All in Green

Last couple of floats off the drying rack this morning and I have to say the last 4 weeks they have kept me from going around the bend being stuck in the house, however yesterday after visiting the house of pain (Physio Dept)  I've lost the crutches and gained a walking stick in their place.

So, I will be out and about more and I suppose the next natural progression is to a wading stick next, chasing the grayling  :), unfortunately still a few weeks away yet!

First trio are a set of 5AAA trotting floats in mixed colours and silks.









2nd lot are a couple of inverted crow quills on balsa which initially were being started off as crow quill trotters but someone asked how I made them so they turned into a teach in on how to make them so ended up as stillwater floats.

They both take just over 4BB is shot and are really sensitive floats and would be ideal on canals or on lakes.












And finally the ones I prefer the most myself as the creator, 4 Balsa & Cane Trotters

2 different sizes the larger ones at 5AAA and the smaller ones at 5BB.

Done with black & red silk they turned out very nice set against the green painted body & stem.

Passing Time

I dont think I have made so many floats in a long time, or re-read so many books, some of which make me chuckle everytime I read them, purely to pass the time of day and to try & keep constructive without getting into a rut.
Not being able to work some folk might think is great but not being able even go for a  walk without being in pain is another thing, right now I know I would rather be back at my work, but alas not yet so to fill my day I continue to make floats and re - read books, the latest one being Tales from the waters edge by Tom Quinn

I had forgotten how funny & interesting this book is, especially forgot the amount of Traditional drawings of floats, rods and mentions of angling in the archives it contained. Definitely well worthy of re-reads.
I also put the finishing touches to two sets of trotting floats last night, one set will head North to Scotland,whilst the other will be available for purchase should anyone be asking for them.

Identical in every detail apart from the staining on the stems & one not so deliberate mistake which I only seen after taking the photographs.

This set will head North to Lanarkshire, not too far away from where I was born & brought up, so am sure will see the waters I used to fish at some point, the stained set of 4 will be available.

  Broken down into their identical, apart from the stem colouring

And finally the mistake, only identified whilst taking the photographs...

The whipping on the unstained showing how it should look like, with the stained stem being wrong! 

As my Old school teacher used to say " Must pay attention to detail"

A Yellow Ribbon around the Oak.

I managed to finish a set of yellow topped trotting floats earlier today with oak & redwood stains.

Seems yellow is becoming the more in colour as of recent as more & more anglers are requesting it.

Whipped with black silk around the top of the float purely as decoration.

which I have to say works well with yellow, combined with the red silk down the stems.

Crow Quill Zoomers

A short time ago I noticed some floats a forum friend had been using whilst out Roach Fishing & they looked quite smart, so I contacted him to find out where he had got the idea and it turns out they came from an old book he recently purchased.

"I picked up a copy of "Match Angling" by Bill Bartles a few days ago, Bill was a match angling legend in Sheffield in the 60s and 70s. Looking through the section on floats I came across one I hadn't see before and surprisingly traditional in design for a match angler, called the Crow-Zoomer"

My friend had dabbled in making them and the results he produced were what I had seen and commented on so I decided to dabble in a few for myself. They are all loaded with weight in the base of the float, which I have done by the means of a brass insert inside the base of the float.

As yet I have only tried them in my shotting bottle with being unable to get onto the bank at present, so judgement is still out on how they will perform.

I made 3 different sizes, but all with the 3" Crow quill protrusion as this was found to be the most efficient in the original write up by Bill Bartles.

Fiddler's & Blue's

No, I'm not turning to music as the title may suggest but referring to a couple of not so common Grayling Flies.

Reading through some Vintage Fishing books I came across 2 patterns which I had heard of but never fished personally, so taking time away from the  recent float making I decided to research the flies a bit more before tying a few up.

The first was the Grayling Fiddler.

Grayling Fiddler

A fly created by Eric Horsfall Turner, former Club President of the Pickering Fishery Association formed in 1892 & probably more famous for his creation Eric's Beetle a deadly trout fly which will bring trout when nothing is showing on the water.

Trio of Fiddlers

The next one which I had heard of but again never fished was the Grayling Steel Blue, created by Roger Woolley. There are a few variations of the materials used in this tying so I went with the most common one whilst I was searching it out.

Grayling Steel Blue

Grayling Steel Blue Twins

Woolley spent much of his adult life travelling around the UK writing about fly species and tying flies, so much so that a book was written about his lesser flies called the Forgotten Flies of Roger Woolley.

A Bit of Old Yorkshire

I had a bit of a tidy up today and going through my book case I came across the first proper Grayling Book that was ever bought for me which was “The Grayling Angler” by John Roberts, first published in 1982, with the acclaimed Arthur Oglesby writing the forward for him.

 John a born & bred Yorkshireman wrote about all these wonderful places where he often caught lovely Grayling around Yorkshire and I now have the privilege to call some of these places my back yard, with probably one of the greatest Grayling Flies, The Sturdy’s Fancy being created by Tom Sturdy the West Tanfield Club’s first river-keeper on the Ure not 8 miles from my home, one of the first flies I ever learned to tie from John's book.

 John was an author I followed with great delight in my days stuck abroad in the British Army of the Rhine, and I always looked out for his publications and snapped them up as & when I could. 

It wasn’t until finally settling in our current house that I had the privilege to talk to John and to make him some trotting floats in exchange for some of his wisdom and fly patterns which I have now gone on with and caught some lovely Yorkshire Grayling, non more so than with his fly called the Supa Pupa which takes centre stage in my Grayling fly box. 

John has always promised me he will sign the many books I now have belonging to him & I've often thought as I pass his home in Fulford what he is penning next, I suppose I will have to wait & see.

Red Clawed Crayfish

I was sitting reading through a recent angling magazine when I came across Brian Harris and his dressing for a red clawed crayfish which reminded me of a story a close fishing friend told me about a big trout he caught at the start of this season on the River Clyde.
He had been fishing into the Gloaming when he hooked into a Big Clyde Trout and landed it and to no surprise it was stuffed with small baby crayfish. If anyone doesn't know who reads the blog the Upper River Clyde is plagued by them, originally escapees from a farm they have over the years decimated the river but the bigger trout have been proven to be feeding on them and this is probably why they grow to the sizes they are.
I decided to dabble with the vice this afternoon and made a few small adjustments to Brian's dressing, Nothing magical for the first couple off the vice but something to pass some time & you never know one may even join the growing numbers on the Clyde next season.

 Added a two tails from a hen Pheasant wing to blend in with the red claws which are flanks from a Golden Pheasant.

A bit of fun tying something away from the everyday Norm.

In the footsteps of Reg

As most of my friends will know I'm a bit of a Grayling fanatic, and my passion for them above all other fish is well known so the last couple of weeks, I've been rekindling my love for the writings of Mr Reg Ryghini  in the Book "Grayling", the original 1968 version.
So its not a surprise that when I got to Appendix B that I had to make a couple of Reg's floats to just finish off the book I have read from cover to cover so many times in the past.

The only two things differing from Reg's original floats are the colouring which he always like to paint the bodies green and the loop at the end of the wire stem which I have replaced with very small eyes which can be used or simply slide a float rubber over to use without the eye.
I have differed the thickness's & lengths of the balsa bodies to suit different shotting weights.

At a smidgen over 3.5" which Reg says is the most useful size is the stained one the remaining two are just above 4" in body length

 varying the styles of paintwork on each individual float, but all with the bright red tips that he liked.

Stepped Wagglers in Reed

Trying to keep myself sane and beating the boredom of being off, after this operation, I'm trying to keep busy with the floats but dreaming of the fishing.
However the Physio is doing a very good job of making the pain even more painful, another session at the house of pain today.

Anyway enough about the pain back to the floats, after adding the insert wagglers and bodied wagglers to a friends float box I thought about making a few stepped wagglers out of Sarkandas Reed & Cane and this is the final result.

Traditional in Miniature the Final Act

I managed to finish off the final miniature floats that will be made from the 1950's Allcocks cork bodies as there is only 4 remaining & I have plans to keep them for myself, so if you were one of the guys who managed to get one of the floats I hope they provide you with the gudgeon, or crucian carp of your dreams...please do let me see any photographs you may have when you use them.

One collar done in white & one collar in yellow
 

Smaller than a 50p piece and just under 5.5inches in length.

Sarkandas Reed

That's it wagglers finished, I mentioned on Friday's post that I was making up a few straight & insert wagglers to boost my friends float box as a wee present to him, I can now happily say the straight bodied wagglers are now finished.

4 wagglers in total

Built from Sarkandas Reed with balsa bodies.

It was a nice change to do some stillwater floats for a change and I hope they serve him well.

In Days of Old

A few months ago I bumped into a guy who was in this picture alongside me, first time I had seen him in over 10 years, we got chatting about all sorts of things when finally the subject came back to fishing and where we both were in our fishing paths now, since then both of us have chosen to give the match fishing up and return to more leisurely fishing.

Team 40 RA Champions 1996

Match Jacket Logo

It got me thinking and I decided to dust off some of the old dust collectors I had won over the years which were in boxes in the attic, some I had given away to clubs who were looking for cups and some were just scrapped as they had dents or were missing lids etc from our time of moving around in the forces.

I also came across some of my old match floats, bodied wagglers, straight wagglers & some insert wagglers I had stored away to fish another day, which they will never do now, so packed them all up and kept some of the old dust collectors I particularly liked and gave the rest away to a guy I know still on the local match circuit who runs some matches for kids as I knew he could re-use the dust collectors for the kids matches.

A month or so has now went by and last week a fellow amateur float-maker & myself were chatting when we got onto the subject of wagglers and how he liked to make them, but as he was only starting out in the float making he didn't get the chance to make many, due to materials, time, etc.
 I haven't properly sat down & made wagglers for a long time so as a wee boast to his collection and to keep me occupied I decided to make a few, these are the first of the few and are insert boded wagglers, am sure he will make good use of them in his quest for the Roach & Tench he fishes for.

3 insert boded wagglers of varying lengths

No longer my style of fishing and its been a while since I made any but it certainly passes the time.

The Grayling are Coming

Well with me now laid up for a few weeks after my Successful knee operation, which although hurts like hell at times, mainly when I'm trying to sleep for some odd reason, they assure me it a success and removed some bone which had fused to my crucial ligament and micro fractured my knee, Doesn't bear thinking about.

Anyway I cant be sitting around bored so had prepared these floats almost ready for painting before I went into hospital so here they are finished off, all ready for the forthcoming Grayling season & together with some tagged Griffith Gnats I tied up we are well on the way for the Ladies forthcoming season.

The Flee & Float

A little Black Number

Green with Yellow band

Red with a Dark Oak Stain

Natural with some Spiralling

Deep Mahogany & Red

Light Oak and Orange

Yellow with Black Spiralling

Yellow with Rosewood

The Floats

& 

The Flee