The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

QuinetteCane wrote:I use a small feederlink with the link replaced with silicone tube to attach the float of choice.
for the sliding knot a four turn nail knot using the Orvis nailknotter gadget. Cos me eyes aint wot they used to be.
Attached bottom end only the link has a built in swivel to ease potential tangles.

Alternatively attach the float on say a four foot link of mono ten feet up the line which will give a hinge effect for casting.
Using a sliding knot will allow for fine adjustment.

Interesting. My default float arrangement is anyway attachment by link swivel to bottom ring. This will also allow you to use as sliders floats which have relatively large bottom rings by using small size swivels and a small stop knot. It may be useful also to have a lower stop, using a gummy stop or some such, positioned some way above the bulk shot. This also means you can easily change back to orthodox waggler if you wish by sliding the gummy and stop knot together either side of the swivel or float ring.

I should add perhaps. The small feederlink has a very fine bore bead
which allows the use of finer lines to tie the slider knot.
Thereby causing less resistance when travelling through the rod rings.
The addition of a gummy lower stop is a useful idea I have not yet used.

QuinetteCane wrote:I should add perhaps. The small feederlink has a very fine bore bead
which allows the use of finer lines to tie the slider knot.
Thereby causing less resistance when travelling through the rod rings.
The addition of a gummy lower stop is a useful idea I have not yet used.

The bead is a good idea which I shall try. My problem is remembering to put all these things on the line in the right order.

The knot mentioned in Billy Lanes book is good and I also sometimes just slip on a small plastic bead before the float and after the knot just to stop the knot pulling through the eye of the float. Some of the early sliding floats also have an eye half way up the body,but I don't think this is really necessary.

I suspect the ones where the two eyes are at right angles to one another are an early form of the Locslider/Polaris type and can be fished knotless: you cast out, allow line to flow until the float lies flat, the bulk shot will now be lying on the swim bed, then reel in, lifting the shot off the bed, until the float is correctly cocked by both bulk and any telltale shot. The surface friction of the tightened line against float body and top ring, caused by the downward force of the shotting, now holds the float in a fixed position. Or it could be overshotted and used in a lift method by reeling in until only the final extra shot is on the bed.

One could, in principle, test this easily by making such a float - simply insert an extra ring, made from the clipped off shank and eye of a large hook, into the body of either an Avon or a bodied waggler about 2/3 to 3/4 ways up. The longer the body the better.

I think I'll stick to stop knots though.

Mark is it a stillwater or a flowing river?

Match Aerial wrote:Mark is it a stillwater or a flowing river?

Its stillwater.

I would just use a bodied waggler Mark taking plenty of shot to pull it through the bottom eye onto the stop knot .

Match Aerial wrote:I would just use a bodied waggler Mark taking plenty of shot to pull it through the bottom eye onto the stop knot .

I second that. Where there's wind and surface drift I find Driftbeaters ideal.

I used to fish the slider at the Basins in Salford quays, Manchester. It was an effective method but a nightmare with tangles. It would help using a small swivel to attach my hook length, a large bodied Waggler, two stop knots to prevent slippage and a little bead below. There was another guy who used to fish the quays and he was brilliant on the Slider. A very good angler, who used to do well on the Trent in the 70s Match fishing. Can't remember his name.