Visible float

[Martin56]

Did this wrong - see post below.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Martin56

[Martin56]

1 hour ago, Martin56 said:

but I found the bites with the pole float were super-fast. I couldn't hit them at all! I don't know if anyone knows why they should be faster with the pole float?

Try using  "Back Shot" mate, that is a couple of say #6 shot about 4 to 6 inch pinched on above the float. A single # 4 also works. & not confined to just Pole floats.

This Stabilises the float & anchors it in the same spot AND effectively shortens the Bow in the line (at the business end) to next to nothing, resulting in many more, Strikable bites!! 

Some will even be Self Hooked.

Take a look at this ........... Applies to both Rod and Pole fishing.

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Martin56

[Vagabond]

I can't remember EVER buying a float - no not quite right - I did once buy a set of Avon trotters from a chap I knew to be trying to start a business (the floats were OK but his business fizzled out) .  Otherwise I always made my own from bird quills, porcs,  corks, balsa wood, Norfolk reed stems etc - soon I had several lifetimes worth of floats (and I have been fishing for over eighty years) Then I started finding floats in bushes, up trees, on the bank (once found a whole float-tube full)  - even in the water attached to snags !  Always regarded it as a challenge to get someone else's lost float back.  Now I'm such a doddery old bugger that I find it enough challenge not to fall in whilst netting a fish.

Lots of good advice in this thread already - I will just add the concept of CONTRAST.    In a thick pea-soup-coloured lake -  use a bright magenta float top. Summer trotting with bright green leaves of riverside bushes etc reflected in the water  = use a scarlet top.  Dark peaty water  or under bridges - use bright yellow, ...and likewise mutatis mutandis.   One more tip for late night sessions - use a BLACK tip - it will contrast against the reflection of the sky ,  Paint your own float tops  Buy a paintbrush or two and a set of kiddies acrylic paints and your in business.

[Vagabond]

This was a comment on S63s post but the quote function has gone lost in cyberspace.   Me too!!    I am halfway through  and waiting for a date to treat the second eye.  So. one done, one waiting  you can look forward to a  number of interesting phenomena that happen at this juncture.

Got home from the op. Went to the bathroom for a clean up.  Removed eye patch - to find the bathroom furniture had become Persil white. Has Norma discovered a new Dazzle-Oh wonder cleaner ?     No - my right eye was telling me the surfaces were shining white -close it, and the left eye was reporting the dull misty-yellowish colour I had got used to.  Went out into the garden, alternately shuttiing and opening either eye.   The weather had improved !!  Instead of a dull greenish grey the sky was bright blue.  Spent the next half-hour blinking my way around the garden , reveling in the half forgotten hues of the flowers.

Later, I discovered something even stranger - all my life I have been able to see fish in clear water that were invisible to people not wearing polarized spectacles.  I could not understand why angling writer after angling writer advocated polaroids - I never needed them.  "Plagiarists all"  I muttered to myself.  Well, my apologies - L found my "new" right eye could no longer see through the water surface,  so it looks as if, when my left eye is de-cataracted, I will need polaroids after all.   Similar things happen to reflections from a window pane but I won't bore y'all with that.   So - do cataracts have a polarising effect ?? I will leave the ophthalmologists out there to ponder that one. 

 

 

[S63]

Interesting read Vagabond. I have my assessment in two weeks time, I guess the procedure will follow within a few weeks of that. 
 

How long between the two procedures are you waiting?

Have you heard of monovision?  One eye given a lens for long distance, the other eye for short distance, apparently the brain works it all out giving you spectacle free vision.

I'm terrible with any form of medical procedure, how did you find the process?

 

Sorry for hijacking your thread Mark!

[Vagabond]

Hi S63 Yes, I agree with your apology re thread hijacking -mainly because it makes things difficult to look up,  so will add my own apology but "having started, will finish"

I had my right eye done in October 2018 but don't read too much into that as (a) the left cataract was developing only slowly    (b) I had a lot of trouble with angina - numerous angioplasties at King's and I have lost count of the number of stents lnserted (or attempted to be inserted)    (c) Covid hit in 2019

I would refuse monovision for myself - it seems an un-necessary complication to do the same job as a couple of spectacle pairs.

Compared with angioplasty the eye procedure is a cakewalk,  Angioplasty carried out by an expert is a slightly longer cakewalk, Angioplasty carried out by an average or below average hospital doctor is a nightmare or in the second case a long bloody (in both senses of the word) painful nightmare,  I have experienced all four.

The eye procedure is carried out under local anesthetic.  You will feel nothing and see nothing except  a bright light. It  takes about 20-30 minutes,     You will be told to lie still.  Believe me, knowing what is going on your main desire is to LIE VERY STILL . I suffer from a slight tremor so I asked that my head be taped down to make sure it kept still. I also took a prophylactic dose of glyceryl trinitrate to control my angina  (the word "angina" elicits panic in non-cardiac medics - I suspect they cannot distinguish between angina and a major cardiac arrest)

My left eye is scheduled for "treatment in October" said my ophthalmic surgeon.   If I were taking bets my lowest odds would be on early 2022 !

Naturally, eye operations cause apprehension - in my case being deaf aggravated my fear of the op going wrong (imagine being deaf and blind)  Now,  with one eye fixed, I am far less fearful.   It is sensible to be apprehensive - it shows you are intelligent - but really the chances of something going wrong are very small - courage mon ami

 

[S63]

Cheers Vagabond

a detailed reply which has given me some comfort and confidence going forward. 
Good luck with the second eye.

[Vagabond]

14 hours ago, S63 said:

Cheers Vagabond

a detailed reply which has given me some comfort and confidence going forward. 
Good luck with the second eye.

 

OK, glad it helped - good wishes for both your eyes.

[markhoop]

On 8/18/2021 at 5:08 PM, Vagabond said:

I can't remember EVER buying a float - no not quite right - I did once buy a set of Avon trotters from a chap I knew to be trying to start a business (the floats were OK but his business fizzled out) .  Otherwise I always made my own from bird quills, porcs,  corks, balsa wood, Norfolk reed stems etc - soon I had several lifetimes worth of floats (and I have been fishing for over eighty years) Then I started finding floats in bushes, up trees, on the bank (once found a whole float-tube full)  - even in the water attached to snags !  Always regarded it as a challenge to get someone else's lost float back.  Now I'm such a doddery old bugger that I find it enough challenge not to fall in whilst netting a fish.

Lots of good advice in this thread already - I will just add the concept of CONTRAST.    In a thick pea-soup-coloured lake -  use a bright magenta float top. Summer trotting with bright green leaves of riverside bushes etc reflected in the water  = use a scarlet top.  Dark peaty water  or under bridges - use bright yellow, ...and likewise mutatis mutandis.   One more tip for late night sessions - use a BLACK tip - it will contrast against the reflection of the sky ,  Paint your own float tops  Buy a paintbrush or two and a set of kiddies acrylic paints and your in business.

I am very similar, rarely buy a float, I have made them with just about anything that can float! You missed out drinking straws, I experimented with them once, by sealing the ends with a warmed up pair of pliers. I had to get the heat just right or they would have melted or not sealed. I got through quite a few until I got it right. One trick was to seal one end then  fill with small split shot until it cocked, sealed again just above the split shot line and then seal the other end; a self cocking float!

They come in all colours and I used several sizes for different situations. They were not pretty but they worked. I was fishing one lake once and was fishing far out and having trouble hitting bites, mainly small carp, I took all the shot off and cast out. I had a heavy bait on, I think it was luncheon meat. The straw float would lay flat and I waited until it cocked up like a flag and struck, I managed quite a few fish like that, mainly small carp 4-10lb. The float was a pink coloured straw and very visible from a distance and offered little resistance to the fish.

Dried reed stems can make a decent float and self cocking one if you cut it right around the natural nodules and seal the ends. What I like about these is they are not very buoyant and a small split shot will cock them for a largish float and they don't offer a lot of resistance to fish, there is also a fair bit of weight in the float itself. I found these very useful fopr casting in wind on a small stream with lots of bank side vegetation, small light floats got blown about too much and I left them natural colour apart from a dab of white on the tip. Worked very well on one small stream I used to fish for Rudd and Roach and the odd small carp, it was a very shallow water about 2-3ft and only about 6ft wide with high banks and lots of vegitation; a bugger when the wind was blowing down but these floats worked well in that situation.

[S63]

I remember as a kid using the casings from biro pens, you could get really light short ones with a screw in top that I painted in different colours,araldited a darning needle the other end for a bit of ballast and an eye to thread line through.

Back on topic although I did mention eyes again