Auld boys, Dont you just love them.

Recently I was introduced to an angler in his later years who was a right Old Yorkshire Angler and the tales he told had me held me memorized whilst in his company, a wonderful old guy, with some great fishing stories to tell.
He discovered I made floats so on my next visit I took him some along and it was his turn to be bewildered, I wouldnt say I use a lot of silk on floats, mainly as a strengthening measure with a small amount of decoration. The line he came out with went something along the lines of "what's all this bloody faffing thread stuff."

He showed me some of the floats he had made himself in his younger years and to be honest they were basic but he said they had caught him many a good trout & grayling so who was I to argue.

I made two floats initially for him and took them up a few days past and the smile on his face said I had got them right but ever being the angler & tackle maker from yesteryear, said the tips were a bit on the short side for his eyes nowadays, I just needed to extend the tip on one of them for him.

One would suffice he said as he planned to keep the other 2 and doesn't get out very often nowadays anyway.
Today I took the third float up to him and that was it I had nailed it according to him.

 The two with red tips were the initial ones I gifted him, the orange one was his amended float with a longer tip.

The red tip, black body (far right) was he said his worming float and needed more weight so on his instructions that required 4SSG. He still told me off for putting the black decorative banding around the tip!

The smaller red tip (centre) is his grub float as he called it and required 7AAA.

then finally the orange longer tip (far left) was his amended version which also takes 7AAA.

Plain & simple but in his words very effective on these Yorkshire rivers, who was I to say different. His stories and floats made me think though that floats nowadays which we label as being traditional are being used as works of art and hardly intended for the everyday use they were designed for, although I use minimal silk mainly for strengthening purposes,  I'm sticking by my statement at the top of the blog......... I dont make floats to be works of art, to look pretty and be hung on a wall in a picture frame, I make them for what they were designed for......catching fish.
Selwyn never change your a true Auld Gent.