MikeT

Loafers seem by far the most popular float for trotting fast flowing rivers these days. Is this just a fashion thing, or do they offer any particular advantage over the old-fashioned Avon float? I suppose the main difference is their tip is fatter and therefore more buoyant and visible, but when I fish cork Avon floats I often shot and rubber them so the top quarter of the body of the float is above water as well as the tip itself, and this gives excellent buoyancy and long-distance visibility. An additional characteristic of the Avon float is having a stem made of cane or carbon or wire, which helps the float ride through the flow more upright, and this can be an advantage. Apart from its squat and short profile, what does the loafer have that an old Avon doesn’t?

SOLD Allcocks Aerial 3¾" diameter with 15/16" wide drum, switch-operated optional click-check, micro adjustable "Regulating Drag", nickel silver spokes (6) & pillars (12), with 10-hole ventilation to front flange, chromium plated foot and octagonal maker's badge on rear. Some (typical) paint loss, but mechanically excellent and a great runner. Spins straight, smooth & quiet, handles and ratchet perfect, and is a sweet little reel to use. I’ll be putting this reel up on eBay and hope to take about £150, but would sell for considerably less to a member of AN, so feel free to make an offer! [i mentioned I was selling this reel to someone I know and he offered me £125 immediately, which I consider a fair price.]

2008 has been a superb angling year for me. I haven’t caught any unusually heavy fish, but I’ve certainly enjoyed my fishing more than ever. I’ve discovered lots of gorgeous new places to angle, and made some wonderful new angling companions and friendships, and I’ve successfully developed a more philosophical approach to this noble pursuit- in which Being There is truly the most important thing. I have enjoyed my first AN fish-in, acquired some very special fishing tackle which has been profoundly enjoyable to use, I’ve been taught how to Wallis cast, and I’ve even learnt a few things that have improved my technique. I’ve written my first article on fishing on the Hampshire Avon, and very much enjoyed visiting this excellent forum, which has provided me with a huge amount of excellent and friendly advice. Best of all, I’ve found some seriously glorious tranquility on the banks of two of our finest English rivers, far, far away from the bustle of the real world. It’s been good.

It does spin beautifully well- that’s not my complaint. I’m not actually sure what my complaint is, since the reel itself is quite marvellous. It’s just that the Witcher is in a different league, and I know I’m so weak-willed I won’t be able to choose the Gem in order to spare the Bisterne from getting beaten up by constant use. It’s a two-grand reel, and its unique history makes it irreplaceable, but it’s simply too good to keep in a cabinet. Alas! I went to Breamore on the Hampshire Avon yesterday, hoping to find a chub or two (I caught nothing, but it was stunningly beautiful out there in the frost and wraithlike river mist), and I took the Aerial Gem. Its performance was faultless, but I still kept wishing I’d taken the Bisterne instead. When you catch as few fish as I do, the pleasure of using tackle for its own sake becomes disproportionately important.

Yes, I’m sure you’re right, but I’m an incorrigible aesthete and I find it isn’t giving me the joy I’m used to with the Witcher reels. The Carter does the job perfectly well- it's pretty much run-in already- and I’m sure a better angler than me would find it a superb ‘all-rounder’. But it lacks a certain extra ‘something’ that's a crucial part of the whole fishing experience to me. I know it’s all in my head but I’m sure I simply won’t use it much, and that makes having it a bit pointless since I only bought it to be a workhorse substitute for my Bisterne. I know I won’t be able to resist taking that reel instead. Stupid, eh?

Growing up by the seaside on the south coast, my first experience of fishing was of the saline variety. From the age of about five I went ‘rockpooling’ with my sisters, and I suppose the first fish I ever caught was a blenny. We used to break limpets off the rocks with pebbles (with many a splatter to sting the eye or ruin those shorts or tee-shirt that were ‘clean on’), and drop them into the beautiful little aquaria formed by the receding tide. Crabs, shrimps and little fish would swarm to the feast, and we were ready with our tiny red nylon nets on the end of a three-foot bamboo garden cane. A blenny was a most prized catch, and we put them in the warm water in our sandcastle buckets until they became, rather tragically, less animated. I can vividly remember the taste of limpet goo on my fingers. Those happy days were always warm and sunny. My first attempt at freshwater fishing was on our local stream, to which my twelve year-old neighbour took me when I was eight. You have to travel some distance to the nearest proper river from where we lived so hardly anyone did coarse fishing, but my friend knew a pool on the little stream where some big kids had reputedly captured a real trout, and we took a half pint of maggots (my first encounter with the wonderful beasts- I remember being more excited about them than the fishing itself) and his pier rod with eight-pound nylon and a cork float. I was there to ‘assist’. Almost unbelievably we caught a small brownie, and because I was the one who noticed the absence of the float, my friend let me take it home for tea. I couldn’t eat it, but my mum loved it. I’m sure I could identify that trout in a line-up- I still occasionally see it in my dreams. And so an obsession was born.

Well, yes, but having now used it twice I’ve decided to sell this reel. To be honest I’m simply not getting on with it, and I wonder if it's ideally suited to the sort of fishing I do (trotting ultra light float gear for roach and chub). I reckon I must be totally spoiled by my Witcher pins, because I'm just not feeling it with this Carter. Having said that, it really is a gorgeous bit of engineering- wonderfully solid and mechanically flawless. I reckon it would make the perfect barbel reel, or to use fishing the margins on a commercial stillwater. At any rate, I feel it should go to a better home than me. I’m being grown-up and putting it on eBay in a couple of days time, but I wanted to offer it to you gentlemen first at a reduced price (since you've been such good eggs offering all that kind advice- I feel a bit ungrateful just selling it on). I’m not looking to make a profit, though I’m sure it’s worth more than what I paid for it- it really is in fab condition. So if any of you are interested, please PM me.

Then I think we’re done here. Good luck with all that presumptuousness.

Like I said, Andy, I don't see much point in discussing it with you here. PM me, if you'd like me to relate my understanding of dyslexia, based as it is on my epidemiological studies and professional dealings with it in clinical healthcare.

I wonder if you’re referring to my posts. If so, I assure you I feel perfectly cool, and not in the least bit touchy. I respond to Andy in the same the language he uses, on the principle that if you’re tough enough to talk it you must be tough enough to hear it. I doubt he’s getting all beaten up by it, somehow.

Andy, I’m not going to get into a discussion with you about the status of dyslexia as a medical disease. I can see that would be quite pointless, especially when you have Google and a dyslexic friend called Dave to educate you on the subject.

What utter rot. Angly said nothing at all about the relationship of dyslexia and intelligence. Dyslexia is most certainly NOT an illness- you’re quite wrong about that. I suggest you learn how to read for comprehension and inform yourself about dyslexia before you go round telling people what it is, otherwise you stand the risk of looking like a complete fool.

I’m grateful for all the various opinions expressed on this thread, regarding the relative merits of fishing in low light at the start and end of the day. The thing about opinions is that they’re necessarily limited by our subjective personal experience- they’re not objective truths. However, they're no less valuable for this. If nine hundred and ninety-nine anglers confess an opinion that more fish are caught in the first and last hours of the day, and one angler says that’s a myth, neither position can be said to be objectively truer than the other, but I know which of those opinions carries more authority and which is therefore more persuasive to a reasonable enquirer. There's little doubt most anglers find, in their personal experience, that they catch more fish at dawn and dusk, and I’d be an arrogant fool to deny the implications of this.

Ah. I see this thread has already been done! It appears as if by magic below my opening post, in the 'Similar Topics' box. Sorry about that. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I always seem to have better luck fishing at first light in the morning or at last light at the end of the day. This is presumably because fish feed more confidently when the sun is low in the sky and light levels are less, so they’re at less risk of predation. I often fail to get bites during the hours around midday, especially on a bright sunny day, so I usually try to be by the water at either dawn or dusk. I prefer dawn, because it’s a magical time to be up and going fishing. There’s less traffic on the roads, and it’s more exciting to set off on a trip in the dark. I love to arrive at the river just as the sky starts to get lighter, and be there as the countryside begins to wake up and start its day- the anticipation is wonderful. However, I have to accept that the fishing will probably die off after a few hours, and since I seldom have time to fish through the whole day until it turns back on in the late afternoon, I have to pack up after a period of no fishy activity. On the other hand, it always feels more civilised to arrive at the river after an easy slow start with a proper breakfast and newspaper, and setting up later on in broad daylight for a forthcoming evening session. In the summer especially, this is very pleasant, as I can get settled in and feed a swim before the catching hours arrive. It’s also good to pack up and go home with that nice feeling of having just caught a lovely fish, which more often happens at twilight. When do you generally prefer to be fishing- at sunrise or sunset?

Well there it is. WD40 weakens monofil, threatens the environment (which could harm fishes as well as get one in trouble with the Law), is a poor lubricant, and it ruins silk ties. Despite its superlative qualities as a gunk remover, I think warm soapy water has the edge!

Sounds like a plan. If you've discovered the name of that wonderline you recommended for trotting, I'll get me some of that, and my whole WD40 problem will disappear!

Yes- that’s an idea (although it is remarkably penetrating stuff). But I’m coming round to thinking WD40 is pretty horrid stuff, and every reasonable step should be taken to prevent it getting anywhere near fishes. If warm soapy water does the job equally well, I’m all for it. Especially since it wouldn’t flick off and ruin my tie, which I’ve just noticed can happen when spraying WD40.

No worries- this is a fascinating thread in any case. Looks like the ideal approach is not to use WD40 as a soaking cleanser [ed. (despite it being unlikely to damage the line)], but to use warm soapy water instead when the occasion demands it, and to apply WD40 without spraying it directly from the can in case of unwanted contact with line. I guess it's okay to spray soak a reel in WD40 when there's no line on it though. So simple, I should have thought of it meself, but I'm a bit slow like that!

Um, did he? And did I? I must be getting senile. Thanks for the advice, though. I do generally give my reel a wipe with an oily cloth (which indeed saves the whole line-damage-pollution complication), but on occasion I find the best thing is to give the whole thing a damn good soaking.

Yes, I’m exceedingly happy, thank you for asking. Are you?

I’m very confused about exactly what it is your posts have answered, Andy. I wasn’t asking any questions about line floatant, the legal and ecological implications of using WD40 as a bait additive, or its comparative limitations as a lubricant. I’m sorry to labour the point, but (notwithstanding everything else) does WD40 damage fishing line? Please don’t feel I’m only asking you, personally, this particular question.

Yes, I find it quite excellent at penetrating cruddy maggot dust, mud and half-dried water streaks, which is why I use it for cleaning my reel. In fact, it is particularly in this regard that I’m hoping for elucidation on this thread, rather than its unrelated merits as a lubricant or bait additive.

That’s a very interesting post, Andy, though I’m struggling to see how it answers my question about the possible damaging effect of WD40 on line. But following your line of thought, are you suggesting WD40 shouldn’t be used to clean a reel in case it contaminates the line and thus causes pollution?

It’s a good question, although difficult to answer because it’s so subjective, and like Ken L says, ones favourite river is usually that which one fishes the most. I’d say rivers are like shops, and you can’t sensibly ask which is the best shop in the country, because it all depends what you’re looking to buy. The Hampshire Avon is like Fortnum and Mason- fabulous treats within, expensive and exotic, much of it beyond my means. But it’s a truly magical experience just walking through that glorious Food Hall! The lovely little Frome is like Waitrose, with fine quality items within reach, and good friendly value. The Dorset Stour is like Marks and Spencer- its reputation for quality is well earned, but sometimes it gets rather crowded (at Throop, especially). Just like most people have a preference for and loyalty to the supermarket they usually visit, they have similar disposition towards the river they tend to fish. If I had to choose somewhere to live next to any river in England, it would be by the middle Hampshire Avon. That magical place gets into the very core of you.