I did manage a quick walk around cob house to watch on old friend catch a fish a chuck on Wyatts and win his club match with 114lb. BUT - i also found out while i was there my venue record had been smashed the previous day with 250lb odd, so was a bit gutted, but its spurred me on to have a really good go this weekend!!!
Anyway as promised i thought i'd show you my own home made pole floats.
Anyway as promised i thought i'd show you my own home made pole floats.
In the last couple of years i've been getting more and more disheartened with shop bought pole floats, having so many patterns in my box, and getting through them when they break so easily, so i thought i'd get some bits together and have a go at my own floats.
I started by just getting enough stuff to made about 10-20 floats just to see how hard it really is. i used one of our small Schaublin lathes at work to turn and drill out the dowel into a simple shape then experimented with finishes to get the float smooth and looking right and also hard enough to be durable and also get tip and stem lengths proportioned right to get the floats behaving properly.
I then used our CAD machines to 3D model the floats, enter the material properties - density bouyancy etc, to give me a dimensional drawing for the various shotting capacities i wanted - NOT REALLY, i just played about until i got something that 'looked' right!!!!!!!!!!!!
When i was happy i then bought some more materials and set about stocking my box with floats that i wanted to suit the various situations that i find myself in. So far i've got 3 patterns.
First of all we have the SP1 - This is a simple pencil type float.
I've used a 1.5mm hollow bristle with a 1mm carbon stem and a spring eye on the tip. The floats range from 0.1-0.5g although i havent worked out exactly what each float takes. The tips are delightful and you can easily adjust the amount of tip showing with no.11 stotts. I used one of these floats to set the (now old) venue record at Cob house with 207lb, using the second smallest on 3ft of water and the smallest in 1ft of water. i also managed 116lb using the second biggest float in 6ft of water.
This is now my nuber 1 pellet float in reasonable conditions for small and big fish. i will be using it come summer or winter and totally love it.
Then there is the SP3, a proper rugid margin float
This float uses a 2mm hollow bristle, with a 1.5mm glass stem. The smaller floats takes just a few no.11 stotts and the bigger takes 5-6 no.10 stotts. The thickness of the tip allows it to be dotted to a pimple and the few i've made for friends have been used very effectively in combination with a corn hookbait. I've been using them with pellet in the margin and been giving them a right old beasting with excellent results. The only issues i've had is the spring eye distorting, but the floats have all remained in tact when tput through reeds, pandox and all sorts of branches. I think the 3 sealing and sanding cycles and 3 coats of varnish help with that.
Finally (so far) we have the SP5. A simple dibber
This uses the same diameter dowel as the margin floats but i've turned the tip down to a reasonable diameter and put a rad on the bottom, them glued a 1.5mm glass stem in the base.
They pretty much self cock and could be used with 1 number 10 as a shallow float with plenty of bristle showing, or i've been using them in the margin with corn with 5 or 6 number 10's down the line in a bulk. i havent put any form of eye on these and use silison on the stem and body (stick floats style) to keep them in position. nothing to rip out then!!
All of the floats have the tip glued into the stem for supreme strength and as mentioned have been sanded and sealed 3 times with 3 coats of varnish over the top. So far i only mangled 1 or 2 spring eyes, with the floats themselves still in perfect condition.
I'm now planning to knock up some rounder, thicker bodies floats for when the weather deteriorates and a bristled float for shallow work.
I love making these floats and its brilliant if you manage to get a result using them. my friday afternoons and lunchtimes are now spent sat at a lathe making the bodies and doing all the smoothing and sanding, with all the glueing and varnishing done at home!!
I'll hopoefully never be without the right float for the job again!
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