Stick floats history

[Stuart Whiting]

Having spent many years fishing stick floats on the Trent,Warwickshire Avon and The Severn if I could only carry one float style I would choose a wire stemmed shouldered stick float every time. The larger Avon style floats are great for deeper waters or where there is a need for bulk shotting - perhaps the lower Severn or Bristol Avon.
I spent the last day of the season fishing the upper Severn with a Wallis Avon Rod and centre pin reel. In the interest of keeping everything traditional I put an Avon style float on - I have to be honest and admit that I was dying to change it to a modern stick float!

I tend to agree with you AllRounder. All though I tried to fish canals as much as possible I did use to venture on to river occasionally. My stomping grounds would have been the slower rivers like "the Nene" but did also fish "the Trent and Severn occasionally. I used to carry wire stemmed sticks, some with Shoulders and some without. These were between 2BB - 14BB the bigger one's were used more in flood conditions. Very versatile, you can run them at the speed of the current or slow them down and even hold them still on a tight line. In the winter I would bulk shot with No 4's and a couple of No 10's or No 12's as droppers. If you spread the droppers especially the 12's and fish the bulk just off bottom, you can run the float through very slowly, with the hook/bait in front of the float. If you fished with a long hook length (2-3foot)with the same shotting you can actually stop the float dead, the bait will then be on the bottom, when you let the float go, the bait will still be stationary until the float passes the hook/bait by about 2-3 ft. Quite often by then a roach has already taken the stationary bait and as the float goes past it, it will just go under because the roach has stopped the bait.

Does that all make sense, much easier to show someone in real life.

Very much so makes sence, certain skills like these mastering the stick ain't something that can be learnt over night, definitely an art to fishing the stick well

Stuart

[DaceAce]

To add some grist to the mill, the stick was immensely popular on the Trent from circa 1962 to 1972 about which time the waggler gained ground although the stick remained popular. Later, the feeder and pole also made progress. Dave Harrell, in saying you only need alloy and lignum-stemmed sticks is really saying that the market for the old standard cane or plastic stemmed sticks has all but collapsed, mainly because some time in the late 80s the long pole was used to replicate the close in presentation of a standard stick but with far greater efficiency. For those of use pleasure fishing efficiency is less important so we can use standard sticks and enjoy it still but might have to make our own or source sticks made long ago. The Topper was used in its original form on the lower Bristol Avon which is the river below Bath where it is wide, slow and deep, hence the need for an underhand cast with a float set at 10-14' to cast up to 25 or 30 yards, often from under overhanging trees. Later the feeder took over this role, especially for bream

[Backhand]

Having spent many years fishing stick floats on the Trent,Warwickshire Avon and The Severn if I could only carry one float style I would choose a wire stemmed shouldered stick float every time. The larger Avon style floats are great for deeper waters or where there is a need for bulk shotting - perhaps the lower Severn or Bristol Avon.
I spent the last day of the season fishing the upper Severn with a Wallis Avon Rod and centre pin reel. In the interest of keeping everything traditional I put an Avon style float on - I have to be honest and admit that I was dying to change it to a modern stick float!

I tend to agree with you AllRounder. All though I tried to fish canals as much as possible I did use to venture on to river occasionally. My stomping grounds would have been the slower rivers like "the Nene" but did also fish "the Trent and Severn occasionally. I used to carry wire stemmed sticks, some with Shoulders and some without. These were between 2BB - 14BB the bigger one's were used more in flood conditions. Very versatile, you can run them at the speed of the current or slow them down and even hold them still on a tight line. In the winter I would bulk shot with No 4's and a couple of No 10's or No 12's as droppers. If you spread the droppers especially the 12's and fish the bulk just off bottom, you can run the float through very slowly, with the hook/bait in front of the float. If you fished with a long hook length (2-3foot)with the same shotting you can actually stop the float dead, the bait will then be on the bottom, when you let the float go, the bait will still be stationary until the float passes the hook/bait by about 2-3 ft. Quite often by then a roach has already taken the stationary bait and as the float goes past it, it will just go under because the roach has stopped the bait.

Does that all make sense, much easier to show someone in real life.

Very much so makes sence, certain skills like these mastering the stick ain't something that can be learnt over night, definitely an art to fishing the stick well

Stuart

This thread has made me want to go out and Stick float fish, pity it's the close season.
I haven't done it for years, but as soon as I started typing/posting, the memory kicks in and it all comes back to me. I'm remembering things I had forgotten about. Stick float fishing is a dying art, It will probably die out with our generation. Sad Isn't it.

[AllRounder]

During my years as an engineering apprentice I managed to source some lignum vitae wood (which sinks) and with unlimited access to a lathe was able to make my own stick floats. With a bit of trial and error I could make a very heavy float that only took a string of perhaps 8 No.8 shot I can't begin to explain how much better than the shop bought floats of that time they were.
On the middle Trent where the prevailing wind was almost always downstream it was possible to hold the float back and slow it down without it moving off line or swinging in to the bank. In really difficult winds I would just back shot behind the float with perhaps 2 No.4 shot dip the rod tip in the water and let the float go - a lovely way to fish - I still do that now.

[Stuart Whiting]

Having spent many years fishing stick floats on the Trent,Warwickshire Avon and The Severn if I could only carry one float style I would choose a wire stemmed shouldered stick float every time. The larger Avon style floats are great for deeper waters or where there is a need for bulk shotting - perhaps the lower Severn or Bristol Avon.
I spent the last day of the season fishing the upper Severn with a Wallis Avon Rod and centre pin reel. In the interest of keeping everything traditional I put an Avon style float on - I have to be honest and admit that I was dying to change it to a modern stick float!

I tend to agree with you AllRounder. All though I tried to fish canals as much as possible I did use to venture on to river occasionally. My stomping grounds would have been the slower rivers like "the Nene" but did also fish "the Trent and Severn occasionally. I used to carry wire stemmed sticks, some with Shoulders and some without. These were between 2BB - 14BB the bigger one's were used more in flood conditions. Very versatile, you can run them at the speed of the current or slow them down and even hold them still on a tight line. In the winter I would bulk shot with No 4's and a couple of No 10's or No 12's as droppers. If you spread the droppers especially the 12's and fish the bulk just off bottom, you can run the float through very slowly, with the hook/bait in front of the float. If you fished with a long hook length (2-3foot)with the same shotting you can actually stop the float dead, the bait will then be on the bottom, when you let the float go, the bait will still be stationary until the float passes the hook/bait by about 2-3 ft. Quite often by then a roach has already taken the stationary bait and as the float goes past it, it will just go under because the roach has stopped the bait.

Does that all make sense, much easier to show someone in real life.

Very much so makes sence, certain skills like these mastering the stick ain't something that can be learnt over night, definitely an art to fishing the stick well

Stuart

This thread has made me want to go out and Stick float fish, pity it's the close season.
I haven't done it for years, but as soon as I started typing/posting, the memory kicks in and it all comes back to me. I'm remembering things I had forgotten about. Stick float fishing is a dying art, It will probably die out with our generation. Sad Isn't it.

God forbid it doesn't die out, I certainly wouldn't like to think so, I think it's a far more detailed and interesting technique than fishing the wag, yes the wag obviously does have its own skill but generally it's just left to fish itself unlike the stick wear it can be controlled,
Providing there's always quality river float anglers around the stick should still rule

Stuart

[Backhand]

During my years as an engineering apprentice I managed to source some lignum vitae wood (which sinks) and with unlimited access to a lathe was able to make my own stick floats. With a bit of trial and error I could make a very heavy float that only took a string of perhaps 8 No.8 shot I can't begin to explain how much better than the shop bought floats of that time they were.
On the middle Trent where the prevailing wind was almost always downstream it was possible to hold the float back and slow it down without it moving off line or swinging in to the bank. In really difficult winds I would just back shot behind the float with perhaps 2 No.4 shot dip the rod tip in the water and let the float go - a lovely way to fish - I still do that now.

Good post AllRounder, I remember buying a couple of Lignum sticks, can't remember who made them though. The dreaded downstream wind, even worse if it was coming into the bank as well, sinking the line was the only way to combat it. It's funny how stick float fishing was always associated with a floating line. In good conditions I would grease my line so it just sat on the surface, a flick of the rod top was all that was needed to set the hook. A very precise way of fishing. But in poor conditions sinking the line was the only way to make it work.
Lignum vitae wood, I was under the impression that this was what old railway sleepers were made of. Is that correct. I know it was very hard and dense and would sink.

[Backhand]

Having spent many years fishing stick floats on the Trent,Warwickshire Avon and The Severn if I could only carry one float style I would choose a wire stemmed shouldered stick float every time. The larger Avon style floats are great for deeper waters or where there is a need for bulk shotting - perhaps the lower Severn or Bristol Avon.
I spent the last day of the season fishing the upper Severn with a Wallis Avon Rod and centre pin reel. In the interest of keeping everything traditional I put an Avon style float on - I have to be honest and admit that I was dying to change it to a modern stick float!

I tend to agree with you AllRounder. All though I tried to fish canals as much as possible I did use to venture on to river occasionally. My stomping grounds would have been the slower rivers like "the Nene" but did also fish "the Trent and Severn occasionally. I used to carry wire stemmed sticks, some with Shoulders and some without. These were between 2BB - 14BB the bigger one's were used more in flood conditions. Very versatile, you can run them at the speed of the current or slow them down and even hold them still on a tight line. In the winter I would bulk shot with No 4's and a couple of No 10's or No 12's as droppers. If you spread the droppers especially the 12's and fish the bulk just off bottom, you can run the float through very slowly, with the hook/bait in front of the float. If you fished with a long hook length (2-3foot)with the same shotting you can actually stop the float dead, the bait will then be on the bottom, when you let the float go, the bait will still be stationary until the float passes the hook/bait by about 2-3 ft. Quite often by then a roach has already taken the stationary bait and as the float goes past it, it will just go under because the roach has stopped the bait.
Does that all make sense, much easier to show someone in real life.

Very much so makes sence, certain skills like these mastering the stick ain't something that can be learnt over night, definitely an art to fishing the stick well
Stuart

This thread has made me want to go out and Stick float fish, pity it's the close season.
I haven't done it for years, but as soon as I started typing/posting, the memory kicks in and it all comes back to me. I'm remembering things I had forgotten about. Stick float fishing is a dying art, It will probably die out with our generation. Sad Isn't it.

God forbid it doesn't die out, I certainly wouldn't like to think so, I think it's a far more detailed and interesting technique than fishing the wag, yes the wag obviously does have its own skill but generally it's just left to fish itself unlike the stick wear it can be controlled,
Providing there's always quality river float anglers around the stick should still rule

Stuart

I do hope so, it's that anglers especially younger ones don't fish rivers like we did. I learnt all my early fishing on rivers, watching very good club anglers who had been doing it for years. The younger generation of anglers only seem interested if it's got Carp in it. There are hardly any club type matches left for them to watch and learn.

I must admit that in certain situations the waggler is better. The last 3 winters I have been fishing for Chub on small rivers local to me. The majority of swims are only 10 metres wide and depths range from 2ft - 5ft. A stealthy approach is the only way of catching the Chub. I fish a waggler purely because it doesn't make a splash on the strike, and when your just retrieving at the end of a trot, there is no disturbance on the surface. You can sometimes trot a swim for 2 hours, then out of the blue you get a bite. These Chub are there all the time, but not feeding. I think that if I used a stick, I would end up spooking them before I had a chance to catch one.
Also the water is fairly slow moving apart from when in flood. When it is better to ledger anyway. If you undershot a peacock waggler, you can slow it down if you need to, not as much as you can with a stick of cause, but enough. All the Chub I catch are actually caught just running it through though, letting the trailing line act as a slight brake.

[AllRounder]

I have to be honest I really can't remember where the lignum came from I have just worked out that I made those floats over forty years ago! as a very keen teenager. At that time I had a mini production line of floats as well as stick floats I made wagglers and canal balsa floats.
I remember Kevin Ashurst writing an article in the Angling Times about a float a French angler had showed him that consisted of nothing more than an inch of peacock quill with a needle stuck into it as a wire stem.A mini stick float almost.
This was shotted with a group of No8 as a bulk but spaced very slightly apart. (millimetres) Kevin used them on the northern canals for skimmers on the pole when pole fishing was just starting to take off and if I remember correctly he wasn't sure why it worked so well.
I made some of these but used them on the Warwickshire Avon around the Stratford area when the rive was full of Dace, Gudgeon and Chublets. I fished them in shallower swims and they worked better than I could have imagined it was one of those set ups that "looked" right before I had even tried it! Very hard to explain unless it's happened to you.

[Santiago]

I know several young anglers that are quite adept at trotting stick floats and avons on the Thames and catch loads of roach and dace. And they're so good they nearly always catch many more than myself. But saying that, they have veered towards another aspect of fishing, not carp though, for they're now into fly fishing for wild brown trout and grayling.

On another note, I 've noticed that many Thames anglers using stick floats tend to fish further out than those that use small avons. Perhaps I'm just imagining this! But if my observations are real, what's the explanation?

[Backhand]

I have to be honest I really can't remember where the lignum came from I have just worked out that I made those floats over forty years ago! as a very keen teenager. At that time I had a mini production line of floats as well as stick floats I made wagglers and canal balsa floats.
I remember Kevin Ashurst writing an article in the Angling Times about a float a French angler had showed him that consisted of nothing more than an inch of peacock quill with a needle stuck into it as a wire stem.A mini stick float almost.
This was shotted with a group of No8 as a bulk but spaced very slightly apart. (millimetres) Kevin used them on the northern canals for skimmers on the pole when pole fishing was just starting to take off and if I remember correctly he wasn't sure why it worked so well.
I made some of these but used them on the Warwickshire Avon around the Stratford area when the rive was full of Dace, Gudgeon and Chublets. I fished them in shallower swims and they worked better than I could have imagined it was one of those set ups that "looked" right before I had even tried it! Very hard to explain unless it's happened to you.

I made the very same floats, can't remember where I got the idea. I still have some in my box. Used them for catching slightly bigger fish on Caster or Maggot. They did work a treat. Won me plenty of money over the years. They did look very neat and tidy because they were a small float.