Personally, I am very pleased at this news. I suppose it will p*ss off the anglers who wish to buy there own bags, but I am genuinely pleased this small over-site has been put to rights.

I suppose it will make no difference to those who carry their rods assembled on the roof of their vehicle. However, for those of us who like to look after our gear, and thereby get the maximum return when we sell off for a new model, something simple like a rod bag is a huge help. A rod bag is as important as washing the rod and reel with fresh water at the end of a session.

In my seventy plus years, I have done more damage to rods (especially bending and breaking eyes) in transit than I ever have through normal beach use.

Seeing rods in use with electrician's tape holding the eyes in place tends to make me think this is quite a common problem. I might also add when I ran the fishing tackle shop in Kawerau, broken eyes were without doubt the most common repair job to come in. These were sent to Greg Smeal for repair. Don't hear much about Greg and Angela now, the last I heard he had been taken poorly.