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| Simpsons Of Turnford |  |
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About Simpsons
Jack Simpson the founder of Simpsons of Turnford has been in the tackle trade for over 50 years serving his apprenticeship as split cane rod builder at Fosters of Ashbourne in Derbyshire with Ex Hardys of Alnwick craftsmen Bill Edminson. From there he worked as a rod builder with Chapman's of Ware and then with Oliver's of Knebworth.
In April 1972 he started his own business Simpson's of Turnford in Hertfordshire.
Jack is of course a very keen angler and from his boyhood days of catching perch in the local park lake he moved onto fly fishing for trout in the rivers of his native county Durham.
Today he travels the world in search of exotic species such as tarpon bonefish and other worldwide specimens. He also acts as host to groups of anglers to fish many different worldwide destinations.
Jack is a fully qualified NAC fly-casting and game fishing grade one instructor.
In the early years of the business fibreglass was the most popular rod building material and Jack in conjunction with many leading specialist anglers of that time designed a range of specialist coarse fishing rods. These were sold as finished rods and also as rod building kits, which could be assembled by the angler himself at considerable saving in cost. Simpson's were soon established as possibly the largest suppliers of specialist craftsmen built coarse rods and DIY rod kits in the Country. In those early days of Simpson's the sale of fishing tackle was only a small part of the of the Business but with so many specialist anglers visiting the Turnford shop this rapidly changed and soon this side expanded and a growing mail order sent specialist rods rod kits and tackle All over Europe.
It was in 1975 that possibly one of the most successful carp anglers of that time Kevin Maddocks in conjunction with Jack designed and built A range of KM- fibreglass carp rods we then went on to develop the first purpose designed KM carbon carp rods.
These rods were revolusonary in design and for the first time we had the carbon blanks designed to our own specifications and test curves.
We were the first rod builders to incorporate the Fuji snaplock reel fitting and handle and Fuji ceramic oxide line guides to our Simpson's KM carp rod range.
The KM-Range was extended to cover margin, midrange and long-range Carp fishing and the demand for the rods from carp anglers from all over Europe was expanded when in 1981 Kevin published his revolutionary book on carp fishing Carp Fever, which undoubtedly changed the way all carp anglers fished for carp in the future.
We were soon producing hundreds of these rods and the delivery time on The KM rods were 4 to 6 weeks after placing your order!
By the late 80s it was necessary for us to expand the size of the Tumford Shop to double its original size and have a separate rod-building unit. Over the next 15 years the Simpson KM carp rods dominated the specialist carp rod market and we had sold thousands of them all over the UK and Europe.
By the mid 90s Kevin had moved on as a consultant to Shimano and the collaboration on rod design with Jack Simpson came amicably to an end.
By the late 90s there were many new developments in the design of carbon-fibre blanks and more carp anglers were fishing at greater range and also spending more time abroad fishing the large reservoirs of France and Spain.
Jack had some new ideas on the future design of carp rods and after early Consultation with Jim Gibbinson one of countries most respected carp and
Specialist anglers, a man who in the past had been very instrumental in design and development of carp rods. Jim agreed to work with Jack on the design of a completely new range of high specification carp rods to meet the needs of the present day carp angler.
The result was the Jim Gibbinson Eclipse, Frontier and Advantage rods with specifications and test curves from 2.25 lbs to 3.25lbs they covered the whole spectrum of modern day carp fishing.
The range was a great success with UK and continental carp anglers and with some design changes have become accepted leaders in the design of modem day carp rods.
So at the present time what are we at Simpson's of Turnford planning for the future.
Our retail shop is now one of largest Specialist tackle shops in the country
And we have plans with the help of our new Website and your continued support we plan to expand it even further.
On the carp rod development front we have just finalised the design of the new Simpson's Total Eclipse range and I invite you to view these on our new website.
From establishing Simpson's of Turnford in 1972 some 34 years on, I am looking forward to the future and all the changes and challenges that time will undoubtedly bring.
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