The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I have just been playing with my new camera & have been photographing some of my float collection. I thought that the attached may be of interesting to members. As most of you will know they are made of paper so it is surprising that they have survived.

When I started fishing the Zephyr float was one of my favourites so when I started collecting I just had to have 1 or 2 or........ And thats how collections start!

Not something I remember, but a nice collection

I'm not particularly familiar with zephyr floats. What makes them zephyr floats?

Hi Snape,
Here is some information about Zephyrs, I hope this helps!

Looks good Bob, I barely remember them and had a few which were passed to me by the old man who taught me how to fish, Myself and other float makers have tried to reproduce them with some success but mostly failure, I've still got a couple of my paper creations somewhere which I used when I used to fish ponds for roach & perch.

Hi George,
The secret of the Zephyr is it's lightness for the shot carrying capacity. I think the problem that you float makers have is not being able to get the same paper that was used. As a consequence the 'modern' take on the float is too heavy.
You may have seen the attached before!
Bob

Bob wrote:Hi George,
The secret of the Zephyr is it's lightness for the shot carrying capacity. I think the problem that you float makers have is not being able to get the same paper that was used. As a consequence the 'modern' take on the float is too heavy.
You may have seen the attached before!
Bob

Your 100% right Bob, I know from speaking to other float makers that all sorts of paper has been tried from normal newspaper to grease proof paper to wrapping paper, personally I tried thin brown paper and had minimal success with a couple of floats but to be honest the capacity of shot to the trouble in making them didn't equate so they were ditched, I've still got a couple somewhere, If I can find them I will put up a picture.

I've made a few of these zephyr floats recently according to the method described in an old book from the 50's by Richard Arnold. On rolling a single piece of paper (very long triangle) around a stick, he recommends just using just 1 spot of glue to fix the tip of the last roll in place. Remove the stick then plug the holes with balsa to leave plenty of trapped air in the middle, then varnish and paint the paper after sanding. However, Richard Arnold never mentioned how these floats were best used. Considering the small shot carrying capacity of these floats (have yet to test mine) I imagine them to be best employed with small baits up in the water for Rudd, Roach and Dace. How exactly do you chaps use them?