Sconezone V Series Floats Reveiw

Well first of all, a massive thanks to Sconey for both running the competition, and thanks for picking me out of the bag as winner!! Double bonus!!


First ImpressionsI’ve been using the current range of Sconezone floats for a while now, and have a very successful winter with Jublees and Ninjaz and more – I’ve become totally confident with them and believe they comfortably up there with the best on the market – so when this new range came about, I thought they’ve got to be something special.

First thing out the tube, was the wow factor, spangly red and black paint job with sparkly bits on it – looking beyond the prettiness though, power and strength immediately becomes obvious – the paint job is solid, fairly thick I’d say but will not let water in (not that any leaking water will have any effect what so ever due to the foam construction) – the floats feel very light, again due to the foam, and there is evidence of great construction with hints of glue coming out at a joint or two, and the stem visible through the glowing tips. It aint gonna fall apart. And the double wound eye will totally eliminate any issues with spring eyes cutting line, an issue I’ve suffered with in the past on all sorts of floats.

The Test
With all these dreams of power and toughness, the obvious way to put them to the test is to catch some fish on em!! So the plan was an evening assault at my local Moorlands farm fishery. It’s a fishery I’ve not spent a massive amount of time at, but I’m spoilt for choice within a 40 minute radius of Worcester with acres and acres of water – but an evening session and the possibility of some ‘hawses’ tipped the balance in Moorlands favor this weekend. Next job to rig the floats up

V6

First onto a winder was the 0.2g and 0.3g V6 – its predecessor the Jublees has been my number one go to shallow float, so this is how it was to be set-up. The tip length is bang on to give just enough bristle to be able to read liners and guzzunders, the stem length gives just enough stability to help the rig ship smoothly and not tangle.
Both floats were rigged up to 0.16 mainline and would be attached to a 0.16 hooklength with a 16 Drennan match carp and mini bait band hair rigged to the hook.
The 0.2g had a small bulk of no.10’s directly under the float with 1 no.10 dropper and the rig set to fish a maximum of 18 inches deep
The 0.3g float had 3 no.9’s directly under the float and 2 no.10 droppers below that and set to fish at around 3ft deep

V8

I’m a huge fan of slim floats and have dabbled with my own home made versions, but this floats takes all that need to mess about away as it’s the perfect package.
A slim hollow bristle gives great sensitivity, but you’ll easily see it at distance and will hold its own in a chop. The slim body gives minimal resistance to a feeding fish and the slim flexible stem gives the whole float the right balance.
This was destined to be my deck pellet rig, so was rigged up to 0.16 mainline and would be attached to a 0.14 hooklength and size 16 T213 hook.
All three sizes of float would be shotted with my favorite strung bulk wit the last shot around 10-11 inches from the hook – this gives the bait a nice slow fall through the last 18 inches of water ,but ensures the rig settles immediately and you don’t have to wait for dropper shot to settle. You can drop the last shot down to give a quicker fall if necessary or all the shot can be bulked on the hooklength know if your bagging.

V12

Well this a brute of a float, big high vis tip, thick solid stem and nice tear drop body – this survive the worst a shire horse could throw at it, or any reed bed a wonky donkey could drag it through.
This is going to be my meat/corn float for the 5m line and any beasties
Rigged up to 0.18 mainline and an 0.18 hooklength with a 14 B911 X-strong, I’m not taking any prisoners on this rig – shotted with a bulk and 3 droppers, its positive rig to get down there, settle and ready to disappear. Double corn or meat will sort out the proper fish

The Session

Getting to moorlands we watch the last 45 minutes of the open on meadow pool, only to find out the evening open will be on Bank and Moors – great start – having a look over the actual match pools, the two clubs seem to be having a hard time of it, but plenty of fish moving on the surface I wasn’t to worried at all.
A 4pm draw will see us fishing 4.45 till 9pm – not long to set-up, but with rigs done and bait prepared it should be long enough. Talking of bait I took 2 pints of corn, a tin of meat and 2 pints of fishery pellets took me to my 5 pint match limit.
The plan of attack was a long pellet line deep (with the V8) and shallow (with the V6’s), a 5m meat and corn line (with the V12’s) and a margin line (with my trusted Sconezone Samurai’s). The bag of dreams put me on Moors 5, the peg I drew the last time I made it to moorlands – that match gave me 50-3-0 for a match second, so I certainly wasn’t unhappy – but with 11 anglers over the 2 pools we all had loads of room, so I wasn’t really bothered where I drew.

On the whistle a decent pot of pellet went onto the long line, a pot of corn with some meat on the 5m ine and a proper pot of corn with some meat and pellet went in the margin in front of the pallet to my right(easiest for me being a left hander) Straight out onto the long pellet line deep, the fizzing had started and I was pinging from the off to get em shallow – 3 minutes in and a skimmer of 10oz gets me off the mark, but I’m already getting liners – once the float, in fact all the floats were shotted, they didn’t need any adjustment to the shotting what so ever – they sat perfectly.
Next chuck an F1 finds its way to the net, but that’s it for that line – the constant pinging see’s fish all through the water column so its out with the shallow rigs after ½ an hour. Starting on the 3ft deep rig its obvious there are fish there – the float sits perfectly with most of the bristle showing once its fully settled and the pellet is down to its deepest – 1 carp of 4lb and a skimmer see their way to the net over the next 30 minutes – an hour in and it’s a slow sport. The margin has been topped up twice since the whistle so a quick look see the first proper carp of 8lb in the net on double meat, but no more bites follow – it doesn’t seem right and everyone else is sitting in the margin with not much action.
Back out shallow and the rest of the match flows nicely – I’m getting enough fish to keep me interested and enough fish to keep me ahead of everyone else on the pool who are fishing the margins – I land 3 proper ghosties and a couple of big mirrors that go mad in the net, all over the rig and float and I fear the worst – but no, the float survives the session as sparkly as it starts it!!! All of the floats have survived a bit of a bashing and come out the other in perfect nick – not sure I can think of anything bar a hammer that will break them!
The whistle goes and I’ve enjoyed the match – the scales come round and 90lb is winning and I don’t think I’ve got that – but 3 weighs later and I’ve got 91-12-0 to take the match – pretty much all down to the V6!!!!!
Last word – got some empty winders, guess what’s going on them!!! a great range of floats that perfectly suit modern commercial match fishing and most variations of fishing that we undertake on all commercials - very very highly recommended

Cob House Winter League - Final Round

Well after a long cold winter the finale of the winter was upon us!! Team Old Ghost were in top spot with 2 wins and 2 seconds. Main rivals Corkys lot were on 2 seconds, a win and a ninth - we were guarenteed the top 2 spots but the order in which we had the top spots certainly wasnt decided. With the best 4 results from 5 counting Corkys lot needed to win on the day and they'd match us on points - the difference being Corkys lot already had a quite a weight advantage over us, so they'd take the league from us!!!
The 5 remaining teams were all elligable for the 3rd and 4th spot and the money to go with it, so everyone was up for the last match!!!
Our team preperations were all about focusing on what was needed and nothing else - beat the Corkys lot angler!! We were back up to full strength on the last round and order was restored, so i was back on Wyatts, Pete on Oak, Darren on Laugherne and John on Laurel!
Onto the draw, with me running the league and draw, with Pete and John recording the sections it has been up to Darren to do the do's in the bag of dreams - the final draw saw me on peg 9 with the corkys lad on 28 (flyer), John on laurel 5 with the corkys lad on 8 (good area), Pete on oak 7 CL on peg 3 (good area) and Darren on Laugherne 10 and Cl on 29 (good area) - to be perfectly honest heads were down a bit coming away from the draw. Anyway a job to and 5 hours to make it work for us!!!!!!!!
So to my own match and peg 9 hadnt been the strongest, although it an end peg its at the wrong end form where the weights have been coming from over the previous rounds - i did hear though the open on the day before the fish had up the pool slightly. Peg 28 had produced some serious weights previously and won the section the previous couple of rounds the Jake Cork was sitting pretty and i was worried - onto the tackle front and with plenty of time to set up i wanted to ensire i covered all my bases - i'd drawn peg 9 before and knew there was a hole in it at 16m around 10 inches deeper and 2m wide then even depth either side and in fornt.

From left to right
1- Shallow rig - 0.1g Sconezone Jubleez, 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hooklength and an 18 g-point pellet to double middy 4-6 latex
2- Paste at 6m rig - SP paste float, 0.18 mainline, 0.14 hooklength, size 14 B911 to double 6-8 middy latex
3- Margin Rig - 0.2g Garbo DC11, 0.14 mainline, 0.14 hooklength, size 16 g-point pellet to double 6-8 latex
4- Light Maggot Rig - 0.2g Sconezone Piranahz, 0.14 mainline, 0.10 hooklegnth, 20 T213 to middy double 4-6 latex
5-  Pellet Rig - 0.5g Jason Elwell Slim, 0.14 mainline, 0.12 hookength, 18 g-point pellet to middy 6-8 latex
6 - Heavy Maggot Rig - 0.4g Sconezone Munkeez, 0.14 mainline, 0.10 hooklength, 18 T213 to middy double 4-6 latex

Home for the day - the paste rig was plumbed at 6m straight in front of me. the margin rig was at top 2 plus 2 in front of the reeds to my right in 3ft of water. the piranahz and pellet rig were plumbed at 16m to my right next to the hole and the munkeez plumbed slightly to my left in the hole.
I also set-up an 11ft powerlite feeder rod, with a shimano aero 4000 loaded with 0.23 Aiwa-Shima Ion reflector mainline and 2 hole micro cage feeder and 18 inch 0.14 hooklength with a size 15 B711 finishing the rig - i'm new to the Aiwa Shima line but it has been recommended b a couple of people so thought i;d give it a try - its very strong for the diameter and casts beautifully with virtually no memory of the spool and silky smooth - so far so good, so if anyone is looking for a robust, strong feeder line id highly recommend giving it a try.
Bait table consisted of 2 pint of soaked micros with a dusting of Old Ghost Silkworm Chrystalis Meal on them, 2 pints of 4mm pellets for pinging, 1 pint of reds with Old ghost Krill meal, some 4mm expanders, and 1/2 kilo of Old Ghost Green Algea groundbait mixed up and a ball of Old Ghost cereal carp paste.
Finally got to the fishing!!!! So on the whistle (well shout) out went the pot with smattering of maggots and micros on the shallower maggot line,  the same in the hole. A handfull of micros with a couple of nuggets of paste went in at 6m and half a put of groundbait and some maggots went into the margin line.
the margin line was going to be fed every hour with a cup of groundbait, same with the paste line - the long lines would be fed with a micro cad pole on the top kit.
First chuck and the light maggot rig was sent out to the 16m line so see what going on - not a lot was the answer. i'd shotted the rig with number 11 stotz ove the last third of the rig and was hoping it would grab the attention of anything in the area. the piranahz is a great float for searching and scrapping for bites as its so sensitive. 10 minutes in and Jakey on 28 catches a fish!!!! thats me down on my pool. Chris Cork on Laurel catches from his margin line (this early), Johns down on his pool. i then hear the Corky lad on Oak has caught early, thats Pete down!!!! the dperession starts and its only 1/2 hour into the match!!
Corky on Laurel is bagging down his margin and John can only get Silvers - i finally get a touch on the light maggot rig after an hour and rotation around the lines and a roach is in the net - saved the blank - but Jake now has 2 carp in the net. the munkeez rig in the hole isnt prompting the slightest of interest and i'm not happy with it (i reckon the cold water is sinking into the hole and pushing any fish out of the feature) - so i start pinging over the line to see if anything shallow can help me out. Another roach and a skimmer on the light rig give me a bit of weight and prob worth one of Jakes fish - John is now well down to Chris on Laurel and looking for snookers but section point are valuable so any fish is worth points to us for damage minimalisation!! i've no idea whats going on on Oak on Laughenre but know Daz and Petes will be working there hardest.
Tactical change number 1 - with me being end peg and having the rest of the pool to myself to my right i decide to plumb a line at 16m far to my right at 45 degrees and give it a sprinkling of just micros and plan to just fish the pellet rig over there
Back to the light and long line and not a lot going on so i want to make something happen. It gets a decent handfull of just maggots to promt a response and a rest - over to the new pellet line and 4mm expander over the top sees a bite after 2-3 minutes and carp number 1 is on!! 2 minutes later and very gingerlyi slip the net under a 2lb common - yes!! back on level ground with Jakey and i'm happier - its now 2 hours in. everyone else on the pool has caught fish so no blanks, but a couple of anglers have only a silver fish. out again onto the pellet line and nothing - i cant muster another bite from it - i give it a few pellets and leave it - out light and long and an instant bite and carp number 2 is on and in the net! so thats 5 fish and i;m happy im doing my team job - Jake hasnt had another fish. the light and long rig produces another 2 carp over the next 40 minutes and i'm now looking rounf the pool and doing ok in the section overall - Payno opposite me has 4-5 carp in the net and seems to be the main contender.
Tactical change number 2 - i decided to re-plumb the monkees rig out of the hole tothe left away from my other line and find a flat spot coming out of it - i feed it with a good handfull of maggots with a few micros mixed in - quite a positive amount of bait. I've tried the paste rig a couple of times over the first half of the match with no signs, its just to cold so decide to bin that line and not waste any time on it. Another 2 fish on the light and long line see me take the lead on the pool and i'm much happier as i'm cancelling out the result on Laurel pool behind me - Chris is still bagging from his margin - John is getting his head down and earning as many points as he can catching anything that swims.
2 hours left and payno has nicked a couple of fish and we're level pegging - Time to try the margin line and 3 maggots go on the hook and the rig is laid up the slope where the groundbait has been going in - as it settles it slides under and the strike is met with a very solid resistance!! the pole is swung round rapidly and i guide the fish out - 3 minutes later a 7lb mirror is in the pan!! Proper bonus! back out to the margin line and the same happens and a 6lb common is in the pan - i'm now feeling very settled after an extremely slow start!
I dont want to ruin the margin so its topped up with a pot of feed and go out light and long - a quick bite is rewarded with a small mirror - i swap straight over the to the new long line and decent skimmer comes my way - it seems they dont want small regular feed but a less frequent bigger amount of bait.I take the toss pots of my kits and look at either catching a couple of fish or give it 20 minutes between top-ups. the margin gives me a couple more fish arounf the 4-5lb mark and really bumping my weight up giving me the section.
rotating between rigs and the 2 long and margin lines see's me finish on 6 proper fish and around 10 small carp and 4-5 silve fish!! a very happy chappy!!!!
With only 1 set of scales available my team weighs the whole match in and its a nervous time as im packing up as i have absolutely no idea how Pete and Daz have done on the other pools - i just know John and I have cancelled each other out on our sections.
ready to go we start the weigh in - Chris Cork puts a brilliant 77lb on the scales all from his margin in February!!! John puts 12lb on the board put 6th in his section. I'm first to weigh on my pool and put 40lb in the sling - it comes as a suprise to me and the others around me as i didnt think i had that much!! Jake puts 5lb on the scales for 5th in his section, 20lb is second on my pool - so they're a point up on us. By this time Pete and Daz have joined us, and they have smiles on they're faces!!!! (secretly inside i'm already buzzing) Pete is confident he's done very well on Oak, and Daz has caught a few and is confident but cant see all the pool so unsure.
We get to Oak and Pete puts 47lb on the scales to win the pool!! the Corkys lad is 4th on the pool, so we're up!! Walking round to Laugherne and the Corkys lad puts 37lb in the sling, this puts him in front on the pegs we've weighed - Daz doesnt know what to say as he thinks its close!! 2 weights push the corkys lad to 3rd as we come to weigh daz in - his first net goes 30lb, good start. he then puts another 30lb on the scales to win the pool with 60 odd pounds - the tinker was having us on!!!
We'd done it, and done it well in the end with 3 section wins and a 6th - it won the match on the day and secured the league overall!! we took 5 points to the final league standings with 3 wins and a second. Corkys lot second with 8 points. Solhampton All Stars (Paynos rabble) came third, and Smithies Colmic stole 4th in the league and the final paying place!!
We were all chuffed to bits and very pleased with our performance!! well deserved pint was had on the way home

l-r - Pete Bailey, Scott Poynton, Helen Taylor (Cob House), Darren Fisher and John Watson

So Whats next - we've got a pairs spring league starting end of March at Brockamin fisheries, Petes with Daz and I'm with John so we're hoping for an Old Ghost 1st and 2nd
Tune in next time and i'll let you know how we're getting on!!!
Scott

I'm back!!! Cob House Winter League Catch Up and Round 5

Well its been a very very long time but its about time i caught up with the old blog and let you know what Ive been upto.
First of all, what have i been upto? Ive spent the last 18 months a little bit off the radar as ive been lucky enough to get myself involved with Old Ghost Baits UK - a very good and long time friend of mine Jim Burton is heading up the venture with another very good friend John Watson (who i have pretty much gone through my whole fishing career with) heading the sales and marketing for the brand. We've spent a very long time testing the potential products for UK use and struck upon a range of groundbaits, pastes, expanders, powder additives, liquids and sprays that we've all had a lot of success with at a fair few venues around and about and sure the UK match angler will grow to love - it should be on the shelves in April time so look out for it.
Onto the actual fishing front - my favourite Cob House fisheries has been home for the last few months as ive been organising and running a winter league at the venue.10 teams of 4 have started the league with a section on Wyatts, Laugherne, Oak and Laurel - Team Old Ghost consists of myself, John Watson, Pete Bailey and Darren Fisher. My home was Wyatts, John was on Laurel, Pete on Laugherne and Darren on Oak.
The first 3 rounds were very good for our team with Old Ghost heading the league with a round win and 2 seconds - the first 3 rounds really did fish hard with a fair few dry nets across Oak and Laugherne and even a few on the prolific Wyatts - the weather really did conspire against us with really cold spells, lots of snow around and lots of cold rain water going in the pools. fortunately we maanged to avoid any dry nets over the first rounds which stood us in good stead. unfortunately at the halfway point a number of teams decided not to carry on with the league (the bottom teams strangely enough) which left 7 solid teams fighting for the league. Round 4 was lost to the appaling weather so we join the fun on round '5'.
We had made a team tactical decision and swapped Pete and Daz on Oak and Laugherne, with the feeder dominating Laugherne Darren felt more comfortable sitting on the tip for a few bites and Pete working his magic on the pole on oak - and it had worked a treat on the previous round.
So onto the fishing and Pete couldnt actually make this round so i put myself on Oak and the stand-in, Simon christian sat on Wyatts, the easiest pool for a stranger to come in on, and Simon had fished the pool before.
With the draw and league organising done i found myself sat on peg 18 getting ready for the match

 the area had form over the previous rounds with this peg and peg 1 having success - Pete won the pool from peg on the previous round.
Bait table for the day was a couple of pints of micros dusted with Old Ghost Silkworm Chrystalis Meal, A pint of reds with OG Krill Meal, a tin of corn and half a kilo of OG Krill groundbait.
Today was going to be an out and out pole match with no room for a rod and line and no need with the weather being reasonably decent.

So rigs for the day, Left to Right -
1 - 0.3g Jason Elwell slim pellet float - this was plumbed dead depth at top kit plus 2 section in the deepest water in the peg at around 3.5ft - this line was purely a pellet line. 0.14 mainline, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 g-point pellet.
2 - 0.2 Sconezone Pirahnaz, 0.14 mainline, 0.10 hooklength, size 18 T213. this was plumbed at 14.5m slightly to the left in the openest water in my peg at around 3ft deep, with the shotting strung out over the whole rig. The piranhaz is a float i used a lot over the winter and has firmly become my favourite maggot scratching float - its stable but uber sensitive and easy to shot to a dimple and the tip is highly visile- highly recommended!!! the T213 is a hook Pete put me onto as i wasnt happy with my usual B611 as i felt its not quite strong enough-  the T213 is an awesome hook, light but very strong and a great shape for the maggot - im totally converted.
3 - 0.2g Sconezone Munkeez, 0.14 mainline and 0.10 hooklength, size 18 T213 - this was for the same line as rig 2, but the float has a wire stem and slightly thicker tip and shotted with a bulk and 2 droppers - this rig would come into play if i started bagging or the weather deteriorated
4 - SP margin float, 0.18 mainline, 0.14 hooklength, 16 B911 - this was the margin line and i found 2.5ft of water 4m to my left in front of some sedges
On the whistle (my shout) the long line got around 40 micros and the same in maggots, the short pellet line got a sprinkling of micros and the margin got hald a pot of the groundbait with a handfull of maggots mixed in. Starting out on the long line, the breeze was quite blustery, but the Pirahnaz sat there nicely - but didnt go under!!!! over the first 30 minutes everyone on the pool caught a fish with the exception of me. Tommo on peg 5 was instantly into a number of fish and 5 in 5 chucks, but only landed 2 of them - foulhookers had been a problem over all the rounds and with only 3ft of water acorss the majority of the pool its easy done as the fish move around the water column.
a tiny cup went on the top kit and persevering with the light rig it took me an hour to get a fish in the net and 90 minutes in i was dead last on the pool with 1 in the net and 2 other bites on the long line.
I needed to make something happen, and with nothing happening on the short pellet line, i put a bigger pot on the top kit and decided to cut the pellet out on the long line and just feed maggots. Regular sprinkling of maggots started to see some activity in the peg and the odd bubble - at the halfway point the second fish found the net!! eventually on double maggot!!
Elastic choice on this rig was pink bazoocarp, the lightest in the Garbolino range and although the fish took some getting in, they were ending up in the net when lots of fish around the pool were being lost! i was still dead last with 2 fish in the net but my third fish 15 minutes later gave me some confidence - a full toss pot of maggot was going in regularly and seemed to be creating some interest and in the shallow water you tell there were fish in the peg.
I really was having to work the rig hard to induce bites and as soon as the rig settled a couple of lifts without a bite would see the rig out the water again and laid in on a tight line to the deck - all the bites were coming as the bait settled - the bottom on oak pool is extremely silty and i think even weight of 2 maggots and hook was partially sinking the hookbait so working the bait was keeping it visible and available to the carp.
things were picking up nicely with some bait going in and with an hour left id got upto 8 fish and was now in a comfortable position on the pool, with only a couple of anglers in front of me. the elastic was doing an awesome job with only 1 fish lost - the puller kit was definately needed as they were taking a lot of elastic but they were ending up in the net. i did try the positive rig and had 1 fish on it, but again as the droppers were settling, but definately 'felt' the searching rig was a lot more effective and getting more bites.
time was ticking but the odd bite kept me interested in the long line and with the odd fish still coming out around the pool i needed to keep the concentration up - the margin line had been fed on the hour every hour with a pot of bait but it hadnt produced a bite, in fact no one had a bite from the margins on the whole pool.
4 fish in the final hour lifting and dropping and almost slapping the rig in saw me finish with 12 fish on the whistle - i'd put almost a whole pint of maggots in through the poss pot on the one line.
Tommo on peg 5 was also on 12 fish so it was going to be close at the wieght in. my fish went 42lb and won me the pool. tommo managed 34lb and got second on the pool, so a great result after some hard work throughout the match.
the rest of the team has a great day with the other lads getting section 3rds each, giving us 10 points on the day and the team win!!!! so with 1 round left we were at the top of the league with 2 wins and 2 seconds, but the Corkys Lot had also be extremely consistant with 2 seconds and win, but with a 9th in the thier score too - with the best 4 rounds from 5 counting they were very much in with a shout so it will come down ot the last round!!!