle tart in anyway. Well, not yet. But there are still some parts I really need to get.
My fishing style is to put a carp rod out for large fish, in a fire and forget fashion, and use another more hands on style of fishing.
Float fishing, I have everything I need. Floats, shot, 2 rods, and loads of size 16 and 18 hooks to nylon. So no problems here.
Carp (specimen). I lack method feeders and weights.
Spinning and lures: Ok here, good selection and wire traces.
Feeder/ledger: Lacking method feeders, although I have maggot swim feeders. All the larger hooks I have are pre made hair rigs. I could cut the hairs off and use the hooks naked I guess.
All little things really, but stuff I wont be able to acquire before Saturday.

Taking a friend fishing on Saturday so I will set her up with a float rod with size 18 or 16 hooks. And I will ledger with a maggot feeder at first. But may replace feeder with weight to fish corn.

Mistake number 2?

Upon returning from my first fishing outing, I needed to remove the line from the Dunlop reel, and replace it with some new line.
Now I have always put the spool of new line in water before winding it on the spool. One, it gives me tension, and two, the water lubricates the line as it goes on allowing it to seat better. Or at least that is what I thought. I had always done this in the past, and never had problems.
This time however. . .
I was near the end of filling the spool and I noticed the reel getting stiff. I looked over it but could see no reason as to why this was. I pressed the button on the end to get the spool off the reel, and it would not come off. Eventually, it sort of went click but in a soggy way, and something looked odd. I then noticed what I was seeing.
This.

Somehow, the line had split the spool. Whether it be through too much wind on tension, or some other reason, I don't know. I have since done 2 other reels in the same way. One with the same line, and the other with 15lb line and not had any problems with them.
The reel cost me £6 from Dragon Carp direct, so I'm not bothering sending it back. But as the reel only came with one spool, its bye bye reel.

It also meant I had to replace the reel. So I spashed out a bit more and got this:

A Shakespeare mach 2xt.
It came with 2 alloy spools. One deep, one shallow, and a graphite spool. I'm quite liking the feel of this reel, and I am tempted to replace my other float reel with another one. Someone said it wouldn't be long before I become a tackle tart, and I feel they aren't wrong.

The Gameplan

So now I decide to sit down and decide what's the best way of getting kit, and in which order to get use out of it as soon as possible. Having mentioned my intention of going back into fishing to several people who expressed an interest in coming along, it was decided early on that I should get 2 float rods.
So the first one I ordered was a Shakespear pellet waggler rod, 11ft. The second, a 13foot dunlop waggler rod.
The reason for the 11foot rod was a little obscure. When I last fished 12 years ago, I used to use a 11 foot quivertip for float fishing. The reason being is that I broke my mates 12 foot float rod, and gave him mine in replacement. In hindsight, I wish I had done it sooner. The quiver tip was better at casting floats in my opinion, and that memory was part in me deciding to get this rod. The other being that my first rod was Shakespear and it lasted well.
The reason for the 13foot rod was because a local freewater I used to fish reguarly back in the day, was a bugger to trot through with a short rod. I thought that the 13foot rod would be handy to have if I decide to re-visit the free water.
I also needed another reel. The reel I got with the telescopic float rod was quite good, but the one with the spinner was loaded with 10lb line and I wanted 6lb. So I bought a dunlop reel and a mile of 6lb line.
Now back in the day, I used to set up 3 rods, and fish with 2. One rod was a waggler, the second a carp rod, and the third was a spinning rod. The idea being that if my swim went quiet, I would use the spinner to see if a predator had entered the swim and scared my fish away. With this in mind, I decided to get a 2 piece spinning rod.
With the rods sorted, I also needed luggage, a keep net, a chair, and more bait boxes. Plus terminal tackle.

My list was made, and over the next few weeks it slowly came together. .

First mistakes.

So to get back into fishing, I bought 2 complete sets. I bought a telescopic float set, and a telescopic spinner set. Both were cheap, and I bought them with the intention of just going back into fishing, and getting a line wet.

Big mistake.

Both arrived on the same day, and at first I was excited. The reels looked ok, and one of the sets came with a landing net which I quite liked at the time.
First issue though, was the 12 foot float rod. I wasn't expecting excellence in a telescopic rod, but this did not fill me with confidence. For a start, it only had 5 rings. At that point I realised that I would never use this rod. And it is still in my spare room gathering dust in the corner.
The spinning rod gave me more confidence. It too had only 5 rings, but at only 6 foot long that was ample. And playing with it I realised it was quite flexible and seemed to be quite good. However, I have only ever used this rod for winding spools. The other stuff that came with the kits were of a decent quality for the money I had laid out. (£30 for both sets)

It was at this point that I realised I really needed a game plan of what I needed, and how much I was willing to spend getting it. (everything has been bought with money earned from doing overtime. An adage I live with is basic wage pays the bills. Overtime buys the toys)