'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

A few more Avons

Another 3 pairs ready to go.

All balsa body on crow quill, with a slightly longer tip for long-trotting, and with and without wire eyes.

A minor development using another quill type is on the cards, which will give a straighter stem. Pics will be posted as soon as they're ready

Perch bobs completed

Final coats of varnish applied...

The focus seems to favour the 2nd from the right in this photo, oddly. Must try harder

Available for sale shortly, link to be added when after the Christmas break... the reason being apparently there is such a thing as too many floats (I still don't believe it), but I enjoy making them as much as using them. So those that don't go to friends are sold to cover the cost of the next lot of raw materials, paint, silk thread for whipping etc...

If there are any special requests, by all means contact me via the gadget in the toolbar on the right.

Some background

So, why the repeated mention of Reg Righyni? For those who are already aware ignore this post... R V Righyni was a published salmon, trout and grayling fisherman who's book 'Grayling' was first published in 1968.

The book spends equal time discussing fly fishing and fishing bait for grayling, along with discussion on bait, tackle and fish behaviour. In the appendices and also in his anthology of articles published as 'Fishing Reflections' in 1998, including the September 1963 article published in Creel magazone, Reg had published his design for a perfect trotting float for grayling.

The book discusses the use of traditional grayling floats, the need for a float to turn over once and once only during the cast to avoid tangles, to be able to 'ride fairly rough water' and be visible at distance. He was fairly dismissive of the traditional cob floats, although they suffice for fishing small pools. Otherwise he notes a bite rarely pulls the float under, more frequently there's a sideways movement or the float simply stops in it's tracks, and one has to get used to stirking at any action 'that does not seem to be in conformity with unrestricted movement along with the current'. A typical bob float is too difficult to see at distance and insensitive unless over-shotted, which makes it even more difficult to see, and creates a lot of disturbance on the retreive.

 So after some experimentation Righyni came up with a basis of a design, which was as follows:

• An elongated bulb merging into an antenna mounted on a long fine wire stem 
• balsa body, 3 1/2" approx in length made from 3/8" square strip balsa (that's approximately 90 mm in length and turned/whittled from 9.5mm square strip)
• a stem of equal length (plus an inch set into the body) of 20 swg piano wire
• visible at distance
• streamlined shape for a minimum of disturbance on the retreive

Hopefully those I've produced will fit the bill, they're slightly shorter in the body and the 20 gauge swg (about 0.91 mm) piano wire has been replaced by 1mm stainless steel. I've also omitted the nylon loop at the base of them stem, preferring to use silicon caps to make possible.swapping floats without dismantling the entire rig. I've seen on some forums mention of the design being 'just about' cocking to better show a lift bite, but the photos in 'Grayling' and 'Reflections' appear to show a fully-cocked float before shot is added, albeit reproduced in fairly low quality....

Some of the samples shown in the previous post are now wending their way to Glamorgan, Wales for testing on the Wye, hopefully by someone who can get out on a river more often than I can.