The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Has anyone had any experience of these?
I picked one up today in a job lot of floats and was wondering how they work, it has a sticker on it
" Do not disassemble"

They have a radioactive isotope in the top... if they are left in uv light they glow for hours... do not break it... it is radioactive, albeit low grade

A cat I had once that chewed an isotope - and died a few days later. I found the broken isotope a few days afterwards.

I used to fish with an isotope fixed to the top of my float for tench fishing in a local canal. I commonly had Daubenton's bats trying to grab it. Has anyone else had this experience?

I suspect that the latest type of luminous paint using strontium aluminate is probably a better option than isotopes. If you've not tried it get some, it's amazing stuff.

I use Night Lights from Drennan or the clip-on versions for rod tips and floats. These are chemical lights. Drennan floats have removable sight tips for inserting a "Night Light".

I have 3 isotopes from the 70's still going!

There are various types of "iceatope" in a myriad of light strengths and sizes on that auction site. 'Enterprise' make attachments for quiver tips - avon rod tips and the same for carp rods as does Drennan.

Square ones can be used on landing nets, etc.

Phil Arnott wrote: ↑Sun Jan 27, 2019 12:56 pm I used to fish with an isotope fixed to the top of my float for tench fishing in a local canal. I commonly had Daubenton's bats trying to grab it. Has anyone else had this experience?

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago. I was fishing into dark and had fixed an isotope to my rod tip. A barn owl saw it and flew over to investigate. It cam from behind me, missing my head by inches, then did a rapid braking manoeuvre in front of me. Good job I don't have a weak heart!!!!

They contain a radioactive gas that has a half life of about 10 to 20 years from memory so an old one will get fainter over the years. They CANNOT be recharged by UV light or any other means. A float with luminous paint will get recharged with sunlight just like my old watch with luminous paint on the dial. I made floats incorporating betalights in the 70s but suspect I only had not very powerful betalights as the range was very limited. later I made floats that could incorpoarte a starlight and these worked well plus by putting the starlight in a deep freeze between trips I couls almost stop the chemical reaction and get two or three short evening trips from each starlight.

Betalight's(Isotope's) floats don't require anything doing to them, they are permanently active during their active years, lasting years but becoming weaker in glow with age. For float work you really need a minimum strength of 500 Micro Lambert's if you want to fish much further than the rod tip. 200 and 300 MB's which are commonly sold are fine on rod tips and in bobbins etc. They are illegal in mainland Europe but still allowed here in the U.K.

Dont think you can buy them now. Had one long time ago. It went faint in 20 years as expected. Used to be able to get clocks with the gas in the face

Ally wrote: ↑Fri Feb 08, 2019 2:31 pm Dont think you can buy them now. Had one long time ago. It went faint in 20 years as expected. Used to be able to get clocks with the gas in the face

They are available. Try googling Isotope. An Isotope and a Betalight are one and the same thing.