I no longer make floats

Due to health problems I have stopped making floats for the foreseeable future. I'm not going to bore you all with the details but I need to take a year off from making them. I'll let you all know when I'm fit enough to start making them again, thank you for all the emails I've been very surprised by all the attention these floats have recieved. Scott.

Pair of Perch Bobbers

I recieved an email recently asking me if I would make a pair of Perch Bob's, after exchanging a few emails I was given specific instructions as to what wood and it what order he would like it put together, enjoying the challenge I started work.

The first float has a Mahogany top section then a thin slice of Walnut and an Ash bottom. A lightly whipped cane stem finishes it off.

 The second float was to have a Yew top section, a thin layer of Mahogany and the base in Elm, again finished with a lightly whipped cane stem.

The Elm has a lovely grain.

The finished pair standing around 15cm high on there bases.

Oak waggler

Just a straight simple waggler, the body made from Oak which has finished really well, it almost looks like the Norfolk reed that this float is a copy of.

Trying something new I used Pau Amarello for the tip section, this wood has a natural yellow colour that I though would make a nice change from red/orange tips.

The dark lines are again Walnut sandwiching a short length of Birch, which replicates the normal float black & white markings.

Float is 6mm diameter and 16cm in length.

Damson wire stem Avon's

I had mentioned before the Scottish Damson wood, this time I managed to make 2 floats from the same length of wood.

Very nice colouring to the wood and a very distinctive patter, the body and tip were turned as 1 piece, with 1mm stainless steel wire making the stem, quite chunky in appearance perhaps the tips should have been a bit longer but very pleasing floats.

Body lengths are 50 & 40mm with the diameter being around 13mm.

Reg Righyni Purpleheart

I recently aquired some lengths of Purleheart, the pictures dont really do the colour of the float justice it has a lovely shade of purple, given that these were quite thin lengths they seemed suitable for copying the Reg Righyni Grayling float.

I found an article on how to make these floats in a 1968 copy of 'Mr Crabtrees book of fishing for boys' which i recently discovered in my mothers attic, I had totalt forgotten I had this book till I opened it and the memorys came flooding back, it was my first fishing book.

The article together with pictures details how to make this float in balsa wood, it has such a lovely shape I thought I would copy it using the Purpleheart.

The original has a 0.8mm wire stem, all I had available was 1.0mm wire.

Body length is 3.5inches like the original.

Mahogany Perch Bobber

I used Mahogany for the top section, Ash for the bottom section and a slice of Walnut between them, cane was used for the stem with just a little bit of whipping.

Body and tip are 5cm long with a total float length of 12cm

Maple Burr Slider

A good friend of mine recently stepped down from the committee of my local angling club after 20+ years service, the club will be honouring him but I thought I would make him a little gift.

With our waters being very deep his favourite method is fishing the slider so I thought a nice slider style waggler for him.

The body is from Maple Burr, with a Yew log base that I've made large enough for an engraved plate to be added to base infront of the float.

The body is 6cm long, total float length is 22cm.

Lots of lovely features on this piece of Maple

The tip is Mahogany, the 2 darker lines are Walnut and the rest of the bristle is Birch

Bubinga waggler

Bubinga has a lovely grain and is very nice to work with, I just thought a simple bodied waggler would be nice. For the stem I used some Norfolk reed.

This close up of the body shows the lovely grain of this wood.

The body is 5cm in length with the float being 22cm long.

Yew Avon

After enjoying the xmas break (and spending a few days trying new things and some new woods) I got around to making this float for a member of one of the forums I visit.

Yew body with a Goose quill.

It was nice to make a float to someones specific requirements and I hope he likes it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Introduction

Wooden Floats

This blog was created to share my creations.

Many years ago I started making my own floats, firstly Pike floats then as I moved into match fishing I started making pole floats, in the years that have past I've been lucky in that some of the best pole float makers in the country have helped me with good advice, materials and even shared a secret or two with me which has been a great help.

Due to suffering with an illness I find it difficult these days to carry all the tackle needed to match fish and now I mostly fish with 1 rod and a small bag of tackle.

While I still make pole floats for a few friends a lot of my float making has been of the traditional type, quill's reed's, cork etc, there are a few people out there doing the same and many of these floats could simply be classed as works of art with some people buying them to collect and display instead of fishing with them.

Many years ago I did a lot of woodturning, making bowls etc, a recent tidy up in my garage I came across a few wood blanks that i had never used, seeing the wonderfull colours and patterns in those blanks made me think "wouldn't a float look good made from that" so with the intention of making 1 float and seeing how it looked another got made and another.

Too nice to fish with and to be honest I doubt they would work properly so they now adorn various shelves in my home, after showing them to a few people and posting the occasional picture on some of the angling forums I visit I decided to create this blog so I could share them with other like minded anglers.