Zephyr floats

Having been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter a couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to receive a perfect Father's Day gift this last Sunday (with a little help from Mrs Avid obviously).

Zephyr Antenna float

In 1919, according to Keith Harwood in "The History of the Float", a Mr E Talbot took out the first of two patents for a float made of paper. Zephyr floats, as they were named were manufactured in a wide range of patterns and sizes by Zephyr Angler's Supplies Ltd of Lowestoft. Given the materials used and that they ceased manufacture in the early 60's, making any remaining examples at the very least 50 years old, they're quite sought after by collectors.

Their passing was much lamented by Bill Watson in his book "the Floatmakers Manual", after trying unsuccessfully to recreate the patterns, although there seems to be some differences of opinion on a manufacturing process. In "History of the Float" Keith Harwood refers to Kenneth Mansfield's "Fly Tying, Rod and Tackle Making" should the reader wish to try their hand. The author suggests winding a triangular shaped sheet of paper around 'appropriate sticks' (his words, not mine) to build a body, with different ratio of sides of the triangle and different thicknesses of paper producing different body shapes. I've seen similar suggestions on a couple of forums too. Another suggestion found was to use the stick/dowel as a mandrel, removing it after the paper is wound and glued/varnished to maintain it's shape, with balsa used to plug each end to form a tip and stem.  

Apparently the 5B size refers to 5 inch/'broad' body

A little further searching showed the following patent drawing showing the previous idea was nearly there, albeit the mandrel being used was conical to shape the body and no doubt reduce the number of layers of paper and subsequent weight, rather than a parallel sided hollow in the body produced by a straight dowel and many more layers of paper. 

Zephyr float patent drawing

Other forum posts also suggest 'the right sort of paper just isn't available any more' to get the right size/weight ratio, the posters having tried all sorts including cartridge, brown wrapping paper etc. Apparently tissue paper is the answer, preferably high quality such as that used by aero modellers.

Something to maybe try out when I really do have time on my hands, which at the moment isn't going to be soon. Still the genuine example shown on the float winder will be much treasured and probably not fished with for fear of loss. Mrs Avid admits to paying far too much than she though she should for this particular example, so if anyone was watching it on a certain well-known auction site and wondered who it was, then now you know.

In the meantime I had a couple of hours out on the river yesterday, with plenty of roach, dace, perch and juvenile chub to show for it but nothing of any size. I blame the conditions of very clear water, lots of weed and low water levels (of course it wasn't the angler or his skill). There's was a match on the same stretch later in the day, so I chose a minimalist roving approach and made sure to only stay a short while in each swim so as to not favour any particular peg with my loose feed/groundbait or the lucky angler picking it later, but it'll be interesting to see the results.

The first peg

Highlight of the day was finding a coupe of swan quills and just getting out back on the river after the close season, in the fresh air and peace and quiet for a while, hopefully things will pick up later in the year when the levels return to normal

A damselfly resting on the tip of my (home-made of course) crow-quill Avon

Avons ready for the new season

Some Avons prepared for the new season, completed 36 hours before the rivers re-open (in England anyway, for international readers. Not sure Scotland for example has a closed season....)

On the left, balsa on crow quill, and on the right balsa on pheasant tail, both in Dorset county flag colours

Three balsa on birchwood Avons, the colouring came out particularly nicely on the stems after the first coat of dye, so much so I didn't bother with any subsequent coats

Best of luck to all venturing out for the new season tomorrow...

Going traditional

Found some elder (sambucus) lying around on a walk down the lane with Avid Junior so thought to grab a handful as it's not something I've used before. Fortunately picking the bark off the pith (insert suitable joke here) with a  thumbnail was possible, but it's pretty delicate stuff.

Not sure how best to drill for a quill or cane stem, might have been better done before I stripped the bark off, still I've plenty more to play with if that's the case.

Results will be posted in due course, after a couple of sets of reed floats and a set of assorted Avons are finished....

'Genuine' vintage floats

This might be a little contentious, but I'll say it anyway... there appears to be a surfeit of handmade floats around that claim to be 'vintage', a significant proportion of which are for sale on that well-known auction site. I won't comment on the items themselves nor the quality, which does appear to be... shall we say... 'variable'. I do get a little perplexed as to whether or not  brand new float, irrespective of the quality of finish, can be labelled as 'vintage'.

The OED defines 'vintage' thus:

adj: Denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind

Vintage-style may be a little more accurate, or maybe just 'retro', but both seem a little out of sorts with the sort of person I imagine to appreciate said items, assuming the originality is highest priority. I wouldn't call any of the floats I'm producing 'vintage' despite a lot of them being inspired by classic designs from the past...

Either way, enough musings, I do have a genuine vintage collection that will be moved on soon. I've decided I'm going to fish with nothing but floats I've made myself, save for a small collection of grayling floats from past manufacturers that inexplicably garner my affections. Some are in need of a little TLC, a new eye to be whipped on and/or a lick of paint. A few need slightly more attention than that, and given their originality is going to be much more greatly affected I might keep hold of those few that need major restoration.

Examples that will be going up for sale from Allcocks...

Belglow...

Auger...

and of course Harcork...

and some nice small sliders, manufacturer yet to be confirmed...

I love a lot of the designs but fear I shouldn't fish with them for fear of losing an original up a tree on the opposite bank as is so often the case, so the next logical step of not using them 'in anger' myself is to use them as inspiration for my own floats, and then sell them on as otherwise they're only ever going to be collecting dust.


How I'll offload them is as yet undecided, either a couple of specialist Facebook groups I'm a member of or that well-known auction site, if any reader is interested in anything in particular then please get in touch via the 'Contact me' widget in the right-hand toolbar (if you're on a mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and select 'View web version' to see it) or leave a comment on the post.

Interval is over, broadcast resumes shortly

It's been a while since the last post, apologies to those that noticed, irritations like earning a living seem to keep getting in the way. More material is on the way, in the meantime the following may provide some distraction, a small set to cater for nearly every need. 

Well for all the fishing I do anyway, there's obviously some missing if you wanted to include absolutely everything, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere...

So from left to right, an Avon using a primary wing quill from Columba Palumbus, the humble Wood Pigeon; a crow quill Avon with Harcork inspired colours, both seen on previous posts;  cork body, balsa tip and tapered hardwood stem Avon; a Reg Righyni grayling float and a small cork and cane bobber, probably too small for perch on a lob worm but hopefully ideal for dendrobena or brandling in fast flowing water for grayling.

Again from left to right two pheasant tail crucian quills, also in previous posts; a cork bodied phesaant tail quill with sight bob (probably not going to do the feather thing often, seems to be just a step too far maybe); a replica Victorian reed float made from locally sourced reed, a spiral whipped porcupine quill and finally a painted and whipped goose quill.

The reed float I particularly like, perfect with a spilt cane rod and centrepin but I particularly like the idea of fishing the Dorset Stour using a float made from reed growing on its own banks. I never noticed how abundant it was locally until I wanted some for float making. This particular float is more a stillwater pattern or for the more genteel stretches of the local Stour, but more will follow, including some more suitable for trotting.

Quick stillwater set

A set of five matched floats made for a carp and stillwater-fishing family friend, for his birthday.

From left to right; unweighted pellet waggler, weighted pellet waggler, pheasant-tail quill waggler, pheasant-tail quill waggler with sight bob and a weighted bodied waggler

And a close up on those pheasant tail quills....

New quills

Wandering through town before Christmas (yes it was that long ago since the last post) I spotted an A-board outside one of the butchers advertising braces of pheasants. I stuck my head round the door and asked if they were prepped in-house or supplied plucked and ready, and the answer came back that they were from a local game dealer, a name I knew already although I'd never met the fellow, along with directions to the place.

A quick phone call and a polite request and I had an invitation to pick up some pheasant tail feathers, so off I went. 10 minutes later and I'm a happy boy...

Not bad for a quick call and short drive, that lot should last me a while. Time's been short to spend on floats since then, but I've managed some crucian quills for those especially delicate biters....

What they don't show off very well due to the shorter stem is the beautiful striations on some of the quills. Surprisingly you can't see them before you've removed the vane or herl, some feathers have quite plain colouring but the striping on the rachis (the quill) is striking, and others not so you don't know what you're going to get until you've stripped the herl to see. Some feathers also have different levels of colouration on the herl each side of the rachis and therefore so you can get one-sided colouration on the quill, but some of them are quite striking. Here's a couple of examples of floats in progress, firstly balsa and cork wagglers....

Second a balsa and quill Avon, also in progress...

I'll put photos up of the finished articles once complete