The Anglers Tree -Smalley's Floats

[Stour Otter]

Editorial from ANGLING, Written by anglers for anglers - August.,1976 Price: 40p
The Angler's Tree
By Peter Wheat on floats

THE ELDER TREE. Sambucas nigra. Is common to most parts of Britain. It grows rapidly to an average height of about 10ft, and in the past has been a useful source of materials for a wide range of tasks. The wood, for example, made weaver's shuttles, butchers' skewers and shoemakers' pegs; the pith aided early electrical experiments, and the flowers were employed in the confectionery trade.
Anglers, however, have always valued the elder tree most of all for float material, bait and liquid refreshment.
The late Major Albert Smalley of Nottingham was the first man to use elderpith for floats, and I count myself fortunate to own a selection of his patterns which he made for me a few years before his death in 1964. They're perfect gems of Smalley craftsmanship which, frankly, I've never been able to bring myself to actually fish with in case I lost even one. I keep them solely as models for my own float-making.
I'd better just explain that elderpith is the heart of the spear-like shoots which grow alongside the trunk, often hidden from view beneath bushy foliage. Some of these spears are green and others are brown, but it is only the brown, dry ones which are for float-making.
You'll find that the thin bark covering the pitch is easy enough removed with finger-nail pressure, but do be careful when doing this not to damage the surface of the pith by nicking chunks out of it. Pith which is very brown and pappy is quite useless, so throw this stuff away and keep only the harder, white pith.
A few hours of cutting and stripping on a winter's afternoon provides enough quality material to last several years at least, cut into six-inch lengths and stored out of the way in boxes. Providing pith does not get damp, it remains in excellent order indefinitely.
To give a brief idea of basic pith-float construction, here is how I made a standard Avon trotter which takes three swan shots to cock it with just tip and a fraction of the shoulder above water.
I start off by first tapering the 5 inch stem from 1/4" balsa dowel with fine-grade sandpaper. The 1.25 inch tip is reduced slightly and rounded over, and the 2.25 inch stem-tail is gradually thinned down to about 1/10 inch at its extremity, the remaining 'middle' two inches of the stem -- where the body fits -- is left untouched.
Next, I prepare the body from a half inch diameter piece of pith, cutting a section just over two inches long (to allow for final adjustment after it has been mounted on the stem) and boring a hole less than a quarter inch diameter through its centre with a metal or plastic rod, working the hole from both ends alternately by pushing and at the same time twisting the tool.
Quick-dry epoxy adhesive is then dribbled into the hole and the stem pushed through, thin-end first, until the body is rammed firm 1.25 inches below the tip-end.
The body is brought to final shape by rounding each end roughly with a razor blade and then rubbing gently all over with find emery paper. To produce a silky finish, float and body receive one coat of nail varnish at this stage to harden the surface a little. Residue varnish is wiped off a it dries, and the whole float smoothed carefully with emery paper until every hint of roughness is removed.
The eye is whipped on next, followed by a quarter inch bank of whipping directly above the body section where the rubber band will grip the float when it is on the line.
Like all my pith floats, this Avon trotter is pained below the waterline with a thin wash of either green or brown, and its top finished either white tipped with black, or black and white bands tipped with fluorescent orange over a matt white undercoat.
When the float is absolutely dry, the float is waterproofed with seven very thin coats of varnish, allowing ample hardening time between each one.
Albert Smalley's flutted trotter pattern is rather more difficult to make than a normal Avon because it involves working four evenly spaced rounded grooves down the length of the pith body. Forming these grooves correctly is not easy and comes with trial and error, but a favourite tool of mine for the job is a piece of dowel with sandpaper glued tightly round it. Different dowel diameters are of course required to match different body thickness and variations in depth of grooving.
This type of float answers very well the problems of trotting a swim where the wind is blowing strongly upstream. The flutes 'grip' the push of the current more firmly than a rounded body does and therefore the float is better able to counteract the forces of the wind against itself and the surface.

[Tengisgol]

This is fascinating and I have never seen this before. Quite by chance I have become a bit of a custodian of Smalley floats and for many years an avid user of fluted floats crafted myself out of elder pith.

I was first introduced to elder pith as a material for floats by Lional Burrows, a fabulous roach catcher. Lionel's Stour best was an eye-watering 3lbs 6oz and I was lucky enough to be there when he caught his fiftieth two pounder, from Breamore on the Hants Avon. Lionel gave me some floats the day I first met him, at Severals, and through trial and error (and probably some reading up) I began to make my own. So began a journey and a passion!

Here is Lionel with his fiftieth two pounder:



By pure chance, I landed at auction a float that was owned by Bernard Venables that we now believe was made by Smalley and crafted to fish the River Beane for roach (see Lily Pad Hole in Fred J. Taylor's 'Favourite Swims'). There is no provenance, but this followed a separate purchase of a set of Richard Walker owned floats, a couple of which were known to have been made by Smalley, and which are a very close match. All of this followed much correspondence with Jeff Della Mura. Finally, and I think this is elsewhere on the forum, I am also now the custodian of the very first Smalley elder pith fluted floats as seen on pages 171-172 of Jeff's book 'Hooked on Floats' (I am ever-grateful to Bob Brookes in that regard).

After some years of making my own floats, and making some for Chris Sandford, I created a bit of a problem for myself because I kept giving them away; people would happen upon me on the banks of the Avon and only had to say, 'wonderful float' and ten minutes later they'd be trotting off with a couple in their hands as a gift. They took too long to make for it to become commercial so eventually I typed up some instructions so as people could make their own, which should be accessible here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jjt ... ue&sd=true

I'll see if I can find some photos of what I have here.

These are the very first Smalley fluted floats:



This is a set of Smalley floats that belonged to the late Mike Winter (edit, not all here were made by Smalley), including his fluted 'sprat float':



These are some floats made for me many years ago by Andy Field, with his take on the fluted approach (including a copy of Mike Winter's sprat float!):



In this case are some fabulous floats made by Ged Riley, including a terrific fluted float:



Elder pith also makes a tremendous material for other designs, here are some of mine:





Finally, my favourite all-time fluted floats by possibly the best float maker I have ever seen, Richard Cleaver of TFF (I have some in my float tube also, and I use those ones a lot!)



I hope that adds to the story Stour Otter, I have never seen that editorial before and I found it fascinating! Thanks for putting that on here, Phil.

[Dave Burr]

Phil, with so many floats on your wall, it's a wonder you have enough to fish with.

[Tengisgol]

Phil, with so many floats on your wall, it's a wonder you have enough to fish with.

That really isn't a problem Dave, I can assure you!

[Dave Burr]

Phil, with so many floats on your wall, it's a wonder you have enough to fish with.

That really isn't a problem Dave, I can assure you!

I think I knew that

[Liphook]

Very interesting some lovely floats there!

[Duckett]

Really enjoyed the article, thank you ST.

Phil …… what a stonking collection! I have to say though that your takes on them all have a deceptively simple elegance about them.

Phil

[Lea Dweller]

John and PhiI I really enjoyed that! I have owned some nice balsa fluted floats in the past, but I have given them away, or sold them! I do not fish waters where I would use them often enough. All of the floats that you showed are great, regardless of who made them!

[Grumpy]

Thank for that Stour Otter and Phil.I have bookmarked the "how to" with the intention of having a go.

[Wanderer]

Such lovely floats Gentlemen and thanks for posting. I remember using Elder pith as a boy to make rough but useable floats, nothing like the beautiful examples on display here.
Every year Mrs Wanderer makes Elderflower Champagne a wonderful summer drink and in the past I have made Elderberry wine and syrup.
A most useful tree indeed !

All the best.