The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

AllRounder wrote:According to his book " Match fishing with Benny Ashurst" his idea of the stick float settling in a slow arc was to be able to register the shyest of bites from canal roach as the bait fell through the water. The stick floats use on rivers became an advantage later as casters gained in popularity.

Stuart

Plenty of information to digest there cheers fellas

From conversations with Benny when I were a lad. He developed the stick float for fishing the far bank of the canal. Yes the heavy cane stem assisted when fishing on the drop, but it's primary purpose was to stop the float turning over whilst casting and causing a tangle.

I'm with Billy though. The stick float is my least favourite running water float.

SeanM wrote:From conversations with Benny when I were a lad. He developed the stick float for fishing the far bank of the canal. Yes the heavy cane stem assisted when fishing on the drop, but it's primary purpose was to stop the float turning over whilst casting and causing a tangle.

I'm with Billy though. The stick float is my least favourite running water float.

Stuart

I have always found the stick float a very good pattern and when I did a lot of river fishing for Roach and dace it my preference. The waggler being a second. Most of the rivers I fished at the time did you require an Avon type float but I often use one now and love the steady presentation you can get with it. I must try the stick float on a canal, (or Stillwater?) this summer.

The stick float has come a long way since benny first made them ,think off all the different types we have now wire stems, lignums, carbon stems the list is endless LOl.
But there is something reassuring about an avon float, it will almost work anywhere there is running water.

The stick float was invented by Benny Ashurst to fish caster on the drop on the far bank of the canal. One of the reasons for using a Stick float was the cane stem helped give the float casting weight, rather than using a waggler with locking shot that splashed on the cast. Also the water there is very shallow, by loose feeding casters, big roach would eventually start to take them on the drop and especially if a little competition was involved where there was more fish than casters being feed.
Back in the 50's-60's my local canal the G.Union had a lot of big roach in it. Matches were nearly always won with roach bags into double figures, these weights were made up of only a handful of fish. You could get 10lb by catching between 8-16 fish. Caster was the bait, but differently to how Benny was doing it up north, must match anglers were using heavy wagglers. They were sometimes as big as 2 swan and normally bodied peacock wagglers. The body meant you could get away with using a fairly short float in the shallow water. The trick was to fish anything up to 2ft-3ft over depth, tight against the far wall and feed casters sparingly. Once the roach arrived it was a case of waiting for a very slow sail away bite.
Another trick was to have 2 swims. one at 10-11 o'clock and one at 1-2 o'clock. By feeding both and alternating you could keep catching. Sometimes it took over 2-3 hours to get the fish confident and feeding. As I said you didn't need many fish to win, the problem was not to scare them away once you started catching.
Benny obviously decided he would rather do this by fishing on the drop, anyone who knows about roach fishing knows this is the ultimate way to catch Roach.

Bennys lad could fish with the best of them..

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Backhand wrote:The stick float was invented by Benny Ashurst to fish caster on the drop on the far bank of the canal. One of the reasons for using a Stick float was the cane stem helped give the float casting weight, rather than using a waggler with locking shot that splashed on the cast. Also the water there is very shallow, by loose feeding casters, big roach would eventually start to take them on the drop and especially if a little competition was involved where there was more fish than casters being feed.
Back in the 50's-60's my local canal the G.Union had a lot of big roach in it. Matches were nearly always won with roach bags into double figures, these weights were made up of only a handful of fish. You could get 10lb by catching between 8-16 fish. Caster was the bait, but differently to how Benny was doing it up north, must match anglers were using heavy wagglers. They were sometimes as big as 2 swan and normally bodied peacock wagglers. The body meant you could get away with using a fairly short float in the shallow water. The trick was to fish anything up to 2ft-3ft over depth, tight against the far wall and feed casters sparingly. Once the roach arrived it was a case of waiting for a very slow sail away bite.
Another trick was to have 2 swims. one at 10-11 o'clock and one at 1-2 o'clock. By feeding both and alternating you could keep catching. Sometimes it took over 2-3 hours to get the fish confident and feeding. As I said you didn't need many fish to win, the problem was not to scare them away once you started catching.
Benny obviously decided he would rather do this by fishing on the drop, anyone who knows about roach fishing knows this is the ultimate way to catch Roach.

Quite agree there fella, very true and wise words indeed

Stuart

Match Aerial wrote:The history of billy lane was correct at first he never cared much for the stick float but in his later books he did like the wire stem stick float.
See match fishing by billy lane

A little while ago I was actually questioned on this, but didn't exactly wanna rock the boat so to speak

Billy lane was an out and out waggler fanatic but did like Avon floats and judging by your post is what I thought that at a later date he did turn his attention a little more to wire stemmed sticks

Stuart