The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Anyone remember these? I have some. Haven't used them for years. From memory, they were
tricky to get a good presentation with

I remember buying a full set of these from Woolworths one day, they were all I could afford as a youngster. As I recall the body was a burgundy colour and the tip a dull yellow (I may be wrong, was a long while ago)...Thing is, I can't actually remember ever fishing with them.

Blimey, still in the packets. I have 3 different sized floats, all used but only have 2 of the pin weights.

If you snapped one of those floats open, it looked very much as though the maker, Walter Bowers, had acquired a job lot of old pencils and simply replaced the leads with a darning needle and stuck a bit of plastic on top.

Not saying that's what he did, mind.

They were complete shite, good for nothing and useless. Apart from that, a good investment

Walter Bower , had the three lakes and a stretch of the Trent at Muskham, I was there yesterday looking around for old times sake. The lakes are a wildlife sanctuary now but years ago they were well known for good fishing. Big carp /stillwater chub on the lakes along with some big bream. The river was a great match venue and all the top guys fished there.
When Walter opened the lakes up to fishing I was the first angler to arrive on the evening prior to opening. Walt allowed me to set up but told me no fishing before midnight and to make sure he popped up beside me at five to twelve-- I was not surprised!! I was not doing anything wrong and went on to have a good session. I fished there for many happy years before the complex shut down on the death of his wife Dot. A very sad day for many anglers.
Just before she died (needle floats at last)Dot was talking to me about Walters invention-- the newark needle float-- and pointed to a corner of her living room and told me that the patents to the invention were stuck behind the wallpaper for safe keeping-- He was a canny old so and so.
I often wondered if they were lost when the house was demolished to make way for the leggo land estate that was built shortly afterwards.
Not many know but Walter was a fairground prizefighter in his early days and took on allcomers, even shortly before his death at a good age you wouldnt take him on unless you were very foolish!
A great character but more than that he was a businessman and made his way thro life dealing in plant and machinery.
He also had the television crews on site to televise a big angling event with the cameras having their very own platforms in the center of the lake on a stand of scaffolding.
For years afterwards those four scaffold poles were like magnets to many of the resident carp that could be seen rubbing up against them on a warm day, sometimes the poles would be seen rocking to and fro when one of the biggies was up against one.
Some match guys actually liked Walters needle floats but they never took off to the angling public at large.

I actually used the pin weight off my smallest float the other day when fishing hemp and tares

I only have a pin left now-- I use it for unpicking knots. :chuckle:

flightliner wrote:I only have a pin left now-- I use it for unpicking knots. :chuckle:

snap :D :D