Pownall and Sons are a long established family business founded in 1900 making us one of the oldest businesses in town. We are situated on Great Yarmouth’s busy Regent Road a short distance from Brittania Pier and the Beach. An engineer by trade Frank soon set about designing and making fishing tackle from the Regent Road premises, most famously the ‘Pownall’s Drag Oilin Reels’ which are now a sou
ght after collectable item. As well as making the gear, he could also use it as well. A casting champion in the 30’s and 40’s, Frank could send a lead out 133 yards with a centre pin reel and split cane rod which is a long cast even with today’s advanced gear. Frank’s son Reg joined the company in the late fifties and soon became a well known local pike angler holding the british record at one time with a 35lbs specimen taken from the River Thurne on the Broads system. The fish can still be seen mounted in the shop and is listed in many famous pike books. In the sixties Fred Smith brought his expertise to the business from Martin James in Redditch which then was the heart of the British Fishing tackle Industry. He soon started supplying fishing tackle to broadland businesses including the famous Ken Latham at Potter Heigham. In the seventies and eighties the shop added a large range of shooting and hunting equipment and now boasts a 1500 square foot showroom dedicated to shooting and archery products as well a wide range of clothing and accessories. The store now proudly displays a range of Sea, Carp, Coarse & Predator fishing tackle and equipment, not to mention a catalogue of shooting and archery products which are second to none. Brand names such as Daiwa, Abu, Preston, Maver, Shimano, Delkim, Angling Technics, Mainline, Penn appear on the fishing side and market leaders such as Smk, BSA, Webley, ASI, Weirach, Logun, Umarex, C**t, Armex, Petron and AGS all appear on the shooting and Archery.
