Floats

I was in my local tackle shop today and was looking at the floats, there's so many to choose from, so which one's do I get and when and why would I use a particular style.

Insert, straight, onion.....etc

I've always used what ever's in my bag that will get me the distance I want, but never understood the reason's for the differing shapes....

David this is a MASSIVE topic. I suggest you get a book either from the library or possibly a book or video from your tackle shop. To go into this subject even at a basic level would mean one hell of a lot of time spent typing an answer.

David there is a book written by Allan Haines called The Complete Book Of Float Fishing published by David & Charles.This will explain lots about floats.

With the exception of pole floats, the ones you need to get are:

1: A slection of Drennan Crystal insert wagglers from 3 AA to 5 SSG

2: About two straight wagglers from 2 AA to 5 AA.

3: 1 Drennan Loafer.

4: A small selection of Stick floats

5: A fairly large Drennan weighted waggler for long distnce work.

6: A Lolly float for laying on on rivers.

That's all you need I guess.

Another handy one that you've missed out Ron is a Polaris self locking leger float, great for fishing really deep water and you don't need to worry about fiddly stop knots !!

Would just like to add that most of the float displays in tackle shops are probably designed to catch customers rather than fish!!!

Graham, I forgot that one.

I agree with what Ron has said....but i have over the years cut it down even further.
I find i use just five different patterns in just one size...covering 99 percent of my fishing...other than Drennan Loafer which i carry in a few sizes.
Floats i carry:
Drennan Giant Loaded Crystal in 4gram size

Drennan Insert Loaded Crystal in 3gram size

Drennan Giant Crystal in 4gram size

Drennan Straight Crystal Waggler 2 1/2 Swan size

Drennan Loafer 1 Swan up to 5 Swan size

( Oops..looks like an advert for Drennan )

The thing i have noticed about this is i now know these floats extremely well, and can cope with a large variety of conditions and know how to shot them up for different situations automatically.
I also tend to use larger floats than i used to nowadays....i find this makes life much easier, and does not affect the sensitivity of the float if shotted correctly

What Graham said is correct...i used to buy floats every time i went into the tackle shop as a kid because they all looked great!!!!

Choose a few quality ones...most nowadays are of good quality....pick ones with decent shotting capacities as this will make casting easier...

ps....buying feeders is the same...dont get me going on that subject as well!!!!