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Wintle’s World of Angling

February 12, 2004

MARK WINTLE

Mark Wintle, an angler for thirty-five years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish, tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises.

Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular weekly column.

FAVOURITE FLOATS

Like many float anglers, I carry far too many floats, including many that will very rarely get used. There are a few, however, that I would miss badly. Years of experimentation, trial and error have shaped my selection. Even so, I continue to identify new patterns that might prove useful one day. Of course, there are times when a trip to a water outside my regular venues causes me to dig out a special float for the job.

Avons, sticks and chubbers

So, what are those special floats and why are they so useful? I have little time for sentiment when it comes to carrying floats. I have found that floats have a finite working life anyway, for after hard usage the paint often starts to crack. You can only repaint a float so often before the many layers of paint alter the buoyancy of the float until it becomes useless. If you have a float that has special value, from winning a big match to catching many specimen fish, then perhaps it should be gracefully retired.

Some of the floats I’m going to tell you about are rarely used, yet in the special circumstances that demand their use they are unbeatable. Some of these floats I made myself and others are factory made. Some of the factory-made floats are no longer produced though usually a substitute is available. Let’s start with an old favourite of mine for bread fishing, the crow-quill Avon.

The Crow Quill Avon
The first examples of these floats that I saw were used by the Christchurch match aces in the seventies. Lacking the skill and knowledge to make them properly, I made a version with a cane stem. It worked after a fashion but never cast with the delicacy of the true crow-quill stemmed originals. At the time, I found that the Ivan Marks Pacemakers and Balsas were more than adequate. A decade later, I saw some Birmingham-made examples in our local tackle shop. Demand outstripped supply and as they were hand-made it was hard to get more than one or two. They worked well, and after a while, I found some crow quills and started to make my own.

As I gained experience in making them, I learnt how to vary the body shape for different types of water. More recently, I have experimented with smaller versions taking just 4BB shot, and some made using goose quill to give a much thicker tip for shallow boily water. One of these was featured in an article that AT did on John Searl last season, and described as homemade. Custom built more like, for it was designed specifically for the shallow rugged conditions where John found some big roach (to 2-12) and chub (over 7lbs).

More of Mark’s favourite floats (click for bigger picture)

Shop-bought crow quill Avons are available in Ringwood though nationally I suspect floats like these are rare. Despite the best efforts of Peter Drennan in providing plastic versions, the originals ride the water and cast better, and there is no comparison as far as aesthetics are concerned. I like to carry a range from 4BB to 5SSG. Mostly these are made from balsa but a few are made using Styrofoam and expanded polyethylene (I think that’s what it was – all I know is that the stuff is much tougher than balsa, and lighter too – only £ 2000 a sheet!).

The John Dean Stick
Despite the sheer versatility of the crowquill Avon for trotting, there are times when much more delicacy is required. For perfect conditions, including evenly flowing water of between three and nine feet deep (sometimes more), and moderate range, a well-designed stickfloat takes some beating. Such conditions may occur but rarely, yet it is a joy to use the perfect tool when they do.

Those with a long memory will remember the outstanding exploits of John Dean, the quiet man from Selston, Notts. In the late seventies and early eighties, he took big Trent open matches apart, mainly with a stickfloat. The Matchman of the year award was fiercely contested between Dean and Billy Makin. For sheer genius, Dean had the edge. Many of the matches he won were over three hundred pegs, and anglers in his vicinity were known to pack up if they saw him struggling. His form was such that in the 1980 National it was said before the match that he would win his section regardless of where he drew, and so it proved.

Big sliders – Mark builds a hollow tip into his (click for bigger picture)

His perfectionism led him to develop home made stickfloats that were developed commercially. Available in dome and pointed tips, with a moulded plastic stem, I don’t think these have ever been bettered for standard stickfloat work. Not only will they trot perfectly, they cast like a dream, and can be shotted with nearly all of the shot under the float to fish very light on the drop. The standard shotting pattern is shirt button style with no. 8s and 10s. As they have been out of production for at least fifteen years, you will be lucky to find any – but you never know! One for the connoisseurs.

The John Allerton Alloy Stick
Another stickfloat ace, this time from Goole, developed an alloy-stemmed stick for use in the more boily swims of the Trent. It doesn’t cast as well as the Dean float but is better for adverse conditions. Stable and able to cope with downstream winds to a degree, no stickfloat angler should be without these. I haven’t seen the original Allerton floats for a while though there are some similar Dick Clegg floats still around.

The Trent Trotter
This is a float that I probably only use once or twice a season and yet it is a winner in very shallow water. Shotted correctly, it can catch fish in water far too shallow for any conventional top and bottom float. On the Avon at Britford, I had grayling in less than six inches of water in one swim. We owe this one to the late and great Billy Lane when he was fishing a very shallow swim on the Trent (that river again!) and broke his Avon float. Re-attaching the stub, he was surprised that it worked better than the original and so the Trotter was born. For similar swims, I have also tried very short thick pieces of peacock quill; these also work well, attached bottom end only. It’s not difficult to make your own Trent Trotter as these examples show but the original is still the best.

The Chub Waggler
For fishing up in the water for summer chub, especially against far bank bushes, I like to use a shortish peacock waggler with a one-inch insert. These floats take from 3BB to 3AAA as locking shot with up to four no. 8s down the line, more usually just a couple of no. 10s. A light float like this can be cast accurately against snags, and the thick tip lets you mend the line without pulling it off line. These floats are best suited to fishing shallow, say up to five feet deep.

The Gravel Pit and Slow River Insert Waggler
For deeper and slower water, including lakes, I use much longer floats made from peacock quill, again with an insert. For big open waters, black-tipped floats are essential. Floats like these are widely available in tackle shops though I prefer to make my own. The usual shotting is about