Thames Mudlarker wrote:Backhand wrote:Thames Mudlarker wrote:Backhand wrote:AllRounder wrote:Having spent many years fishing stick floats on the Trent,Warwickshire Avon and The Severn if I could only carry one float style I would choose a wire stemmed shouldered stick float every time. The larger Avon style floats are great for deeper waters or where there is a need for bulk shotting - perhaps the lower Severn or Bristol Avon.
I spent the last day of the season fishing the upper Severn with a Wallis Avon Rod and centre pin reel. In the interest of keeping everything traditional I put an Avon style float on - I have to be honest and admit that I was dying to change it to a modern stick float!
I tend to agree with you AllRounder. All though I tried to fish canals as much as possible I did use to venture on to river occasionally. My stomping grounds would have been the slower rivers like "the Nene" but did also fish "the Trent and Severn occasionally. I used to carry wire stemmed sticks, some with Shoulders and some without. These were between 2BB - 14BB the bigger one's were used more in flood conditions. Very versatile, you can run them at the speed of the current or slow them down and even hold them still on a tight line. In the winter I would bulk shot with No 4's and a couple of No 10's or No 12's as droppers. If you spread the droppers especially the 12's and fish the bulk just off bottom, you can run the float through very slowly, with the hook/bait in front of the float. If you fished with a long hook length (2-3foot)with the same shotting you can actually stop the float dead, the bait will then be on the bottom, when you let the float go, the bait will still be stationary until the float passes the hook/bait by about 2-3 ft. Quite often by then a roach has already taken the stationary bait and as the float goes past it, it will just go under because the roach has stopped the bait.
Does that all make sense, much easier to show someone in real life.
Very much so makes sence, certain skills like these mastering the stick ain't something that can be learnt over night, definitely an art to fishing the stick well
Stuart
This thread has made me want to go out and Stick float fish, pity it's the close season.
I haven't done it for years, but as soon as I started typing/posting, the memory kicks in and it all comes back to me. I'm remembering things I had forgotten about. Stick float fishing is a dying art, It will probably die out with our generation. Sad Isn't it.
God forbid it doesn't die out, I certainly wouldn't like to think so, I think it's a far more detailed and interesting technique than fishing the wag, yes the wag obviously does have its own skill but generally it's just left to fish itself unlike the stick wear it can be controlled,
Providing there's always quality river float anglers around the stick should still rule
Stuart
I do hope so, it's that anglers especially younger ones don't fish rivers like we did. I learnt all my early fishing on rivers, watching very good club anglers who had been doing it for years. The younger generation of anglers only seem interested if it's got Carp in it. There are hardly any club type matches left for them to watch and learn.
I must admit that in certain situations the waggler is better. The last 3 winters I have been fishing for Chub on small rivers local to me. The majority of swims are only 10 metres wide and depths range from 2ft - 5ft. A stealthy approach is the only way of catching the Chub. I fish a waggler purely because it doesn't make a splash on the strike, and when your just retrieving at the end of a trot, there is no disturbance on the surface. You can sometimes trot a swim for 2 hours, then out of the blue you get a bite. These Chub are there all the time, but not feeding. I think that if I used a stick, I would end up spooking them before I had a chance to catch one.
Also the water is fairly slow moving apart from when in flood. When it is better to ledger anyway. If you undershot a peacock waggler, you can slow it down if you need to, not as much as you can with a stick of cause, but enough. All the Chub I catch are actually caught just running it through though, letting the trailing line act as a slight brake.