newbie saying hello

Hello there folks

Been reading the various threads. It is a different world here in the US. I miss Merry olde... I really do! I used to fish the little river that runs near Bordon, Hants. This was in 1978. Can any one tell me its name (I think it was the Wye) and what is left of it these days please? Is it still as pretty and well stocked as I remember it? I spent many days there fishing when I was supposed to be in school. I discovered that if I didn't turn up for the first days registration, they wouldn't know I was supposed to be there so I went to classes I liked, skipped the rest and went fishing. Got to know that stretch of river so well I can still fish it, and do in my dreams. Eventually I quit school all together and stayed out fishing! Caught many fine trout and perch, hooked into a resident pike and lost it, and saw what may have been my first Atlantic salmon (or a very big old grotty looking trout) on that river.

Too old to do that now and too many responsabilities to think much about it... I can wish though.

I make most of my own gear when I can. Been tying flies for over 30 years, but can't cast them worth a damn so I fish them with floats on a spinning rod. Making my own quill floats now, my newest project so I will have quesions later. I twist/braid my own horse-hair leaders and lines... will be getting into rod making and net weaving one of these days too I suppose.

I fish for what ever is edible, using what ever will work best, as long as it is legal and relatively ethical. This is why even though I make recreations of paleolithic fishing spears, I don't use them any more. I might have 20 thousand years ago, but that was in a different time and place with different rules and penalties.

Looking forward to hearing from any one who cares to write

All the best

Andrew

Interesting first post Andrew!

Welcome to the forum/madhouse. I'm sure you'll get plenty of replies later, when everyone is out of bed!

welcome to FM Andrew, " Been tying flies for over 30 years" yes it takes me quite a while to tie the buggers too

welcome to the site.

there's a vast ammount of knowledge for you to tap into on here

Hello Janet, Monk, Captain Carrot , thankyou for the great welcome. I see a sense of humour akin to my own here and look forward to some interesting interactions. Monk, I have actually worked on flies for a competition a few years ago that seemed as if they took 30 years to tie. Three days with a total of 22 hours invested in one single pattern from start to finish. Most of them take about 5 minutes though if I prepare the materials ahead of time. My work can be seen either at webshots or at myphotoalbum.com under the username of Atlanticsalmonflyguy. Drop by and leave rude comments if you like<G>

A question or two about porcupine quill floats. It has been decades since I last saw one in hand, and that one was bought. I won it in an informal fishing competition the lads and I were staging on that little river in Bordon. 2 16 inch brown trout to nil... then lost it to a pike. The float was sized to the particular number of shot it needed to cock. This was written along the side in case any one needed to know. My questions; Is there a standard shot size for these floats, ie, 2 swans, 3 swans + 1 BB or something, or is it pretty much anything goes. And, secondly, what is the standard for the amount sticking up out of the water, or how deep do these guys sit? Is this a standard also or just what ever you feel like sort of thing. Depth would be controlled by shot size, I suppose, and using the fewest, lightest shot to achieve cocking to me sounds logical but I like to be accurate in my reproductions.

Many thanks and all the best

Andrew

it's natural material so it varies in bouyancy slightly from quil to quil, so there's no way of working out how much shot each quil will take, other than the facts that the bigger the quil the more shot it will require and regardless of that quils aren't particularly buoyant so none of them will take a large ammount of shot.

it will also depend on the gauge of the wire that you whip onto the bottom of it to make the eye.

as for how much to leave sticking out of the top of the water. this is again personal preference some people leave as much as an inch, others virtually nothing.

Cheers! Thanks for the help. For eyes on the floats, I took some large ring eyed hooks of a size I do not use much and had lots of, clipped them with about an inch of the shank and after drilling a socket into the tip, inserted them, glueing into place with super-glue and then whipping it tight with a good solid binding thread. This was done after doing two by taking wire, forming a loop and then binding down each leg of the loop along side the quill. I did not like the bulk, and even when I sanded down the wire to reduce the bulk, I still did not like it, so went with the hook eyes and they look nice. They don't pull out either, which is what I was afraid of. Now I have to paint and varnish them, then size them. I think I will leave an inch sticking up so that I can see them. We have rainbow trout, large-mouth bass and blue-gill sunfish where I fish. Trout run about 12-14 inches, bass usually about the same, though I have taken them to 20 inches there, and blue-gill to about 8 inches.

All the best

Andrew

PS. does any body fish near Bordon or Alton in Hants.?

Hello folks,

Another quill float question. I went to Wallyworld (Walmart, the only local place to shop around here) to get paints for these floats and am totally over-whelmed by the number of different kinds of paint, and totally underwhelmed by the kinds that might actually work. So... what is the best kind of paint in your opinions to do up some nice looking quill floats that are supposed to take a good knock and last a while doing it? I looked at acrylic, ceramic, latex, indoor-outdoor not sure what it was... plastic airplane model enamel, hell, I even looked at nail polish but that was too expensive considering the amount I would be using. I have a dozen of them to paint.

I appreciate all the help!

Best wishes

Andrew

plastic airplane model enamel. problem solved then if you've found some of that.

though if you can get an accryllic mixed with latex based glue to mix correctly then you will have the worlds most durable paint mix, but it's a bugger to find the right type of glue you need a thin water based latex solution glue and to mix it with a water based accrylic, then you need to thin it right down and put on quite a few layers.

this is better used on balsa and cane floats though.

welcome to fm, andrew