Fluted floats...

[soffit]

I recently bought a couple of Avon floats. One is too large for my current use so first thought of reducing the body size. I then recalled that when there were floats of many shapes years ago there was amongst them a fluted float. I don't recall owning one but I assume the idea of them was to produce a larger cross-section to the current to make stuff like line mending easier? Anyway I've got a few round files somewhere so I can try fluting it so it won't gather dust.

Anyone use them? A bright idea in theory that makes no difference in practice or an alternative to the standard Avon?

 

[barbelboi]

Anyone use them? A bright idea in theory that makes no difference in practice or an alternative to the standard Avon?

**** Walker did:wh, in a letter (Feb '66) states "The advantage of the fluted float in long trotting is that it offers considerably increased grip on the water and this makes mending the line much easier". Further he said "When one is trotting an Avon swim from a point opposite to where one is sitting to another point 40 or 50 yards downstream, with line passing over fast water, slack water and eddies with perhaps the further influence of wind, a fluted float can make all the difference between a big catch and a meagre one."

Does anyone know who invented the fluted float. It definitely wasn't **** as we would all know about it. I believe it was around before 1964 and I don't think it was one of Peter Drennan's ideas although some of Peter's trotting floats were ingenious for the time.
Jerry

 

[Derek Gibson]

I believe it was the late Major Albert Smalley. I had an original many years ago, the float worked so well, I even made a couple of crude copies myself from balsa wood. That would be somewhere around 1962/63.

Hope this snippet helps.

 

[barbelboi]

Thanks Derek, I also used one in the 60's but for some reason preferred Avons and never really gave it a chance. I know Peter Drennan sang it's praises for certain conditions - maybe I never gave it a fair chance, my loss. Probably have to go to a hand made float maker today to get one for another go.
Jerry

 

[soffit]

I found some last night on the web. Very tidy... must have been some combo lathe/ milling machine that made them. The Avon[2SSG] I use makes an awful lot of disturbance if you miss a strike; God knows what the fluted float would do with all its sharp bits...

May even slow the strike down? If what I saw was typical its not on the face of it likely to slip effortlessly through the water.

 

[mark brailsford 2]

There are several makers of hand made floats on the web and they all will make you a fluted float if you want one (or a set!)

Mark

 

[soffit]

There are several makers of hand made floats on the web and they all will make you a fluted float if you want one (or a set!)

Mark

I may have to ask the price and be horrified. Yes, I have clocked them and am pleased they are about. TBH fishing again has bought the DIY in me. I used to make me own jointed pike plugs but for a couple of quid in the cheap stores I can no longer compete. I just tie me own traces now

 

[George387]

From a quick investigation in some of the books I have it seems Peter Drennan in 1964 had a hand in fluting floats by designing the double bodied fluted float for fishing the far bank on the river Thames. Someone may have made the flutes prior but cannot find any mention of that.

I use fluted floats often in my trotting and still make a lot for other anglers in all variations from quill stems to Cane stems. They are still quite common amongst Grayling anglers up here in Yorkshire.

 

[mark brailsford 2]

Its due to the physics of the fluted design that these floats work on running water, they hold the flow if you know what I mean.

Mark

 

[keora]

I made a few fluted floats from balsa many years ago when they were first publicised.

I've still got one, it takes about 2.5 swan shot (five AAAs) and I use it for grayling fishing in Yorkshire rivers.

The theory is that the flutes on the side of the float increase the surface area of the float in contact with the water. This makes the float less likely to deviate from the main current as it drifts downstream.

I don't think the flutes make any difference at all!

You could use a round file to cut four flutes in a large avon float, paint over the flutes, and then try it out.

 

[soffit]

Found these on ebay. For a fiver for three including seemed worth a punt. They are handmade by an 87yr old too! Awful photo; look like three stools ready for the barby...


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110786680...AX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_604wt_1165

 

[mark brailsford 2]

I may have to ask the price and be horrified. Yes, I have clocked them and am pleased they are about. TBH fishing again has bought the DIY in me. I used to make me own jointed pike plugs but for a couple of quid in the cheap stores I can no longer compete. I just tie me own traces now

I used to tie my own flies and even thought about making my own lures, but by the time you have bought all the gear to make them (lures) it's much cheaper to buy them

Mark

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Funny things the fluted floats. Peter Drennan once said they were the best trotting float ever......yet his company no longer make them



Without wishing to be rude, nobody makes a proper fluted float anymore, they are all done on reamers and do not provide the requisite surface area that hold the flow. That said, modern tip actioned rods mend line so well the floats aren't really needed anymore....but they are pretty!

 

[flightliner]

The theory of the fluted float is ok but it never seems to hold up where its supposed to --in the water-- It was often quoted that it "grips the water" but it never did as well as the pundits claimed it did .
After some experimenting with big Swanquill/goosequill balsa floats I found it better for the cross section of balsa to be teardrop shaped with the radi'usd face being placed on the concave side of the quill . This (I think) creates two tiny vortices either side of the float which are pushing against the body of the float from opposite directions. The effect can only enhance what we believe we are trying to achieve, that said the gain to the angler is still pretty minimal.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

Digging up this old thread from 4 years ago, I have recently discovered that Maj. Smalley didn't after all invent the fluted float.


A British patent from 1947, some years before:

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/pub...C=A&FT=D&ND=3&date=19491205&DB=&locale=en_EP#

If you use the page selector to view page 2 there are two images.
Both gentlemen are from York...I wonder what river they were trotting?

I've also ascertained that Peter Drennan never actually offered fluted floats, even though he enthused about them in the angling press.

However he did make some......several of his joint-first prize-winning floats featured flutes.

The two judges, **** Walker and Billy Lane couldn't agree on the winner....**** preferring Peter's floats, Billy another offering.

Interestingly, the third prize went to Maj.Smalley's son

I can't upload images directly here, but my blog has Peter's floats in this article....titled as Peter's own personal floats, these were his competition entry:

https://nobbystackle.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/some-interesting-floats/


.

 

[S-Kippy]

Fascinating. Aren't nicely made floats just the best things ever ?

I had some fluted jobs back in the day. Cant for the life of me remember how they performed though. I also recall floats with fluted tips....but I cant think what the reasoning was behind that, maybe sensitivity ? I recall using those on the Royalty in 1982 trotting for barbel back in the days when I could actually catch them and a gallon of finest English maggot cost £1 !

 

[tigger]

I've only ever used one fluted float which someone kindly gave me several years ago. It looks nice but when I held back in both fast'ish smooth and choppy riffley water it flattened out and went invisible. I think this was due to the stem being to short and too thick but in all honesty I think in use the fluted body thing serves no purpose. Imo a normal avon / bolo shaped body with a long sight tip and long thin stem (in various sizes) is the ultimate trotting float.

 

[the indifferent crucian]

It must depend on the flow, I'm sure, but I used one of Richard Cleaver's fluted chubbers with great success on the Hampshire Avon fishing from the punt on the Bridge Pool and I've trotted the upper Wey in Surrey with a fluted avon...it held it's position well as I clumsily 'mended line'.

Richard Walker loved 'em,....Billy Lane didn't! Horses for coarses........

I can just about make my own now...fortunately with no blood loss these days, ....by interlocking two double vanes together and adding a stem and a tip.


They seem to have been a brief Sixties fashion ( a period when many fashions were thankfully brief...remember loons and tie and dye T shirts?) with Tom Watson going so far as to offer fluted 'cammo' avons (!!) and fluted chubbers and stick floats by the late Sixties.

Even Allcocks offered them...along with some weird and wonderful floats like the Stream-Search, the Self-Locker and cantilever floats, before common sense prevailed again.

 

[edsurf]

I bought two hand made ones made by Richard Fox at a local tackle fair, I tried one on a fast shallow section of the Avon and it worked well , good for mending line, the main benefit for me is the larger top I can see at distance long trotting. hope I dont loose them they are beautiful to look at.

 

[mikewilson]

For those that wish to make their own google "Fluted floats tutorial"

Mike