Tigger

I have been out trotting a few times over the last few weeks but due to the forum being down or me not being arsed to do any reports I have posted about them. Anyhow, I had a couple of hours on the river today. Aftwr weeing korum have come up with some new floats I thought i'd give one a try. Not a lot to say about the float really other than i'd advise anyone against wasting their money on one! Fish wise I had some nice roach, dace and chub, no barbel again though. The barbel seem to be doing a good job of avoiding me lol.

Forgot about bream had some take bread off the surface this year!

The same is said of rudd Ken, and yet i've caught lots of em when legering, wierd in'it. I once had a barbel on a floating caster! I had a tench of floating bread !!

Especially norwegians

Can't stand french . I do remember Mat hayes using some fancy felt tip type pens specially made to paint your float tips while out on the bank. My tips would be an inch wide with the layers of paint and most likely sink under the weight of it lol.

No bleak round here as far as I know. Jumping out of the water isn't always due to evading a predator. Fish often do that when trying to rid themselves of parasites. Sorry John, don't know what priming is? If you mean just hanging about under the surface, that's prolly it, just hanging about relaxing, having forty winks :).

Apparently these caribe and the piraya piranha are the largest/heaviest of the piranhas. I think they grow to 20 plus inches and you will know they are quite chunky so might weigh a few pounds. I knew you had caught a few species of them, be interesting to see what you come across in your records Dave.

Nice one Dave, sounds like a great session . I'm curious, on your travels to south america, did you ever catch any caribe piranhas? I have waited 3yrs (due to covid nonsense) to get hold of some 2cm ones from veneusela. Within 5 weeks they have grown to be a few inches long! I had to get shut of my original ones because they grew too big for my tank and it looks as though these will be going back to the shop in the not to distant future if they keep growing so quickly. They are a very aggressive species, much more so the the natterie which look similar in appearence.

I've used anchor double cut for years now Dave. I have noticed that every now and then I get a container of which the shot are hard and pretty shyte and ping off the line too easily. Appart from that, which is annoying I haven't found any shot to better them.

I used to use maggots to catch wrass and threw then in same as when coarse fishing. In the circumstances it did work and me and my brother caught loads. Other than that I think I would forget it, unless your gonna chum for sharks

Your gonna get fat eating all those ! You'll finnish up like....fat Jacobs and fat Kirsty the fm dickheads

Thanks Martin, lucky I got it or it would have been a blanko, unless I was to count the minows which had prolly been impaled as I lifted the bait off the bottom....poor sods, although, the ones that had to be flicked on the heads weren't wasted. I took them home for my piranhas who love fresh minows!

Nice pic John.....Bailey

I havent been out for what feels like an age. Anhow, I had a couple of hours out later in the afternoon today. I had a spot in mind which I was heading for in the car, but as I went over a bridge and looked up river I noticed there was no one on that stretch, so I went there instead. As it happens it was a mistake, the river is really low and I think the swim has had some serious hammer for a while now. I had taken a nash scope 10ft carp rod, pellets and meat for a change of tactics...couldn't be bothered to go and get maggots to be honest . The rod is 2.25lb test but is slimmer than my match float rods and has a all through action when under pressure. It realy doesn't feel anything like the 2 .25 test is is rated at. I had chosen to take that particular rod because the planned spot was a hit and hold one and the rod combined with 8lb mono fished straight through was a good combo for the situation. The spot I decided to drop into instead of my planned one was another hit and hold swim so the rod was still suitable to use there. I had a dozen trotts with the float before swapping to a leger/touch leger. The fishing wasn't exactly fast and furious and all I caught was a single chub of about 3lb. Never mind, at least I got out for a short spell.

Blimey, do you have to toss a coin if two coffin dodgers turn up at the same time, or is it a fist fight .

Nice one John, looks like you had a good little sesh. That peg looks like a living room, bit dofferent from the pegs I fish. Must be nice having a few comforts .

The ever diminishing shot you get in a contaainer is takin the urine big time! Also, if you gert a so called refill pack of say bb's, you pay a fortune for about 6 oor 7 bastard shot ffs! I don't buy the refill backs and so have countless containers full of small shot and empty of, bb's, No1's, AA's and AAA's. I have a few ollivettes which I may start to use and add a few smaller shot!

Nice one Martin, glad it turned out to be what you wanted bud .

I just assumed we were talking using wagglers on still waters. I don't think I would use a loaded waggler on running water.

It's good that they are removing them, to be honest I would knock them on the head a d boil them up for the dogs!

I don't mind loaded wagglers, infact unless the float is a very light weight one I prefer loaded ones for the biggest part. I don't like a lot of shot on the line if possible. I use a drennan adaptor and grippa stops also. I don't do much, if any waggler fishing now and the bit I do I use lightweight wagglers and fish the margins or not too far out. Thinking about it I mostly use various lengths and thicknesses of plain peacock quill fixed by a single piece of rubber.

I only got some of their avon floats so appart from them having a wire stem there is no loading. I put the 2grm one in a tube to test the loading and they were exactly right. The avon floats are ver compact for the weight they carry. As you say, you shouldn't have to faff about altering floats when you get them.

That is a shame about the drake floats having dodgy varnish. Maybe I should give mine a coat of something to protect them, although in reality I can't be bothered. If I do use em and they fall to bits i'll know not to get anymore, I suppose they're only floats at the end of the day anyhow.

No, you've never mentioned it to me Alan. The first float maker was a plonker by the sounds of it! He prolly relied on people not wanting to hurt his feelings and just accept the floats he sent them. Not good at all, especially when you specified exactly what you wanted. If he couldn't do it he should have just said so to save the aggro for for you and even himself! Must addmitt I amcurious who he is? I have never seen any hand made floats to compare to the mass produced ones for actual use and loading capacity accuracy. My favourites are Steve Mahers (unfortunately no longer available). After the Maher floats I like Dave Harrels selection of bolos and the woodys selection. Only rhing I don't like about the woodys bolos is the red paint on the sight tip doesn't go all the way down the tip to the top of the body. The black of the body comes up the sight tip to much imo. There are a few sort of one off runs of floats made by companies such as map which I have and they are corkers! I don't understand why they would make a run of excellent floats and then end their production? They may make another run of floats which are total rubbish? The drake floats look great but the sight tips on the avons look a little thin for the larger rivers that I fish when some trotts can be up to a hundred yards. Although, i've not tried them out yet so will give one a try next time out. I'm quite sure they will be fine on smaller rivers and would prolly be good for you as they make the avons down to 2grm or less. I have some 2grm myself. Alan, check out the floats at benwick sports online, they have some great looking floats. They have some small pole floats what look as though they may suit your river perfectly.

Your right chesters, many of these fancy custom made floats are specious. I really dislike those floats caked in brightly coloured whippings, many of which have bits of feathers etc under many layers of varnish.