William Robertson

WILLIAM ROBERTSON, Fishing Tackle Merchant and Manufacturer, 5 Bothwell Street, Glasgow.

    Very numerous must be the disciples of Izaak Walton who repair to Mr. Robertson for their tackle, to enable him to carry on this extensive business since its establishment nine years ago, and of which he is the sole proprietor.

    The premises in Bothwell Street comprise a large shop extending about eighty feet back, having a spacious window dressed with rods, flies, lines, &c., and utilised as warehouse, sale-room, and counting house ; and in addition to this there are a sunk flat workshop and stores. Many gunsmiths combine this trade with their own, but Mr. Robertson finds the business in his own particular line sufficiently extensive to absorb his whole attention, and he is solely a manufacturer of fishing materials. This gentleman, who makes a specialty of “flies” of all kinds, has been called by the Field “the king of fly-dressers in that district”, and he offers to his customers the very widest choice of flies, both plain and fancy, suitable for all the rivers and lochs of Scotland, and offering themselves as such tempting morsels that few salmon or trout are able to resist them. Nothing better can be made, again, than his three-yard gut cast-lines, and the Fishing Gazette in an editorial note says that “Dr. Hamilton used Robertson’s ‘Telarana’ gut, and is delighted with it” ; and what better testimony of its excellence can be brought forward than this ? Mr. Robertson will tie flies to pattern on the shortest notice, and his method of making up fly-casts tests the strength of the gut while the flies are being attached. The fisher in salt water will likewise find in this establishment every necessary for the prosecution of his favourite pastime.

    Mr. Robertson has succeeded in securing a very large and high-class private connection, and also works largely for Angling Clubs. Strictly speaking, his is mainly a local trade, but he has frequent opportunities of exporting his goods to customers abroad. For the benefit of those who delight in angling in the famous Loch Leven, Mr. Robertson (who is a Director of the Loch Leven Angling Association, Limited) has published, at the low price of 1/-, an excellent Angling Map of that lake, showing the banks, and depths, and favourite drifts ; and which, especially for strangers, will prove a valuable and reliable guide.

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