Loaded Floats...Why?

[Alan Tyler]

I segregated my loaded floats into a separate box to stop them bashing Hell out of the others, and riffled through them today - floats by Drennan, Aiken, Middy and Me; wagglers, splashers, darts, wind-beaters and Gawd-'elp-us-woss-thats.
A couple of sliders, loaded so they don't ride up the line as they are cast out ... but what's the point of loading the others? They dive horribly deep on splashdown, but that's hardly a benefit...is it? There must be a reason, but if I ever knew what it was, I've forgotten. Must be all those dodgy 1980's burgers. Help!

 

[Wobbly Face (As Per Ed)]

Peronally, I don't like loaded floats but can see the benefits. All shot is at the bottom of the float, you only need 2 locking shots and dust shot near to the hook. This leads to less shot on the line and less chance of damaging the line. Main use is in wagglers.

 

[J K]

I bought one of THESE it converts any float to a loaded one with whatever weight you like providing the float will take it. Alternatively you can just use it as a connector.

 

[Morespiders]

I bought one of THESE it converts any float to a loaded one with whatever weight you like providing the float will take it. Alternatively you can just use it as a connector.

Godalmighty JK , i sincerely hope your not using that next Friday we going to catch fish, not knock em out

 

[Alan Tyler]

So the main reason is to protect the main line from shot damage?

(Best cod Hendon voice): For THIS we risk nailing our fish to the river-bed?

Thinking-caps time. There must be a way of getting a float to lead the rig when cast out, but not splash down like Captain Ahab's heaviest harpoon. Or become tangled up in shot-and-nylon lacework.
But how?

 

[Mark Wintle]

I always thought the reason was that they cast extremely well. Never had any real use for them personally and don't have any any more.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Like Mark, I thought the issue was about casting, both distance and accuracy. There is also the way threy cock upright quickly, which is supposed to help with quick bites on the drop when, for instance, roach fishing.

A streamlined weighted float will enter the water cleanly, but it will dive deep, thus there is a chance of spooking a shoal and it won't be so quick to cock either.



I do have a few floats that are fully loaded, or near enough, they might take a number eight near the hook, no more. I use them for margin fishing, as they will be less likely to snag on owt. I cast too far and retrieve to fish them over depth and still keep a taught line to the hook.


Provided you feather the cast a little they will never tangle when fished bottom-end attatched only, and do OK on a centrepin, which pretty well does the feathering for you.

 

[tigger]

Surely if you fix a waggler with shot it's gonna dive on the cast just the same as a loaded waggler.
I think the loaded floats are great in a lot of circumstances. I sometimes fish with them and use ledger stops (drennan rubber grippas) to lock them and they're great to use. I sometimes use them with no shot on the line at all.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Never really found a use for loaded floats but seem to remember a "Zoomer"?, that Ivan Marks used to fish the far bank of the Witham with only a couple of "dust shot" down the line. Very accurate casting to a far bank bush produced plenty of fish. A big loaded body and fine antenna tip, weird but it worked that day.

 

[flightliner]

Never really found a use for loaded floats but seem to remember a "Zoomer"?,

A lot of the fenland matchmen used them on both the witham and the wide welland back in the late sixties early seventies, usually a peacock stem inserted into a balsa or "blue" polystyrene body with the weight consisting of a piece of brass rod/wire inserted at the base. They were ,I suppose, early forerunners (i still have one or two left in my box) of the loaded crystal types now readily available and made by numerous manufacturers such as Drennan. I find them really useful in situations where you have roach boiling close to the surface and are taking on the drop-- this rig with finely spaced shotting wound back very slowly will often have fish hooking themselves (the roach hit the bait, the tight line and the weight ) , or during visits to the Trent when fishing waggler style on the outside of a bend where the deep water and often the fish are located on the far side and stick floating is out of the question.Basically good bait presentation at range when other kinds of floats ,altho not totally unusable tend to be less efficiant.

 

[slime monster]

I don't do a lot of commercial fishing but when I do I use a short loaded drennan crystal waggler to fish across to Islands , I find this the perfect tool for the job.

 

[alan whittington]

Alan,i dont use loaded floats a great deal,certainly not for slider fishing,well not since i found the 'seymo' sliding float adaptors anyway,they work brilliantly with any waggler float over 2.5aa,loaded floats do come in handy in depths 6-9ft where long casts are required imo.

 

[gentle]

I find them usefull for acurate casting at range. Especially with windy conditions the less surface area to create drag in addition to the line you have to chuck the better. Its for stubborn gits who refuse to go onto a feeder/ledger I guess ...like me.

I personally think you get less splashdown on a single load (admittedly with a deeper dive) than with a bulking of separate shot which increases surface area significantly. Im not sure if the fish care either mind you!!! I would suspect that with reasonable depth swims it wont matter if your float drops deeper unless yoru fishing the top of the water. With shallow swims perhaps it would sppok the fish more.

I thought most people cast beyond their mark before mending the line anyway so the only real disadvantage would be fishing tight to features and dropping into shallow water.

 

[alan whittington]

All your points are very true Gentle,also if you stop the float hard by fingering the spool it tends to land more flatly,so as not to 'dig' in so deeply.

 

[Alan Tyler]

I'd forgotten how well they cast - I made some loaded sliders that went so far I couldn't see them!
I guess "splash" versus "dive" is always going to be a bit of a compromise - I wonder if either is really worse than the other?
The reason I ever made a few loaded wagglers was for far-bank chubbing; it had been suggested that they led the cast so emphatically that the float would stay next to the bank while the bait swung toward the bank (OK, Boat. We're talking "Conkers" here...) My casting wasn't good enough to reach a firm conclusion...must practice feathering...

 

[peter crabtree]

how are you all casting a waggler? presuming you are right handed and cast with your right arm do you..........
cast one handed with your right hand, overhead like beach casting, or position the rod over your chest, to your left and cast ?

 

[S-Kippy]

how are you all casting a waggler? presuming you are right handed and cast with your right arm do you..........
cast one handed with your right hand, overhead like beach casting, or position the rod over your chest, to your left and cast ?

Surely it depends entirely on how far you need to cast,how deep you're fishing and what the conditions are like ? If I'm dropping a small waggler a rod out by some reeds then I'll flick it out like a stick float...if I'm punching 2 Swan set 9 foot deep 30 yards into a headwind than I will be beachcasting...or more likely on the feeder.

 

[alan whittington]

Whatever casting method suit's and is most comfortable in the conditions,it really doesnt matter to me,lets be honest,there's even the 'parrot cage' cast where you hold the line just above the hook,bend the rod and basically 'ping' the float out.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

I've not heard it called the Parrot Cage cast before, but I know something like that as the Catapult Cast, the Americans call it the Bow Cast, and it's a usefull trick for casting a fly under an overhanging tree.
( Provided you don't hook your own finger...a good reason to use barbless hooks, if ever there was one!)

Chris Ball once demonstrated to me the difference in casting using both hands compared to one..greater accuracy and greater distance( or more consistently reaching the same spot at distance). He contended that half the power came from the other hand pulling the rod butt into the stomach, which also gave consistent accuracy as an inch off-target at the butt was two foot off-course at the rod tip.

 

[peter crabtree]

A parrot cage is a swim or peg which has trees or bushes on both sides which make it difficult to cast.......