Wagglers, float clips and split shot

[john frum]

I posted the comments below as a response to someone's question about shotting patterns but as an afterthought someone might like to comment on it as a separate topic.

 

For what it's worth - and it's a long time since I fished regularly until the last couple of months - I'm surprised that people use shot to lock a "waggler" (even the description's new to me!) in position. It seems a cr@p idea to me. In the 60's I always used an aluminium float clip (where have they gone? can you still get them?)with a valve rubber to lock the line. The float could then be changed without breaking the rig down. The equivalent I've just bought is not much cop. The rubber is used to hold the float and the attached swivel has to be positioned by shot! Running the line up through the rubber as well is a guaranteed tangle; also the float can, and no doubt will, just pop out of the rubber sooner or later. Am I missing something?

 

In the absence of suitable float clips I use a very small snap link and lock it on the line with a piece of firm plastic tube. I also pass the line twice through the swivel eye. When moving the float I slip the tube off the swivel body so that the turn of line on the swivel doesn't cause kinking as the float's slid up or down the line.

 

Whilst I'm about it, I'm always fiddling about with shotting patterns. It doesn't seem to me that there's a permanent "right" pattern, although every pattern has its uses. But the current lead-free shot are extremely crummy - particularly if you want to move them about or change them frequently. I know that there are valid ecological reasons for abolishing lead from shot but no-one could call it an improvement.

[Steve Walker]

Were you fishing when lead was first banned? The current substitutes aren't a patch on the real stuff, but they're miles better than some of the first attempts.

 

Lead-free No6 shot still look like a No4 to me, even after all these years.

[john frum]

Nope Steve. I think I was living in the bush in Tasmania, fishing for freshwater lobsters with a chicken-wire cage (club rules...). Someone introduced me to "double-cut" shot last week which are an improvement. Mind you, this was the same tackle dealer that sold me the single-cut stuff initially, hmm. They are an improvement in that it is possible to move them, but not many times.

 

What about the float links - do you know the ones I mean?

[john frum]

So, nobody else out there got any clue what I'm talking about where float clips are concerned? I can see that the only way I'm going to get a response is to keep replying to my own post. Unusual for AN...

[ayjay]

I use a Drennan one, can't tell you the exact name but it consists of an aluminium tube, a clip with a loop that snaps inside the tube and holds the float and a rubber sleeve that goes over the tube and locks it all in place on the line. No need for any locking shot or even any shot at the top end of the line at all.

[Steve Walker]

john frum:

 

What about the float links - do you know the ones I mean?

I've not used them, although I have in the past made loaded wagglers which have a small length of stainless steel rod glued into the base of the peacock quill, and are attached with a rubber.

[DavyR]

I used to have some Drennan ones identical to those described by john and ayjay. I'm no more than usually clumsy, but I found them so fiddly to use (the wire clip used to spring off into the distance all the time) that I gave up. I used to use just a couple of float rubbers, but now use silicone waggler attachments (even though I've had floats occasionally fall out of these) and locking shot. I seem to get more positive bite indication this way. The other advantage is that the current vogue for carrying made-up rods is easier when you can just bung the float into the attachment, having left the locking shot in position on the line.

I first saw the locking shot idea in an Ivan Marks article in the 70s, and thought if it's good enough for him, there must be something in it.

[A Worm OOE]

Ive used shot to lock my waglers for 25 years and have absolutely no problem with them. The only time I would not use them is when fishing a slider or fishing a large loaded float for carp feeding up in the water. From what Ive seen this still tends to be the way for most anglers.

One person however who does seem to favour no shot for locking is Bob Nudd who seeams to use a lot of loaded floats. Personaly in order to cover all my fishing situations would require me to cary so many different combinations of float/loading that I will stick to the method that I know if it aint broke....

Just a thought, if you dont lock the float with shot where do you put the shot to load the float. Anything less than 70% of the floats loading either around the base of the float of actually in the float will make casting much more troublesome.

[A Worm OOE]

PS

I always wet the stem of a float before putting it into a rubber float adaptor(my prefered method of attachement for all but the largest floats) to create some suction. I cant remember ever having a float come out whilst fishing.

As for locking shot being a bad method it ticks all the boxes that I require in that it is flexible, simple and works.

 

[ 11. July 2005, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: A Worm On One End........ ]

[DavyR]

I always wet the float too, but perhaps I've just been unlucky. Having said that, I usually fish in the margins, so have been able to retrieve the float.

Another thing I've noticed is the frequency with which my "telltale" shot (usually a 6) comes off the line in the course of landing a fish. I'm never sure if it's knocked off in the landing net or has already gone by that stage...