Old fishing methods that have fallen out of fashion

[guest61]

I love Andrew Fields float designs - they're the sort of items I'd expect to see in a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

I suppose breeding your own maggots is a thing of the past

 

[Mark Wintle]

I must admit that even in the late 60s when I started fishing I never saw these cork floats in use; at that time the floats of choice were porcupine quills, or for slightly more up to date anglers, balsa floats that really took off in the late 60s, especially as Peter Drennan got going. Not convinced that serious anglers ever used these crude designs.

I hardly ever see anyone fishing a stick float nowadays - that's fishing a stick not just trotting with one, a vast difference. Much the same for long range river waggler fishing on my rivers.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Not convinced that serious anglers ever used these crude designs

Then watch Passion for Angling - the episode with Bernard Venables - I think you'll see both him and Yates using a perch 'bobber' float.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Yes Peter - I remeber that - not watched the DVD for a while - will have to give them a watch again

 

[Mark Wintle]

Parts of PfA including this bit were simply staged fogeyism and irrelevant to my comments. A quick glance through some of my older angling books fails to ever show these floats in use for perch! Indeed, most of the authors barely mention perch at all.

 

[tiinker]

Parts of PfA including this bit were simply staged fogeyism and irrelevant to my comments. A quick glance through some of my older angling books fails to ever show these floats in use for perch! Indeed, most of the authors barely mention perch at all.

I believe drennan produce a perch bobber even today you can buy the plastic modern versions in my tackle shop and in four sizes and they still catch fish.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Parts of PfA including this bit were simply staged fogeyism and irrelevant to my comments. A quick glance through some of my older angling books fails to ever show these floats in use for perch! Indeed, most of the authors barely mention perch at all.

Staged fogeyism?

How very dare you . . . . LOL

Next you'll be trying to tell us that clay balls filled with maggot were never used either, nor were sheep corpses ever hung from trees to 'feed' maggot drip feed style . . . . . .

I bet you don't believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy either.

 

[nicepix]

They were called Grayling Bobbers when I was a lad. I've only ever used them for livebaiting minnows or sticklebacks. Still got a couple in my float box.

---------- Post added at 14:17 ---------- Previous post was at 14:15 ----------

Staged fogeyism?

How very dare you . . . . LOL

Next you'll be trying to tell us that clay balls filled with maggot were never used either, nor were sheep corpses ever hung from trees to 'feed' maggot drip feed style . . . . . .

I bet you don't believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy either.

I think you'll find that sheep are still tied to trees in Wales :wh

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I think you'll find that sheep are still tied to trees in Wales

Yeah, usually tied there by big hairy blokes wearing ill-fitting gymslips and oversized wellies filled with cold custard . . . . . . eeewww!

 

[Mark Wintle]

Perch bobbers were basically a novices' float from the days when a novice would fish an under-shotted float with an eel hook and worm hoping for an under-sized perch to swallow the lot. I think Yates and Venables were trying to recapture that childhood memory rather than demonstrate expertise. Probably why I never saw anyone fishing that way as we had no perch and even as novices soon learnt some finesse for dace and roach.

As for hanging up a dead sheep; have you tried it? I only know of one instance of this (Walker/Fred J Taylor - Walker let Fred do the dirty work!) and it's a game for the strong of stomach with limited success. There was a dead sheep on the Stour 3 years ago. I had no interest in attempting to hang it up as getting close enough would be a challenge but it was interesting to see it rot, the skin disintegrate and gradually over the winter the bones scattered with each flood - no wonder fossils are rare.

Not much different for clay balls for barbel; barbel fishing was a minority pursuit for most when this method was popularised, and the use of clay balls with worms is not something I've ever seen.

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Perch bobbers were basically a novices' float

But they are fantastic to watch and still probably one of the safest ways of hooking perch so they don't gobble the bait and hook down their greedy throats. I love 'em and make quite a few from canes from garden plants we've bought and corks from Champagne bottles* that turn up on the banks when we've had a bit of a flood - like now!

* We don't have many 'plebs' in our area. - Do I have to resign for saying that?

 

[Mark Wintle]

Different down our way; hard to make a float out of a discarded Special Brew can....

 

[no-one in particular]

Was there a float once that had a sort of ring of cork that sat above the water line, the idea being that as the fish bit, the float would go under and this ring would hit the surface and cause ripples around the float so, a bite could be easily spotted. I seem to remember this somewhere in the back of my mind from way back but, not sure.

 

[Judas Priest]

Mark W

A certain amount of young naivety there on your part re the bobber floats.

History shows them being used from Waltons days and certainly by the Trent Otter. Specialists have coveted them for years. It's not all bolt rigs, wagglers, bite alarms and bivvies you know.

Check out the prices paid for Harcorks these days at auction.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I was commenting on methods used within my lifetime not Izaak Walton, and that I had witnessed had gone out of use over the last 40 years! There is, indeed, evidence of such floats (cork bobbers) on sale from before the time of J W Martin and even right up to the 1960s but little or no evidence that their use was recommended at any time. I can recall 'Thames' floats from the late 60s made of beech dowel and cork - great to look at maybe but useless as floats. Perhaps these were 'Harcorks'? All I can say is that if people want to pay over the odds for useless floats then they've more money than sense. I was making better floats than those when I was 12. I certainly cannot remember any anglers actually using Harcork type floats in the late 60s or early 70s even if they were still for sale; porcupine quills and slim balsas definitely. Perhaps the most unusual floats I do remember were those hollow aluminium floats that one of the Wareham anglers used to use circa 1972. It made a 'plink' when he struck a bite. I can see one of those being collectable. Really early Drennan floats are nice, too.

One thing that was around when I started fishing was hooks whipped to nylon, not spade-ends but whipped with silk. One lad at school even found some hooks to gut one day. Colin Dyson tried to revive this in the 80s in Coarse Angler but it never happened.

 

[Judas Priest]

Mark

"useless floats"
You appear to have missed my 1st post. Bobbers are THE only float capable of being effective fishing a whole Lob, then chopping to 1/2 a lob or tail, or even sticking a small fish on without having to alter the shotting.

Then again I think i'll bow to your superior knowledge, not get involved in a discussion with someone so blinkered, and just keep on catching fish.

 

[Titus]

Yeah, usually tied there by big hairy blokes wearing ill-fitting gymslips and oversized wellies filled with cold custard . . . . . . eeewww!

Something you want to share?

 

[Berty]

I usually try to have a couple of sessions per season Dapping for Dace and/or Rudd.

I don't catch live flies though preferring to use a simple bushy black pattern in relatively small sizes.

Sourcing a proper dapping line is becoming a task in itself too.

Stret Pegging is another method i try to give an airing to during the season.

We need Ron now to tell us what is really stet pegging and what is laying on.......

 

[Titus]

On a personal note I like perch bobbers, I can at least see the buggers, not like some of these bristle tipped pole floats which are meant to be fished at 16 Mtrs but are invisible at 6Mtrs.

Actually pole fishing is an old method which did fall out of fashion for a few decades but is seeing something of a resurgence in modern times.