How big is yours and where do you put it?

[thecrow]

This thread is brilliant, I am going to print it off and keep a copy by the bed then when I can't sleep I shall read it and before you can say "float rubber" I'll be happily snoring my head off!

It is isn't it, almost as interesting as deciding which medium is best to keep your maggots in maize meal or sawdust now that's a really tricky one

 

[trotter2]

I've never seen the point of a middle rubber; I don't think I can recall ever getting a tangle between the float body/stem junction and the trapped line. I suppose if I fished matches I'd take the trouble, though, just one more potential b@ggerup avoided.
On the few occasions I've had a float rubber break, it's always been the top one, and that isn't the one most folks double-up. Odd.

The more it matters to you that the float should stay upright when held back against the flow, the lower should be the top rubber. I only twigged this a couple of years ago, after fifty-some years of thinking about angling; slow learner, or what?
The thing is, we don't usually think to put on a top rubber big enough to fit the belly of an Avon float, do we? What got me thinking was experimenting with little two-ring sliders for quietening the strike in shallow rivers. The obvious place to put the top ring was the base of the tip, just where we'd usually put the upper rubber, but as soon as I held back the little floats, they'd lie flat.
It all clicked when Mark Wintle showed a picture of **** Walker's slider for his roach-hunt on the river Beane - a long, slim stem with a small, slim body more or less midway along it, and the upper ring BELOW the body. The likes of Mr Walker don't usually act on a whim...

Cynic that I am, I now have a little game to play when reading in old books the section on the Nottingham slider. If the illustration shows a "production" float with the top ring above the body, then the float was made to catch anglers, and the author was a writer who fished a bit; if the ring is at the fattest part of the body, it was probably home-made by the author, to catch fish; and he was an Angler who wrote a bit. I know which deserves more attention.

You have it right my friend if you place the top rubber lower you alter the fulcrum to a lower position so when holding back the float will stay upright more effectively.
Billy lane discovered this and when holding back he pushed the top rubber down a bit. It's in his books on float fishing :thumbs:
Just running the float through not holding back for sensitivity he placed the rubber 1/4 inch from the top if the float.
If you shooting for distance with the float ,that's double rubber floats again not holding back. Use a clear silicon top rubber over the sight tip overhanging the end it prevents the line looping over the top of the float
Tom Pickering made a stick float years ago with a hole in the side of the body exiting at the top of the float to prevent this also. It never took off because it did not allow a quick float change. But the idea was sound.
But no good for holding back only running through.
Cheers

 

[tigger]

The middle rubber can mean the difference between losing a good float and not, it has no other significant benefit.

Having a bottom rubber slightly hanging off does limit tangles with light floats, it only has to hang over a few mm

Err, not quite, if you only use a top and bottom rubber (especially on a bodied float) the line comes down on an angle to the bottom rubber. This "could" cause several things to happen...the float could be inclined to pull off line more often, bit's of flotsam and jetsam could get caught between the float and line also, and especially when there's a lot of bits coming down river as there is this time of year with leaves etc. It can also cause the float to spin on a fast retrieve or when trotting through a fast glide and holding back etc etc.

Regarding these tangles, just what kind'a tangles are you on about.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Being simple I keep it simple. On a stick one rubber at the top at the point it's shotted to and a longer - 1" - rubber at the bottom with about 3mm overhang as it fishes better than a short rubber at the bottom. On an Avon three rubbers with the third one at the base of the body. If the the top rubber is below the waterline then the float will rise when you hold back. Beating tangles is all about casting technique which for me is about feathering the line to lay the float out in a straight line.

I do have some old sticks that were adapted to have a tube through the tip (a Tom Pickering idea) and these don't tangle at all but they fish best run through at current speed.

 

[peterjg]

Crow has really started something here, it is amazing.

People all over the world who have read this thread have been falling asleep, has a foolproof remedy for insomnia been found?

Industry has ground to a halt, workers are asleep at their desks and machines, chaos reigns!

Aircraft have been grounded for fear of pilots falling asleep at the controls.

The M25 is stationary - no change there.

Everyone is asking the same questions - where and how many float rubbers? MI5 have been called in and social workers are revolting.

These questions were going to be ask in the House but the idea was abandoned because the MPs were already asleep anyway.


I think that I will reread this thread, Oh No, I can feel myself going, zzz zzz zzz zzz

 

[Ray Roberts]

I vary the position of the top rubber when the float is a bit over shotted and holding back. Moving the point where the line comes away from the float downwards causes the float to ride more upright and make more of the tip visible.

I had a few balsa slider floats that had a tube through the body, they also had a pole tip bush at the top, these were useful on deep swims with odd obstructions, as holding back hard caused the stop knot to pull away from the float and lift the bait over the obstruction.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[thecrow]

Crow has really started something here, it is amazing.

People all over the world who have read this thread have been falling asleep, has a foolproof remedy for insomnia been found?

Industry has ground to a halt, workers are asleep at their desks and machines, chaos reigns!

Aircraft have been grounded for fear of pilots falling asleep at the controls.

The M25 is stationary - no change there.

Everyone is asking the same questions - where and how many float rubbers? MI5 have been called in and social workers are revolting.

These questions were going to be ask in the House but the idea was abandoned because the MPs were already asleep anyway.


I think that I will reread this thread, Oh No, I can feel myself going, zzz zzz zzz zzz

Its very obvious that there are things to be learned from the answers so far, you obviously are the only angler in the world that knows everything so to stop you falling asleep why not just stop reading the thread?

 

[trotter2]

The other thing you can do with float rubbers is quickly change the float tip colour
If your float to is say orange and you want a black tip just slide some black silicon tube over the top.
Increases the dia by about 1mm with the good thin walled tube.

 

[Philip]

I'd like to know what kind'a tangles you people who say you get them are? I don't have a long protruding piece of tubing hanging from my float and don't get in any tangles so I ain't got a clue what your doing with your gear lol.
There's no way a dangling piece of tubing is gonn'a stop tangles....someone has just come up with this weird idea and it's caught on! It's weird how people just believe pure bullshine they read or hear or see some celebrity angler doing.

Well ok to help stimulate the thread further ! ….

I would say its not bull shine & having an overhang on the bottom rubber absolutely decreases the chances of a tangle.

I”ll use an extreme example to demonstrate…

Imagine your fishing with 2 float rubbers and you push them as close together as you can …so the top one as low as you can and the bottom one as high as you can on the float so there is little space between them...

You will create a pivot point between the two rubbers that the float can then twist round on itself on….same as if you tried to fish with just one float rubber say in the middle of the float. It will be able to pivot on itself and tangle on the line. If you now slide the two rubbers apart you lessen the chance to create a pivot point so you will have less chance of a tangle.

Therefore having your bottom float rubber pushed down as far as you can away from your top rubber will decrease the chance of the float twisting round on itself and therefore decrease the chance of a tangle.

I accept that if we are talking about a couple of millimeters with the bottom rubber either slightly up the stem or overhanging it will make a tiny difference but never the less - still a difference - .

 

[tigger]

Well ok to help stimulate the thread further ! ….

I would say its not bull shine & having an overhang on the bottom rubber absolutely decreases the chances of a tangle.

I”ll use an extreme example to demonstrate…

Imagine your fishing with 2 float rubbers and you push them as close together as you can …so the top one as low as you can and the bottom one as high as you can on the float so there is little space between them...

You will create a pivot point between the two rubbers that the float can then twist round on itself on….same as if you tried to fish with just one float rubber say in the middle of the float. It will be able to pivot on itself and tangle on the line. If you now slide the two rubbers apart you lessen the chance to create a pivot point so you will have less chance of a tangle.

Therefore having your bottom float rubber pushed down as far as you can away from your top rubber will decrease the chance of the float twisting round on itself and therefore decrease the chance of a tangle.

I accept that if we are talking about a couple of millimeters with the bottom rubber either slightly up the stem or overhanging it will make a tiny difference but never the less - still a difference - .

Philip, seriously what are you on about LOL.

Regarding these tangles...I don't get so my rubber arrangement must be good .
Don't forget I don't just fish off the rod tip, I cast across river and still don't get these strange tangles which a long trailing bottom rubber would stop me from getting .

 

[laguna]

I have some old latex rubbers that I'm still trying to use up, but at this rate I will need to live another 57 years. They are stored out of direct sunlight so still have a bit of stretch to them, even after about 15 years or so.
I use 2 rubbers on small sticks and 3 on longer ones.
I have 3 different sizes for the bodies and 2 sizes for antenna.
For Larger bodied floats I use silicone tubing

I position the bottom one as near to the bottom as is practical, but I also have some silicone tubing inserts with a swivel fixed in the bottom too. The middle one (if at all) positioned exactly in the middle and the top one just below the tip colour.

I like to keep the line up off the water so that's why I position the top rubber high(ish), the bottom rubber as near to the bottom as possible, which helps avoid tangles.