Goin' fishin' and bargain chairs...

Looking out of the window as I type this, the snow has melted, and the sun is out. Great! Time to go fishing.

 The subtitle of this blog is: "The tale of two blokes who decided to have a go at a spot of fishing..."

Well, tomorrow I am going fishing with 'the other bloke' who this blog is supposed to be about - my brother, Tim. It has been a while since I last got out but it is much longer since we have been able to get together for a day out on the bank. As the rivers have closed, we are back to the commercials for the next few months, and as Tim lives down in deepest Kent, it seemed reasonable to choose one of the many fisheries that are spread around the Kent area. After a bit of discussion, we opted to spend the day at Monk Lakes in Marden.

Monk Lakes Fishery is a massive venue with several lakes and a section of river to cater for all styles of fishing. I have been there a couple of times, myself, once on Bridges Lake and again on Match Lake 4, when there was not a match on. For Tim, this will be a first. I don't really have a plan for tomorrow, but I am thinking it will be more about chatting and eating with a bit of fishing thrown in. I will take a van load of gear, and we can decide what we need once we get there.

The new Aldi offering (right) at a few coppers under £15 has to be a great bargain

Bargain Chairs!

On Sunday, Sue and I popped into Aldi to pick up a few supplies. While we were there, we noticed a pile of the fishing chairs they had on a special a few weeks ago. At the time they were priced at a few coppers under £20 each. I have a decent accessory chair and a couple of cheap chairs similar to these, so I was not really interested. However, on seeing them reduced by a further 25%, I thought it might be worth replacing my existing cheap chairs as they were never perfect and the leg adjustment was very flimsy. The Aldi offering looked much better than my current chairs, so at that price, I thought I would take a chance.

The new chairs are much better than the old ones, the mechanism that locks the legs is stable and clicks into place as the legs are unfolded, the tube sections of the frame are bigger, and the leg adjustment is simple and easy rather than the pin-in-a-hole arrangement of the older chairs. The old chairs were bought almost on day one. Indeed, before I had been fishing. They do the job, but they are very wobbly when the legs are extended. At the time, they seemed good value, but at twice what these new ones have cost, they don't look so good today.

A far superior locking system for the legs  

 One thing that drives me nuts (yes another thing!) with the old chair is that it is hard to stand against anything when it is folded, as the end of the tubes it is standing on do not grip the floor, and it is always slipping down onto the floor of the fishing room. The new chairs have solved this problem by fitting 'feet' with large discs on them, making it far more stable when leaning against a wall. A simple addition that makes a big difference and cures an annoying problem.

The large round 'foot' on the end of the seat frame means the chair will stand up easier when it is folded

These new chairs are one of the best buys I have had from Aldi. It is a shame they only sell fishing gear as the odd special buy. It is well worth keeping an eye out for this stuff after the event to see how far it gets reduced. Even at the full price, these chairs are typical of the quality of Aldi's fishing tackle. Okay, it is not top-of-the-tree, but for the price, it would be hard to better the quality.

Ralph.