Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
- Ski Piit Wldie
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
My subjective logic there, of course is the problem, maybe I should have quoted Spock instead ?
The bigger picture as you correctly say shows up the shortcomings, current variation top to bottom, holding back and more. In a few specific circumstances the flutes work for the angler and help him overcome other tackle deficiencies. One memorable day some years ago when long road trips to fish were less miserable I was lucky enough to have a few days on the southern rivers, on one I fished the Trammels it was towards the season end, with surprisingly little weed left after a very hard winter I used one of my old fluted Belglows to fish well across the river, trotting for and catching several really nice chub including my largest to date but with a pretty smooth bed to the river there and not too much speed variation, fishing the bait well up in the water the flutes worked to hold the course a little better when using an inadequate but much loved short cane rod, It's all about using the stuff we like too even if it's not the very best for the job as that illustrates.
Another factor which must add to the desirability of fluted floats is relative scarcity and difficulty of manufacture. We very often as human hunter-gatherers want what is hard to get or difficult to make for ourselves and if we are unfortunate enough to have an eye for such things we become fascinated and NEED them for their looks and novelty. Definitely not my slight mis-quote but it gets to the point "I catch ( some ) fish despite my tackle" I do love looking at and using it though.
Footnote, on that chubby day just after I landed the big one a scruffy chap with a net, a rod and some luncheon meat took a picture for me and asked if I minded him rolling a bit of meat through the undercut bank at my feet as he thought there may be a barbel there, seconds later he banked a ten pounder and with no float just a bit of plasticene, a natural, Mike.
The bigger picture as you correctly say shows up the shortcomings, current variation top to bottom, holding back and more. In a few specific circumstances the flutes work for the angler and help him overcome other tackle deficiencies. One memorable day some years ago when long road trips to fish were less miserable I was lucky enough to have a few days on the southern rivers, on one I fished the Trammels it was towards the season end, with surprisingly little weed left after a very hard winter I used one of my old fluted Belglows to fish well across the river, trotting for and catching several really nice chub including my largest to date but with a pretty smooth bed to the river there and not too much speed variation, fishing the bait well up in the water the flutes worked to hold the course a little better when using an inadequate but much loved short cane rod, It's all about using the stuff we like too even if it's not the very best for the job as that illustrates.
Another factor which must add to the desirability of fluted floats is relative scarcity and difficulty of manufacture. We very often as human hunter-gatherers want what is hard to get or difficult to make for ourselves and if we are unfortunate enough to have an eye for such things we become fascinated and NEED them for their looks and novelty. Definitely not my slight mis-quote but it gets to the point "I catch ( some ) fish despite my tackle" I do love looking at and using it though.
Footnote, on that chubby day just after I landed the big one a scruffy chap with a net, a rod and some luncheon meat took a picture for me and asked if I minded him rolling a bit of meat through the undercut bank at my feet as he thought there may be a barbel there, seconds later he banked a ten pounder and with no float just a bit of plasticene, a natural, Mike.
- Tengisgol
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
I believe it is impossible to say whether they truly make a difference, and no-one can go as far as saying that logic falls apart in practice. Conditions in any swim, on any day, can vary and change, almost by the minute, so the key to success is confidence, adaptability, reading the stretch, the swim, the depth, I could go on. Who knows, you stand there don't you, you watch the water and the wind and something sub-conscious guides you to a float for the job (that myriad of experiences and knowledge whirring in your head).
What I would say is this. The chap who introduced me to the fluted float was a very successful angler. I was there when he landed his fiftieth two pound roach at Breamore, and when he lost what would have been his fifty-first the same day, which was probably a three. His biggest-ever was 3-6-00 from the Stour. He made his own fluted floats from elderpith.
I loved using them myself on the Avon back in the nineties. The pattern I preferred are shown in the photos below (both two pound roach taken at last light on a fluted float) as the yellow tipped and black-tipped floats, made of elder, with a balsa sight tip, spliced into a cane or walnut stem. These were fabulous in the sizes you can see in the photos and I particularly liked that pattern for running down a rod-length out in an even paced eight foot swim at 3:30pm on a January day!
When the need arose to get further, the bigger guns would be out (massive fluted floats) and I had no problem with the fifteen foot rod of the day (Mark will know!) putting that down and holding any far bank run for seventy, eighty yards. In later years on the Wye, chub fishing, the knot would regularly run out the rings so 110yds+. But I have also seen some very bad fluted floats, that were just bad floats 'full stop'!
Those were the days:


What I would say is this. The chap who introduced me to the fluted float was a very successful angler. I was there when he landed his fiftieth two pound roach at Breamore, and when he lost what would have been his fifty-first the same day, which was probably a three. His biggest-ever was 3-6-00 from the Stour. He made his own fluted floats from elderpith.
I loved using them myself on the Avon back in the nineties. The pattern I preferred are shown in the photos below (both two pound roach taken at last light on a fluted float) as the yellow tipped and black-tipped floats, made of elder, with a balsa sight tip, spliced into a cane or walnut stem. These were fabulous in the sizes you can see in the photos and I particularly liked that pattern for running down a rod-length out in an even paced eight foot swim at 3:30pm on a January day!
When the need arose to get further, the bigger guns would be out (massive fluted floats) and I had no problem with the fifteen foot rod of the day (Mark will know!) putting that down and holding any far bank run for seventy, eighty yards. In later years on the Wye, chub fishing, the knot would regularly run out the rings so 110yds+. But I have also seen some very bad fluted floats, that were just bad floats 'full stop'!
Those were the days:


Where the willows meet the water...
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- Ski Piit Wldie
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !

A Giant fluted float made to fish in a specific swim, smallish river, steady tidal run off and deep fairly even depth weed free water, used a barrel "lead" way down near the bait and presented it just above the river bed which was composed of largish stones and lumps of clay on coarse sand, the logic being the fish hid in the slack pockets of water between the obstructions to save energy and darted out to get the food passing by, a bit like the bass using small obstructions to similar advantage in the estuaries nearer to home on an ebbing tide and no I haven't trotted for them yet, maybe this summer ? The two other floats worked at different states of tide in the same very deep swim, swan quill could be held back a bit and the giant perch bobbery Avon type thing was just a halfway house with a bit more "grip" on the water, Mike.
- Olly
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
I think this argument may go on forever! Proved or not!
I too like the look of a fluted float so do use them very occasionally - if you feel more confident using one - do so! If you don't - - don't use one!
We can now video underwater so who is up to prove this one way or another - - - mind you the fish could be shy of being photographed or videoed!
There is somewhere on the net how to make a fluted float's vanes from flat balsa.

I too like the look of a fluted float so do use them very occasionally - if you feel more confident using one - do so! If you don't - - don't use one!
We can now video underwater so who is up to prove this one way or another - - - mind you the fish could be shy of being photographed or videoed!
There is somewhere on the net how to make a fluted float's vanes from flat balsa.
- Olly
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
Or this on here:- ''The story of the Fluted Float''.
- Wanderer
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter whether fluted floats are more or less efficient than other types.
They certainly look nice and people derive great pleasure from making them and even more from using them.
Surely that is all that matters.
They certainly look nice and people derive great pleasure from making them and even more from using them.
Surely that is all that matters.

"Not all those who Wander are Lost !"
- Crucian
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
Having made and used fluted floats over the years, this thread has inspired me to make a few more. Good thread, thanks for posting.
- Dave Burr
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
That old adage, do we catch because or in spite of our method/location/timing/bait/etc.
Few anglers really appreciate the design or limitations of various floats. Other will use and perfect a single method and make it work wherever they fish. We all own too many floats - don't we?
I have used good and some poor fluted floats and I am convinced that, in the right conditions, a decent fluted float will out perform anything else. Just as I know that there are times when a carbon rod will prove the best choice for a set of circumstances. But that's for another day.
Few anglers really appreciate the design or limitations of various floats. Other will use and perfect a single method and make it work wherever they fish. We all own too many floats - don't we?
I have used good and some poor fluted floats and I am convinced that, in the right conditions, a decent fluted float will out perform anything else. Just as I know that there are times when a carbon rod will prove the best choice for a set of circumstances. But that's for another day.
- DaceAce
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
The waters I fish are far from clean enough to see much happening underwater. I have positioned a GoPro clone underwater on the end of a 7 metre pole but it won't work in anything more than a modest current - I tried it on the Royalty and could only get it to work close to the bank.Olly wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 3:03 pm I think this argument may go on forever! Proved or not!![]()
I too like the look of a fluted float so do use them very occasionally - if you feel more confident using one - do so! If you don't - - don't use one!
We can now video underwater so who is up to prove this one way or another - - - mind you the fish could be shy of being photographed or videoed!
There is somewhere on the net how to make a fluted float's vanes from flat balsa.
My take on floats is that 90% are designed to catch anglers and fluted floats certainly do that. I also think that float design is constantly evolving but most new 'branches' i.e. new types of float die and wither as they are either not very good or are superseded by better floats.
Some examples of floats that never made the long-term grade include fluted floats (obviously!) that I can find little evidence of commercial production post about 1972, the Ivan Marks zoomer (never available commercially) which was replaced by bodied peacock wagglers by about 1973 and was never universally popular as it took a massive amount of skill to use properly, hinged floats (you must be joking!), Newark Needles (clever use of cheap pencil blanks, rubbish floats), leaf floats (?), pacemakers were popular in the 70s - I used them a lot - but petered out by the 80s, and so it goes on.
- Phil Arnott
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Re: Fluted Floats Camafloat plastic !
As already pointed out people can use whatever they want even though it may not be the best option and you can certainly catch fish on just about any float you care to use. Using other than the most effective or modern tackle is certainly the preferred choice of many TFF members.
However, it’s an interesting debate and I can’t resist any longer in having my say. As with all debates like these I search for what has been written about the subject -
Billy Lane’s Encyclopaedia of Float Fishing –
“The problem of how best to long-trot a bait through running water – especially water of a more turbulent variety – is one which has come in for endless discussion among anglers.
One of the latest in a long line of bright ideas to arrive on the angling scene as a remedy for long trotting ills was the fluted float. To me it is a nil notion which achieves nothing very special.
My salvation in these conditions for as long as I can remember has to be the family of floats known as Avons.”
Float fishing with Ivan Marks – “One of the reasons why Avons are so popular is that provided you have a range of sizes you can use them to good effect on just about any running water.”
It’s interesting to see that Ivan fishes the balsa – a float which “will ride the rough water” with a AAA shot directly under the float which with the other shot will make the float more difficult to pull off line, just like the heavily load floats I described earlier.
Any float carrying a large amount of shot will tend to hold its line in the flow however, you don’t want any width in a float where you want the option to slow it down in the flow, something you can do to some extent with heavy floats like the Avon and balsa.
Float designs come and go but those which are very effective will remain is use. One of the very best floats which have become more popular in more recent years is the flat float – a very effective innovation. They can hold a lot of shot while offering least resistance to the flow. Using a flat float to fish a static bait in flowing water is the most sensitive method of all, better than any form of ledgering. I don’t expect they will disappear like many designs of the past.
However, it’s an interesting debate and I can’t resist any longer in having my say. As with all debates like these I search for what has been written about the subject -
Billy Lane’s Encyclopaedia of Float Fishing –
“The problem of how best to long-trot a bait through running water – especially water of a more turbulent variety – is one which has come in for endless discussion among anglers.
One of the latest in a long line of bright ideas to arrive on the angling scene as a remedy for long trotting ills was the fluted float. To me it is a nil notion which achieves nothing very special.
My salvation in these conditions for as long as I can remember has to be the family of floats known as Avons.”
Float fishing with Ivan Marks – “One of the reasons why Avons are so popular is that provided you have a range of sizes you can use them to good effect on just about any running water.”
It’s interesting to see that Ivan fishes the balsa – a float which “will ride the rough water” with a AAA shot directly under the float which with the other shot will make the float more difficult to pull off line, just like the heavily load floats I described earlier.
Any float carrying a large amount of shot will tend to hold its line in the flow however, you don’t want any width in a float where you want the option to slow it down in the flow, something you can do to some extent with heavy floats like the Avon and balsa.
Float designs come and go but those which are very effective will remain is use. One of the very best floats which have become more popular in more recent years is the flat float – a very effective innovation. They can hold a lot of shot while offering least resistance to the flow. Using a flat float to fish a static bait in flowing water is the most sensitive method of all, better than any form of ledgering. I don’t expect they will disappear like many designs of the past.