After 7yrs of cnc milling as a setter I decided it was time for a change, I have always loved the outdoors and being cooped up in a factory 5 days a week had taken its toll. I really needed a new challenge so my wife & I decided to set up our first company Projo Designs UK. Over the years I had made many of my own items of fishing tackle including my first stainless rod-pod, which turned out to be the same as a very popular design years later. I realized that there was no way we could afford to start producing big items as we had very limited tooling & funds, so we decided to market a product I had been using for a number of years on tight barbel swims on the Ouse. If you have fished for carp and love the powerful hard fight they give, barbel come a very close second. Some of the rivers (well more like streams you could jump across) that were producing many double figure fish, were so shallow and clear, one false move with a torch or headlamp would send them straight on their way back down stream. So I designed the illuminated forceps, better known as the (Nightgorger), Click on the links below to view images and reviews.
To get this one small design on the market we tried to get funding from the banks whom laughed at us as soon as we mentioned the word new design (invention). This seems to be one of the UK's biggest faults, we are not protecting any of our designs, they all end up going off to China or the far east, manufactured and sent back to us for a price we could only design the box for!! Anyway after being laughed out of every single high street bank we heard that the princess trust are up for helping young people with ideas, so we put together a business plan and sought funding from them. We tried to get £6000 and managed to secure a loan of £4500 which we managed to make 200 sets of the nightgorger, buy more tooling, and do three of our first national adverts in the Anglers Mail. The orders soon came in as we adapted the Nightgorger for pike and sea use on 10ins forceps. It was trying for a Patent that really took its toll on our little business, they just wanted more & more money. In the end we did not get the Patent on the Nightgorger because after £5500 I decided to  call it a day. This is were we found out just how shark infested the waters are around the patent industry, this was supposed to have been set up in the 1800's to help inventors, not milk them dry!!!One of the best avenues to go down at the moment if you have a big idea is tbf (Trevor balis foundation ) who we met at the British invention show. (Picture to the right, me with my current pb of 46.4)We still have many ideas, some fishing and many others, but this is something we now do as a side line in the hope that one will be picked up and marketed. The Nightgorger continued to get orders but without additional funding to compact the design and use a small led unit, it was a bit to dear for a set of forceps so the orders only just covered the advertising & materials. A year previous to this, when tooling the Nightgorger I had met many wholesalers of fishing tackle and one in particular had helped me all the way through (cheers Keith Clair) he had even given me space at national shows to try to promote the Nighgorger. In 2003 i decided to start selling a few other items of fishing tackle on boot-sales & markets, this spiraled and turned into Tonsoftackle in 2004. We have now built this name into a business that thousands of people trust, I think due to our customer service & competitive pricing. We are always here to help and love nothing more than getting kids and new anglers into the sport. I hope you enjoy looking around this site which i have made as simple as possible, I have and will continue to source stock that is reliable and priced well, so dads like me can keep putting a smile on our sons faces like the picture below of my lad Bodie with his current pb,  , fishing is our life, and its kept me out of trouble since i was 7yrs old. I hope it does the same for my boy as fishing really is a hobby that lads enjoy (camping, time with their dads & the feeling of never knowing what you are going to catch) which changes every single time.
Right back to the fishing, like i said we do really test all the tackle we stock and my fishing partner Mick Jordan has been a fanatical carp angler for over 25yrs. he has four uk 40's under his belt & European carp to 50lbs (below right, mick with a 46lbs mirror) Since we met and have been going fishing together he has taught me that is the attention to detail that puts fish on the bank. If yo ur not getting runs change you approach. One of the best things i have learnt over the years is chopped baits. This is a really easy thing to do, you can either chop the baits with a bait chopper to get loads of different shaped baits or just cut them up with a pair of scissors. After you have chopped your bait, thread a couple of pieces onto a long hair (you can keep the baits tight together by putting a gummy stop on the hair, nearest side to the hook,see left pic below) then lay the rig in the bottom of a pva bag cover it with some small pellet/carp ground bait, (i normally make a 5ltr bucket of bag mix the night before) Add the rest of the chopped baits, a bit more mix, some quality oils, tie the bag up and you're away (right picture below, view of bag contents on lake bed). In late December 06 on a venue called willows, Mick & I landed well over 200lb  of carp on this method using dynamite squid & octopus boilies. The biggest was 17.8lbs not big fish but fantastic winter sport. Another really good thing mick has taught me is to change the appearance of a hook bait, not only can you chop them about but its amazing what difference topping a boilie bait with a single grain of corn can do. I've seen mick change a quiet session into a good session just by adjusting a couple of small things. The best piece of advice i can give as a tackle trader is, never ever cut costs on line or hooks & make sure you can tie a good knot. Get these components correct and when you hook a nice fish, you will get the photo. I can remember the first time I hooked a carp, I was probably 13yrs old, I had cycled down to the canals in Tring, it was the first day of the season and carp were still cruising around the surface. I threaded on a large waggler float (i couldn't afford a surface controller) then tied on a size 6 hook direct to my line, I squashed some fresh white bread around the hook and casted directly at the cruising carp. To my amazement a clonker of a fish went straight for the bread, all I can remember is the sight of the float shooting off across the top of the water the rod bending double, my heart was in my mouth. I had the fish on for a couple of mins then, the pressure was gone. Devastated I reeled in to find the hook had pulled. As a kid my parents were both hard workers and my dad hated fishing so I had no-one to teach me how to tie a knot correctly. I managed to get my mum to buy me a fishing book and I studied how to tie a good knot. This is one of the most important areas  of fishing, good strong knots give you confidence, I have landed good sized fish with my son while testing some of the cheapest baitrunners/rods and landed nearly every one, the only time he lost fish was due to letting the pressure off with barbless hooks, so I believe if you get your line, knots & hooks right the rest of the tackle even if its a cheap starter kit will get the fish to the net (dont spend a fortune on gear till you know they are going to stay with the sport). I have put some down loads on the knots & tips pages of some recommended knots. I always show new anglers the overhand loop which is very similar to the palama, which I believe is one of the simpler knots & quite easy to learn how to tie. I hope this page has given you an insight to who we are and what Tons of Tackle is about, as I have said we are a young company but growing every day as i just love to buy new tackle and hope in the future I can supply you with any tackle you need. If you want to have a look at some fishy pics go to our gallery . We really want your pics so send them to tipsandpics@aol.com pls remember to resize them to 640 x 480 and give away as much info as you like. (Them snags above are just socarpy!!!!) Ahh just a quicky...remember we are open until 10pm so don't be shy to call us after work, even if it does seem to late!!
tight lines....Hope to see you soon!!
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