Float making.

[@Clive]

Hmmm...

The dipping of the toe back in seems to have started something.

I was mooching around earlier, looking for something to do when my attention turned to my float collection and not un-substantial amounts of homemade Avons and their derivatives but something still troubled me, namely the quest to make the largest weight carrying Avon i've yet to make.

It currently stands with the very buoyant goose quill tip and stem on balsa body versions and I honestly think they will be hard to beat but I bought some cork bodies some years ago and decided to knock something up during the earlier bbq, namely a carbon stemmed Avon...

View attachment 31902

I have previously made Avons from the cork bodies which i've used and caught plenty of fish with but the stem material always troubled me, thinking that there were lighter and better materials which would allow for more bulk weight down the line, for the job.

Very early days of course and i'm still not convinced that cork has a superior buoyancy to balsa but I think I will see it through in a couple of tip colour variations.

The tip itself being deliberately squared off so as to provide as stark a contrast to its surroundings as possible and I may add slider eyes... I'm not sure yet, but given I have plenty of those already I may just run with it as it stands and add them as a retro fit later if need be.

Very much intended for either high season long trotting or Winter flood work.

I think that if you include a slider eye at the top and flatten off that side of the tip you would improve visibility on the part of the float that should be facing you when you are fishing. I got that idea from Flightliner with his lolly stick tench float tips. I am intending making a set for my old friend who has colour blindness on orange / red. I'm going to dowhjte & black and yellow & black tips.

Regards buoyancy I think dense polystyrene, balsa and cork in that order. I don't find modern cork as easy to turn and shape as the old pre-formed and drilled bodies we used to buy as kids. It seems more 'bitty' in texture.

 

[Aknib]

The cork bodies I have certainly are bitty as you say Clive, I sanded one and compared it with a 'raw' version and it was noticeably smaller after taking the greatest of care to achieve an acceptable finish without compromising buoyancy by sanding it to the absolute minimum.

I think Harcork may have a lot to answer for...

 

[purplepeanut007]

Inserted Sarkanda Wagglers - New Colour Scheme.

fishing,float fishing,float making,hand crafted floats,traditional floats,purplepeanut007,mike cootes,float making,PP007,peanuts fishing adventures

purplepeanut007.blogspot.com

I have been trying to think of new colour combinations that work together for my Sarkanda Waggers......I hope you all like this one.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I think that if you include a slider eye at the top and flatten off that side of the tip you would improve visibility on the part of the float that should be facing you when you are fishing. I got that idea from Flightliner with his lolly stick tench float tips. I am intending making a set for my old friend who has colour blindness on orange / red. I'm going to dowhjte & black and yellow & black tips.

Regards buoyancy I think dense polystyrene, balsa and cork in that order. I don't find modern cork as easy to turn and shape as the old pre-formed and drilled bodies we used to buy as kids. It seems more 'bitty' in texture.

I’ve also been thinking about Mick’s excellent lollly stick float idea too.

I sometimes fish a water that is float fishing only. My eyesight isn’t the best and I’ve thought of a refinement to lay on or fish a float ledger/feeder, which is not really very dissimilar to a lock slide or Polaris float.

So in the quest for angling innovation I liberated a few McDonald’s coffee stirrers with the intention of making a few test floats, but haven’t started on making them yet.

Over the years I’ve seen a few different ways to lock a float when the line is tightened. Probably the simplest was a float I saw in a now long closed down tackle shop. This was just three small eyes going down the bottom part of the float, the centre eye of the three was off set and as the line tightened it locked the float.

Then I remembered a conjuring trick I had bought for me when I was a lad. That was a block of wood with a hole in two opposing faces . The holes were drilled at an angle forming a dog’s leg inside the block. The block was slid along a string, dropping until the string was tightened. First I thought a bead could be drilled similarly and fixed to the bottom of the float. Although this would be simple I thought it could be simplified further by just drilling two holes through the bottom of the stirrer, passing the line through the top hole of the side you want facing you and back out of the lower one. I will actually make some and see if the principal works and also try adding some buoyancy to the float by gluing some balsa wood to the sides. It should keep the wide side facing the rod, as there’s no swivel incorporated to allow it to twist. The tip could have different colours each side to suit the light conditions too. I will post some pictures if I can get the prototypes to work properly.

 

[@Clive]

Ray,

Back in the 60's there was a device in common use for tench fishing that was a small, 2" length of 1/8" dowel or similar with three offset eyes as you describe. The dowel was attached to the bottom eye of any float using a clip like on link swivels. The clip was fastened to the dowel with about 1" of twisted mono of around 10lb strength so it formed a semi-stiff hinge. You could change the float to suit conditions.

Regards the tips; I have saved some small lolly sticks that are top-half flat and bottom-half round. I reckon that the volume of these flat parts once shaved down a bit will not be much different to rounded stems of cane. The trick is of course to ensure that the flat part is facing you.

I bought some latex float tips in orange, yellow and black. They are virtually neutral buoyancy and will fit on top of the flat tip if I cut a small spigot or spike on the top. I was going to paint the flat parts yellow or black and fit a contrasting latex tip on each. Wilf's eyesight isn't good at the best of times and we need to fish 15 to 20 yards out where the roach are.

Little wife is going to visit family in Sth York's at the end of next week so I will be able to spend a couple of days float making while she is away.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Ray,

Back in the 60's there was a device in common use for tench fishing that was a small, 2" length of 1/8" dowel or similar with three offset eyes as you describe. The dowel was attached to the bottom eye of any float using a clip like on link swivels. The clip was fastened to the dowel with about 1" of twisted mono of around 10lb strength so it formed a semi-stiff hinge. You could change the float to suit conditions.

Regards the tips; I have saved some small lolly sticks that are top-half flat and bottom-half round. I reckon that the volume of these flat parts once shaved down a bit will not be much different to rounded stems of cane. The trick is of course to ensure that the flat part is facing you.

I bought some latex float tips in orange, yellow and black. They are virtually neutral buoyancy and will fit on top of the flat tip if I cut a small spigot or spike on the top. I was going to paint the flat parts yellow or black and fit a contrasting latex tip on each. Wilf's eyesight isn't good at the best of times and we need to fish 15 to 20 yards out where the roach are.

Little wife is going to visit family in Sth York's at the end of next week so I will be able to spend a couple of days float making while she is away.

The three eye float was very similar to the one you described, except it wasn’t detachable but had a sort of antenna float fixed by a flexible link as you described. They had a few weird and wonderfulls. I wish I had bought a few as curios. They had some antenna floats that had the same type of flexible link between the main body and the antenna, which were odd. The only advantage I could see is that they would fold on the strike. I bought half a dozen floats described as bread floats that looked like they were from the same maker. They have a cylindrical balsa body about three inches long and a peacock quill insert tip. I still use those for trotting bread and they work great. I went back to the shop a few weeks after I had first seen them to buy a couple of the oddities but the shop had shut up for good by then.

 

[@Clive]

Yes, the flexible link was designed to fold. If you didn't have that the whole 3 ringed float would be dragged sideways on the strike. For the type of float with a flat side facing the angler a fixed flexible link rather than an interchangeable one would be better.

The ones I remember were just peacock quills with a short cane tip and used for the lift method when tench fishing.

 

[Notts Michael.]

Ray... There is a depth finder float that I saw videos of on youtube called a Plum-ezee, basically a chunky buoyant float looking a lot like a pike float, with three small eyes along it's length, which will rise to the surface when chucked out but stay in place when reeled in, which sounds like the same kind of principle to the float you mention. I made one as a luchtime at work project using some half inch diam. balsa and 3 very small stainless steel split pins pushed in, top bottom and middle, and it does work well for quickly finding deeper areas or ledges, etc.

 

[mikench]

Here is a vid of the above.

I have one but have never used it

 

[@Clive]

Ray... There is a depth finder float that I saw videos of on youtube called a Plum-ezee, basically a chunky buoyant float looking a lot like a pike float, with three small eyes along it's length, which will rise to the surface when chucked out but stay in place when reeled in, which sounds like the same kind of principle to the float you mention. I made one as a luchtime at work project using some half inch diam. balsa and 3 very small stainless steel split pins pushed in, top bottom and middle, and it does work well for quickly finding deeper areas or ledges, etc.

I have one of these that does a better job of that.

 

[Notts Michael.]

I have one of these that does a better job of that.

Like it! A bit pricier and less accurate for canals and still waters maybe and I prefer things I can cobble together myself in a folksy, arty kind of way.