Making floats

[rooney888]

This year ive bee to a few fishery were late on is essential to fish the margins for carp to get a good weight of fish to come any were in the Match.

Last time was at Maver Larford and at the end there were some lumps in the margins up to 20Lb. In the last hour i lost 4 floats which was £5 gone there

 

I know some people liketo make there own floats wen fishing near snags so u lose nothing value wise in the process. I wander if any of you out there could help me in knocking up a few floats. Really there just be for indication wen margin fishing.

 

I dont have a clue wat to use to make tham out of, but all i was gonna do once they were made was give them a base coat of white then add a red stripe and varnish them. I just need to make somethin simple to either superglue a swivel at the bottom or just use them inline.

 

Any diagrams will be very useful and really any ideas will because i dont know were to start.

[Neil G]

I know where you're coming from....I've lost a few pike floats and they're not cheap either!

 

I decided to do the same thing and made some of my own floats (deadbait pencils)

 

Pretty easy to do really....all you need is some half decent balsa dowel/rod which you can get from model shops. This usually comes in lots of different diameters so you can choose the size etc.

 

Balsa is so soft all you do is cut the rod to the length you want than just sand the ends nice and round, push a swivel into one end with some glue (araldite usually works well) then paint & varnish.

 

I usually make a few completely black for sunny days and the rest just black/red or white/red for dull conditions.

[Bluey]

I like making my own floats, you can buy lengths of peacock quill and cut them down to the length you require, seal both ends, place a short length of 2mm dowel in one end for the attachment.

 

Whilst on holiday this year I had an inspirational idea, if you've got kids and they like milk shakes then those new "magic straws" from nesquick can make some rather good crystal wagglers, and the best part of it is once they've been used for the milkshake all you were going to do with them was to throw them away so there's no cost involved in obtaining the tubes (apart from the use as milk shakes).

 

Of course you will need to seal both ends and paint the tip, but they will make quite serviceable crysal wagglers, and you can cut them toany length you want, and won't cost much to produce.

 

To top it all there's no better feeling than when you land a decent sized fish on something you've made yourself.

 

Also you'll find that model shops are a great source of materials, dowelling, metal rods (for use in making stick floats) brass wire for making eyes etc, and of course balsa wood in various sizes

[WickerDave]

If I'd been broken 4 times in an hour I'd be thinking what I needed to be doing to stop this (heavier tackle) rather than how to keep on doing it more cheaply.

 

There's an article at http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/article.a...=2&UAN=2059, if you scroll to the bottom there are more in the series from the author.

[Jigotai]

A good little book to look out for is the Floatmakers Manual by Bill Watson. It has a detailed look at materials, construction, and painting/varnishing of various types of floats.

It's not available new but you can pick up second hand copies on Amazon.

[rooney888]

If I'd been broken 4 times in an hour I'd be thinking what I needed to be doing to stop this (heavier tackle) rather than how to keep on doing it more cheaply.

 

After each break i was goin up in line strength, started at 4Lb then 6lb then 8lb and finally 10Lb. Even the 10Lb line got smashed. There were some real lumps in the pool and it was the 1st time id fished it and wasnt prpared for the size of the carp. A few people in the contest were usin margin poles and had 15Lb straight thru.

 

THnaks for theideas so far, i really like that nesquit straw one. My sister has boxes of them so ill hav quite a few to make some floats.

[Bluey]

I agree with you there Jigotai, that book is a mine of information and well worth getting hold of a copy if you can. I used to know someone who lived on the outskirts of Peterborough, Eye I think it was, that used to sell all sorts of materirials for float making. I don't know whether he still does, i'll have to dig out the details and let you know.

 

One of his best tips was to use emulsion paint for the float bodies and then two coats of polyuerothane varnish.

Edited October 4, 2007 by Bluey

[MALC2]

Try floating putty mate its a lot cheaper and easy to use.