18" floats

[Harry H]

what type of fishing would these be used for

[MaggotDrowner]

Holds the float in position when the surface is ruffled by the wind I believe.

[AshbyCut]

Taken from "This Fishing .. or .. Angling Arts and Artifices" by Captain L. A. Parker (pub. Bennett Brothers, Salisbury. 1948).

I hope this helps :-

[BendSomeCane]

Many years ago when you could walk into any fishing tackle shop worth its salt your could buy long/full peacock quills. Around the age of 14yrs I seem to remember reading a book written by Ivan Marks and he suggested using very long loaded wagglers to combat surface drift.

I made some around 18" long and took them to Elsecar Resevoir near Barnsley. This was a wide shallowish lake.
Low and behold they worked fine , but to my knowledge never disappeared from view !!

BSC

[Olly]

A look at Billy Lanes book will show how the antenna float progressed.

London Reservoirs were where you could find very long antenna type floats although straight peacock was also used. Waves up to 2ft high, even bigger in gales although no sensible person would fish then then! Water up to 18ft deep and the far bank 3/4 mile away discouraged many LAA anglers at the Queen Mary in Sunbury - so ledgering was the alternative.

Peter Butler who had his name on several Edgar Sealey rods was an expert in catching reservoir roach on the lead during the 60s.

[Nobby]

Spear fishing?

[Northern Eel]

Spear fishing?

Or whip a couple of guides onto it and use it as a stickleback rod

[Shaun Harrison]

Used to watch the match anglers at Layer Pits casting some enormous floats to extreme range for the carp. It looked like they were casting rod tops! They were certainly a lot longer than 18" and on a lot of the commercials these days they would probably stick in the bottom and their tops still be visible. That is if they didn't harpoon a poor fish in these modern day fish concentration camps on the way down.

[Aquaerial]

Many years ago when you could walk into any fishing tackle shop worth its salt your could buy long/full peacock quills. Around the age of 14yrs I seem to remember reading a book written by Ivan Marks and he suggested using very long loaded wagglers to combat surface drift.

I made some around 18" long and took them to Elsecar Resevoir near Barnsley. This was a wide shallowish lake.
Low and behold they worked fine , but to my knowledge never disappeared from view !!

BSC

One of our local tackle shop owners fished with the man when Ivan went over to Germany to coach the Army team. He tells me that when Ivan saw the slow moving river that was being used for competition he plucked out from his bag two of the longest floats he had, broke the bottom off one, gaffer taped them both together to make a float over 2 feet long and proceeded to cast it across the other side of the river. You will know the rest as its a fishing story but needless to say the Army team set a new standard in competition over there.
He did add that the Army team were so pleased they invited Ivan back to the NAAFI where he proceeded to drain the place at their expense...well his expense actually as he was the team Captain

[Harry H]

Thanks for the information much appreciated