What we don't sell

Because you'll find out anyway, and finding out after the order is worse. We're a two-supplier dropship operation, which means our catalogue is the intersection of what two distributors happen to carry. That intersection has holes in it, and some of them are in places a surf angler will notice.

Our sinker guide already tells people that pyramids hold better than the bank sinkers we stock and to buy them elsewhere. This is that paragraph, generalised.

The gap: we don't have them in any size. Checked twice across both distributors, against machine-readable inventory rather than a category menu.

Why: one supplier is a marine and boat-outfitting distributor whose catalogue has no sinker category at all. The other is a freshwater tackle house with 164 sinkers in stock across bank, egg, split shot, pinch-on, drop shot, tungsten and Carolina shapes, and no pyramid among them. The houses that do carry pyramids all require either a physical retail storefront or that we hold our own inventory, and we have neither.

What we'd tell you to do: a pyramid digs into sand and holds against a sweep in a way a bank sinker doesn't. If you fish a beach with real lateral current, buy pyramids. Any coastal tackle shop has them for a couple of dollars. Our bank sinkers in 3 to 8 oz are the honest substitute and they hold fine off a pier or in calm surf.

The gap: every spinning reel we stock is a 3000 or smaller, and every one is rated by its own manufacturer for freshwater.

Why: we read every spinning reel our tackle house carries. The sizes run from 750 up to 3000 and stop. The marine distributor stocks two reels in total. There is no 4000 or 5000 available to us at any price.

What we'd tell you to do: a 3000 will fish surf perfectly well if you rinse it in fresh water after every trip, and plenty of people fish nothing else. But if you're pairing it with a 10 or 11 foot rod and throwing six ounces, you want the line capacity and drag of a 4000 or 5000 with a sealed body, and you should buy that from a coastal shop. Our Daiwa D-Wave combos arrive as a matched saltwater rod and reel, which sidesteps the problem for a first setup.

The gap: none of these brands, in any product.

Why: two different reasons. PENN, Abu Garcia and Pflueger sit behind a Pure Fishing reseller authorisation at our marine distributor, and that application states plainly that a physical store is required to buy their products. We're online only, so that route is closed. Shimano and Ugly Stik are a simpler story: neither distributor carries them at all.

What we'd tell you to do: we do sell Daiwa, Abu Garcia, Okuma and Pflueger through our tackle house, so the brand gap is narrower than it looks. For PENN specifically, buy direct or from a shop with a storefront.

The gap: no head torch of any kind.

Why: our tackle house stocks two glow sticks and no headlamps. The marine distributor has exactly one, at a dealer cost above its own retail price, which isn't a product so much as a rounding error.

What we'd tell you to do: buy one before you fish at night, because it's the most important thing in the bag and we can't help you with it. Get something rechargeable with a red mode, so you keep your night vision and don't light up the water in front of you. Any outdoor shop. Twenty to forty dollars.

Separate from supply, there are a few things you won't find here because we chose not to.

There are no reviews, ratings or testimonials on this site. Not because nobody likes the gear, but because we haven't sold enough of it to have real ones, and seeding fake reviews is the fastest way to make everything else we say worthless.

Product specifications are the manufacturer's own. We don't write our own numbers for casting weights, line ratings or drag figures. If a spec isn't on a product page, it's because the manufacturer doesn't publish it.

We don't discount branded rods and reels. Our margin on them doesn't allow it, and pretending otherwise would be a lie you could check in thirty seconds. Terminal tackle is priced at or below manufacturer suggested retail.