Float making.

[@Clive]

I'm with Peter. The fluted float catches the current better than a conventional round bodied float so it is more efficient in that it drifts closer to the speed of the current. You can hold it back just as easily as with a conventional float. But in slow flows I reckon that the drift of a conventional float will be far slower than the flow and that of a fluted float because of the current catching it better. It is also easier to mend the line with a fluted float.

I don't know why they don't make fluted wagglers.

 

[peterjg]

Mark Wintle, you are of course certainly entitled to your opinion - as am I. Fluted floats actually do work if used correctly. The great Richard Walker said they "grip" the water and while I don't agree with some of his opinions he was right in this case. Bearing in mind though that some of those plastic fluted floats from the 60s/70s were awful.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Sadly, both of you, and Richard Walker, are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to fluted Avons. It's the speed of the current near the river bed not the top 6" that matters. If you hold back a conventional Avon or a specially-streamlined Avon, then provided the shotting is correct - you can over-shot it - then it will stay more or less vertical but the fluted Avon will try to lay flat.
The circumstances where you want a float to pull through with the current - the lower Bristol Avon with its prevailing upstream SW winds - against the top surface being slowed right down was solved by Topper Haskins decades ago - a slim buoyant Avon with a big bulk right at the point where the current is strongest and least affected by drag from the wind or river bed ie about 2 or 3ft off the bottom.
Mending the line and getting a float to travell down with the current as opposed to tack across it is all about skill and if you haven't got that then a fluted float isn't going to solve your problems.
I repeat my main point: if fluted floats were as good as claimed every manual on float fishing by a top match angler would describe their use - none of them do because they simply are not as good as conventional floats.

 

[@Clive]

Sorry, but I disagree. If you slow any float down it will naturally try to swing towards the near bank. The fluted float less so.

 

[peterjg]

Mark Wintle, I must admit that initially I do tend to agree with your theory regarding fluted floats. However; in actual practice using a correctly designed fluted float in certain conditions can be very effective. I've used homemade versions on and off since the 70s of different designs, some even incorporating dart flights and wire stems with balsa bodies. Wasn't it matchmen who have said in the past: "can't win a match by legering" or "can't win a match targeting carp" or "you must use maggots when match fishing". Theories are great: in theory apparently a bumble bee can't fly!

 

[purplepeanut007]

Thanks for the input guys.

As I have stated I have never used one.
I believe as above that in the right conditions they could be a useful float to have, solving some issues, but the conditions are key.

I will be testing various patterns of these over the winter and will give my own opinion.

Regards,
P.

 

[peterjg]

Purplepeanut and Aknib, your floats are far too well made to actually be used!

 

[purplepeanut007]

As Ivan Marks once said, "When the fish start eating my floats I'll make 'em look better." But floats are made to catch anglers....

The idea of a fluted float is fatally flawed: you want the current to glide around a float not push it along, otherwise you can't hold it back. I fish enough of the Avon/Stour/Frome to say that I've never seen anyone using a fluted float. If, a big IF, they were any good then we'd all be using them. The single time I witnessed the use of a fluted float was in 1970 on the Thames.

As for the floats catching anglers.....I used to make ugly floats and catch fish. Now after 10 years of reseach an practice I make better looking ones...its a hobby just like fishing.
I get much more enjoyment fishing with one of my handmade floats and a custom built rod (Not by me) than anything from the shops.
The reason I started making floats was to solve problrms on a local spate river.

 

[purplepeanut007]

Purplepeanut and Aknib, your floats are far too well made to actually be used!

All made to be used but thanks.

 

[Aknib]

Purplepeanut and Aknib, your floats are far too well made to actually be used!

Cheers Peter.

My own floats are literally the only floats I use nowadays and have been for a few years, it's extremely rare that I lose or damage one but if I do I can just knock a replacement up.

I'm with PP and they're all made to be used...

 

[purplepeanut007]

Lovely floats and pics Aknib.

 

[purplepeanut007]

A few on my floats, not all my fish.

 

[purplepeanut007]

Oval & Inveted Tear Drop Fluted Avons.

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

purplepeanut007.blogspot.com

Flutted Avons - second instalment.
I have added an aluminium stem to the larger float pattern for stability as it will be used in the faster stretches of the river targeting barbel and chub.
The larger floats weight capacity is approximately 8g or 5 swan in old money.
Click on the link foe all the pictures.

 

[@Clive]

After a bit of a lay off, well around 52 years , I've made a few floats. Back in the day you could buy balsa by the yard as well as pre-formed cork bodies and cane stems from any tackle shop. I've been looking for a supplier of balsa for a while and ultimately ended up getting it from a dealer in Bulgaria. Cane stems are cocktail sticks and I have a few BBQ skewers too along with some feathers. There is a guy up the lane from us who rears ducks and geese so I'll tap him up for some.

The third from the left has a crow quill antenna and is similar to what I used to use in the early 70's for roach fishing when there was a swell on. Its a bit chunkier than the one back then, but aren't we all? It would be shotted so that just the tip was visible as a wave passed over it and the striped part visible in the troughs. The roach weren't shy biters in those conditions.

The one on the right, a little Chubber, was made to fish small worm baits in the small river near home. The other two are just whims.

It will keep me busy over the winter.

 

[Aknib]

View attachment 28665

The third from the left has a crow quill antenna and is similar to what I used to use in the early 70's for roach fishing when there was a swell on. Its a bit chunkier than the one back then, but aren't we all?

Clive I love quill floats.

At the tip they have a certain sensitivity and robustness whilst at the other end, which can also become the tip on Avon type floats, a buoyancy that man made materials cannot replicate in my opinion.

Some of my most favourite floats to make are or incorporate quill and ironically they are the half a dozen I need to make in order to complete my several year quest for an entire armoury of home made floats, the quill selection will be a combination of Crow, Goose & Swan and all of which i've collected in feather and stripped myself.

These are Goose quill, like yourself i've tailored the tip to suit my fishing and in my case i've gone long in the colour to accommodate the amount of worm fishing I do but I can always dot them down for particle baits if need be...

Perfect for shallow mill pools where you need a bit of weight to get out without the base of the float brushing the fish's backs and with all the sensitivity needed.

 

[@Clive]

One of the reasons I made the effort to make some floats is that it is increasingly difficult to find wagglers that aren't weighted. I fish some deep rivers, 14 feet in some cases, and use sliding floats. They need weight in bulk shot to drag the line through and often the loaded wagglers don't have enough spare capacity to do that. Also they all seem to use a a generic fibreglass stem that is tacky and gaudy. I much prefer the inverted quill as an antenna and a discrete paint job.

The bulb end of the quills for float making has an interesting history. There are instructions from Willam Samuel, 'The Arte of Angling' 1577 to make floats that use two quills, one slightly smaller than the other. The quills are cut so that the smaller bulb end can be forced inside the other tightly enough to prevent water ingress. The clever part is that the way the quills were cut they also had a band of quill at each end to slip the line through.

In an earlier undated manuscript thought to date from the mid 14th century there are details of placing glow worms inside the hollow bulb end, then sealing it in using tar or wax so that the angler could see his float at night. They used glow worms inside glass jars to lure fish into traps too.

 

[flightliner]

Is it Drennan who's wagglers incorporate the very short bottom end with the hole to put the line thro?
Weighted or not I dislike them on account of it being to short (imo) for a float rubber on its end instead of threading line thro the hole in order to change the float if conditions alter or moving swims on account of it being tapererd.
Better for me is a longer non tapered bottom stem as it offers more alternatives for alteration.

 

[@Clive]

They might have intended the float to be attached via a link swivel Flight'. Drennan, Preston, et al are offering small, light link swivels that are more secure than the latex sleeve with a half swivel stuffed in the other end.

 

[flightliner]

They might have intended the float to be attached via a link swivel Flight'. Drennan, Preston, et al are offering small, light link swivels that are more secure than the latex sleeve with a half swivel stuffed in the other end.

There's really no need for a link swivel Clive, I sometimes make my own peacock quill wagglers and often incorporate a cocktail stick up its base.
Then place a rubber sleeve on it, I've never had a problem when using it that way.
But if Drennan and Preston can manage to squeese an extra few pence out of anglers who can blame them.

 

[nottskev]

Bumped into this video on making quill floats. He also has a general introduction to float making.