Fascinating float advert on ebay - Clue to BB's favourite?

[Olly]

It actually states that is has a "spring line holder"!

[Vole]

Better than that, its double sprung: "...wood stick top with spring line holder; wood stick bottom with spring; wire line guide;..."

I'm hoping the semi-colon between "spring" and "wire" is a typo, or else there's a third spring in the system!

Which begs a question: Why is there a line running down the body? Is the body cloven like a Fishing Gazette bung, (in which case wouldn't the wood stick top and bottom be the same piece of wood?), or is there indeed some extra wire gizmo?
The more I look, the more puzzled I am.

[Olly]

The float on the same page above does not show a semi-colon! Therefore likely a typo?

Some of the other floats on that page have eyes halfway down - sliders perhaps or an extraordinary huge amount of float top!

[Vole]

Thanks for spotting the lack of semi-colon. Still leaves a puzzle re the line along the body... fun, this, isn't it?

Thanks also for the hint about the half-way-up eyes; I hope to embark on some experiments with two-ring sliders, and I have a feeling that if I followed my instincts, I'd put the upper ring too far up the float. I'll follow these pictures first, I think; nothing worse than holding a float back and watching it ride out of the water and lie flat. Well, lots of things are worse, but it's still vexing.

[Olly]

I think that is why the 2 ring sliders hold so much shot! They seem to big & bulky compared to a similar trotting float, your shotting may also make them lay flat with too much shot "up the line".

I did notice that one float illustrated had a tube throughout its length??

'Diamond Edge', the company that made these, were toolmakers in St Louis. See below.

A couple of websites perhaps of interest? ---------

http://earlyfishingtackle.blogspot.co.u ... bbers.html

http://www.thckk.org/history/shapleigh-history.pdf

[Vole]

Many thanks for those links, Olly, they're going to cause me much head-scratching. There's a whole lot of wire needs twisting... I'd better buy some sticking-plasters, first.

It's a shame the Early Fishing Tackle blog doesn't have links, but I googled "the ideal fishing float co" and found this little dust-up; surely a warning to some in the tackle trade, but I can't untangle the legalese enough to work out just who!
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/dis ... 0/1399276/

I think the gist is, try not to get lawyers involved!

So many little trails to wander along. Well found!

[Olly]

No problem. Patents - inventions - copyright - all appear to be a minefield. Looking at current fishing tackle they copy each other!!

[Nobby]

Their defence seems to be that the patent should never have been granted in the first place, the method having been in common use before the application was made.


A touch of the nur nur ne nur nurs, I beleive, M'Lud.

[Necarper]

The spring is common for almost all floats over here.... works fine to get on and off fast but the spring puts a lot of stress on the line, hence they tend to use 20lb mono to prevent the spring cutting through the line or snapping off when you hook a fish. The spring traps the line in a slot... sorry the photos are not too good, but show what I mean.

[Vole]

The photo shows the principle very well, for which, many thanks, Necarper. I had been looking as a few pictures of such floats and wondering both what happens to the line when a big fish puts it under stress, and what happens to the float? As the line tries to straighten, the float must flex...
I've been toying with the idea of cutting a groove in my next "bodied" floats, to keep the line as straight as possible and extend the life of the float; these spring-loaded creations seem to rely on big fish (or snags) to generate sales!

The floats in the advert that appeal to me, and seem to suggest the float "BB" mentioned fondly, are those which appear to have a parallel spring set on a tapered stem, so you can wind the line into the ever-decreasing space between the two, so wedging it in place as gently as you wish; the left-hand "barrel" and the middle "egg" on p. 1768 seem to work this way, do they not? Are such still made and sold in North America (or anywhere else)?
And have I got the principle of them right?