In this piece I’ll describe how easy it is to make straight Peacock Wagglers my way.
Others have shown how to make bodied wagglers elsewhere on the site, so I’ll not discuss these in this article.
Materials:
A full length of peacock quill
Scissors
Craft knife
Cain barbeque skewers
Super glue
Thinnest catapult elastic you can find
Cotton buds or boom tube
Copper, brass or stainless steel wire 32 gage
Margarine tub white or yellow colour
Fine sand paper
lighter
A bobbin of whipping cotton
Junior hacksaw
Paint
Masking tape
The way I make my floats is not to put an eye on the bottom, but to use a straight cane insert shaft (fig 1.) that fits on to a quick release float adaptor/connector, that I also make.
Step 1 Take the full length of peacock quill cut off the first few inches where the end is rounded and bent with the scissors. For big heavy wagglers the length needs to be about 12 inches, so measure it, and cut at that length.
Step 2 Take the lighter and run the length of peacock quill backwards and forwards along the flame, removing the fine wispy bits left on the quill length.
When you satisfied that you’ve removed them all take the sand paper and lightly rub the length down. Don’t rub to hard or else you’ll bring the wispy bits back again.
Step 3 Again when you’re satisfied it smooth, take a barbeque skewer and push it up one end of the quill. You’ll note the quill tapers and one end is slightly wider that the other. Now it’s up to you to decide which end is going to be the top of the float. I prefer to use the wider end as the top, so the thinner end is going to be the bottom of the float, and where I’ll push the skewer in. You need to push the skewer in about
