Reflections on floats

[Homer Simpson]

I recently acquired some porcupine quills and have refurbished them.
I have been gradually removing bottom rings from most of the floats that I actually use.
I find fine black silicon tube far superior and it also aids a quick change where necessary.

Whilst on the canal yesterday and thinking back to using them some 50+ years ago, I decided that quills are probably the best all rounder there is. I can’t understand why I stopped using them, they are streamline, waterproof, fairly unbreakable, and just need some orange (only colour I can comfortably see) fluorescent paint on the top.
I am have a couple of hundred floats (I guess you folks are the same), yet I had no quills.

Further, I was trying to remember when waggler fishing became “a thing” , I can’t remember doing it when I was a boy. From the age of 12 I was in a club and went out with the seniors fishing matches so it isn’t as though I wasn’t seeing the current methods.
Can you imagine a 12 year old going off in a bus full of blokes today.?

…..and when folks did start to fish with just the bottom of the float connected to the line , what was it called? Because I think waggler must be a fairly new word.

[Duckett]

I recently acquired some porcupine quills and have refurbished them.
I have been gradually removing bottom rings from most of the floats that I actually use.
I find fine black silicon tube far superior and it also aids a quick change where necessary.

Whilst on the canal yesterday and thinking back to using them some 50+ years ago, I decided that quills are probably the best all rounder there is. I can’t understand why I stopped using them, they are streamline, waterproof, fairly unbreakable, and just need some orange (only colour I can comfortably see) fluorescent paint on the top.
I am have a couple of hundred floats (I guess you folks are the same), yet I had no quills.

Further, I was trying to remember when waggler fishing became “a thing” , I can’t remember doing it when I was a boy. From the age of 12 I was in a club and went out with the seniors fishing matches so it isn’t as though I wasn’t seeing the current methods.
Can you imagine a 12 year old going off in a bus full of blokes today.?

…..and when folks did start to fish with just the bottom of the float connected to the line , what was it called? Because I think waggler must be a fairly new word.

I recalled reading this a while ago: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-th ... ler-heroes

I certainly don’t recall learning to call bottom attached only floats wagglers when I started around 1970! On the other hand, as I’m a huge fan of the lift method, I never stopped using quills, particularly crow and goose, which I think make the best lift floats.

Phil

[Catfish.017]

Bottom end only attachment some people including Benny Ashurst called it Peg Legging. He called his floats Step Peacocks.

[Homer Simpson]

Peg legging!

I remember that now.


Phil,

When I said quills it was shorthand for porcupine quills.

I loved using crow quills but my eyesight is no longer up to small floats and tiny lifts and dips.

[Dave Burr]

I was 8 years old when I got my first junior fishing set, it contained two small porcupine quills. They had these strange little rubber bands on them which, I assumed, was just packaging or something. With no anglers in the family, there was nobody to advise me otherwise so, I binned them.

I showed my treasure to my grandfather who explained how to set it all up, "Where are the float rubbers?". Oops. I was taught how to attach the float bottom end only by passing a loop through the eye and over the float, and that's how I fished with all floats for years. Mind you, a small quill fished waggler style was a challenge in a fast weir pool but, enough small fish hung themselves to inspire me.

[Tench Dreamer]

Coming to angling in 1981 aged 14. Being shown once by me uncle how to set up, reading library books and using the tackle and in this case Floats that was there I just found my way. I regarded a lot of what I learned as iron rules and also it was all very technical ..Today the modern Pole and carp angling and the tackle industry has fine tuned all that to perfection and ruin in a way

In 1987 inspired by a desire to abandon all the faff and decided to fish what I call Huckleberry Finn style.. I used my Porky floats bottom end only and it worked ...i broke the iron rules

Having stopped after that i returned in 2009 ..And went back to 1987...Porkys and avons for the river. This year after 40 years i finally fished lift method and it only went and blooming worked ...

Fishing is a funny sport the less I complicate it the more i enjoy

[Old Man River]

I remember “antenna floats” being the be all and end all for fishing choppy waters, I had a fine selection of them and still have a few,which I use when conditions dictate,otherwise, it was all stick floats and porky quills, tbh I never paid much attention to “fishing fashion “ where floats were concerned, and still use the ones I like as opposed to the ones that are supposed to do the job better.

Most of the floats we see on here are harking back to those days and are wonderful examples.

David


David

[Nobby]

Nowadays a 'peg-leg' is half-loop of wire attached to your mainline with silicon tubing and the float trapped within the loop.

https://fishdeal.co.uk/t/fishing-floats ... 0(English)

Pretty much tangle-less and splash-less, fully adjustable with one hand, I make my own but it is difficult to make certain the wire ends are smooth enough so as not to damage your line if the going gets rough.

[Liphook]

Nobby have you a dremel? Then use the sanding/cutting discs, clamp the tool and offer up your wire ends as if it was a minature bench grinder and rotate to 'turn' the burrs off the face of the wheel. Hope that makes sense!

[Old Man River]

I use the “Peg Leg” style of float attachment as above,amd have been for many years now,although I have never heard it called that until reading it here . I make the wire attachments easily enough, a quick brushing the ends of the wire against a bit of emery cloth is all the wire needs, it is soft copper wire so easy to make line safe. I also use lengths of solder that has been “shrink tubed” in black as float weights instead of split shot… I find split shot a real faff and am always concerned it will damage the line, especially the harder type shot that sometimes appears.

David