I just found a few floats I made back in the late 70’s & very early 80’s, built purely for my own use. I’d packed them away in a safe place when I moved to the US in 2000, assuming that I wouldn’t have a use for them here, but reluctant to just throw them away. These obviously aren’t at the standard of engineering and finish I pride myself on today. I was surprised however to find that the varnish was still solid and crack free, and that the used wine corks and recycled goose quills hadn’t deteriorated at all. I’m used to seeing “vintage floats” offered for sale, but they invariably seem to have paint and varnish cracked and missing, and often eyes and whipping loose, frayed, or missing in action.
I remember catching a lot of fish back in the day on these floats (Tench, Bream, Roach, and Perch in the UK, Grayling, Whitefish, Ide, Perch, and Tench in Scandinavia), and I’m fairly sure I wasn’t that gentle on my fishing gear… but these floats survived. Maybe I should now present them to someone else, to catch some memorable fish on, as they still seem to be perfectly fishable?
Floats I made 40+ years ago
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Polecat501
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Floats I made 40+ years ago
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Fredline
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
They have aged incredibly well which has to be a testament to the original build. Well done.
If you have no grease with you, and your rings are full of ice, do not cut out the ice with a pen-knife but get your man to put the rings one by one in his mouth, and so to thaw the ice.
John Bickerdyke.
John Bickerdyke.
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Carp Artist
- Arctic Char
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Excellent 
Not a fish was visible that first time I visited Beechmere; an utter
stillness brooded over the place and I felt the strange and sinister atmosphere which, so the story goes,
has been the cause of several suicides.’
BB – Confessions of a Carp Fisher
stillness brooded over the place and I felt the strange and sinister atmosphere which, so the story goes,
has been the cause of several suicides.’
BB – Confessions of a Carp Fisher
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Wally Roy
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Very nice I wouldn't have thought they were that old.
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Wanderer
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
I still have one or two floats that I made in the seventies.
They are fishable, but not in the same league as yours.
Your floats look very nice.
All the best.
They are fishable, but not in the same league as yours.
Your floats look very nice.
All the best.
"Not all those who Wander are Lost !"
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Wallys-Cast
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Very nice floats and fantastic condition for 40 years old.
Wal.
Wal.
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Fred
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Real nice
Fish come and go, but it is the memory of afternoons on the stream that endure
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Lea Dweller
- Pike
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Well done, the floats look great and have aged extremely well! 
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall!
Confucius
Confucius
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Banksy
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
Lovely, as useable now as they were when you made them.
One of the few advantages of getting older. If you look after your stuff, one day you wake up to find that you are the now the owner of some very nice vintage tackle, without even trying!
One of the few advantages of getting older. If you look after your stuff, one day you wake up to find that you are the now the owner of some very nice vintage tackle, without even trying!
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Silfield
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Re: Floats I made 40+ years ago
They have aged incredibly well, I don't suppose you remember what type of varnish you used as it has stood the test of time admirably?
“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.”
Washington Irving
Washington Irving